Production Technology of Grapes and It's Post Harvest Handling

Production Technology of Grapes, Origin,Grapes Varieties, Seedless Varieties, IIHR varieties, Grapes propagation, Training and Pruning,
Physiology Disorders, Maturity and Harvesting, Pandal system, Classification of Pruning, Grapes Morphology, Growth Period, Pest and Disease Management

1. Production Technology of grapes By Kumar.J Bsc (Hons) Agriculture HORT204 Production Technology for fruits and plantation crops 2(1+1)

2. Common Name : Grapes Botanical name : Vitis vinifera Family. : Vitaceae Chromosome no: 2n=38

3. Introduction Grape is a subtropical fruit but adapted to tropical conditions. Originated in Western Asia and Europe. It was introduced to India by the Persian invaders in 1300 A. D Fifty percent of the total production of fruits in the world is contributed by grapes. Cultivation of grapes is called Viticulture. There are about 10,000 varieties in the world. Grapes is a non-climacteric fruit that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody climbing vine

4. Uses However, in India, 90% of the grape is used for table purpose, even though wine making has made strides. The rest of the grape is used mostly for raisin Approximately 71% of world grape production is used for wine, 27% as fresh fruit, and 2% as dried fruit

5. Varieties Muscat ( Panneer ), Pachadraksha , Anab -e- Shahi , Thompson Seedless, Arka Shyam , Arka Kanchan , Arka Hans, Manik Chaman , Sonaka , Sharadh Seedless and Flame Seedless are normally cultivated .

6. Soil and climate It is a fruit of semi arid subtropical regions requiring warm dry summer and a cool rainy winter. Max temp - 36°C Mini temp about 12°C. A long warm, to hot dry summer-proper maturity & ripening
Rainless period during – Nov to Jun.
Early December pruning – Sweet crop during April.
Summer pruning (May)- Slightly sour crop during September. The crop performs best in well-drained rich loamy soil with a pH of 6.5 – 7.0 with low water table with EC less than 1.0. Soil depth should be at least 1 m.

7. Propagation Propagated by hard wood cuttings prepared from matured canes (one year old shoot) of healthy, moderately vigorous, virus tree vine Grafting and budding is practiced with a particular root stock for specific
requirement. a Phylloxera resistant root stock Vitis riparia , V. Rupestris b. Nematode resistant root stock Dogridge , Salt creek
c. Saline tolerant : Solanis , 1616

8. Field preparation and planting Trenches of 0.6 m width and 0.6 m depth are to be dug at a distance of 3 m apart for Muscat and pits of 1m x 1m x 1m should be dug for other varieties. Well-decomposed FYM or compost or green leaf manure has to be applied in the trenches or pits as the case may be and then covered with soil. Plant the rooted cuttings in June-July. Spacing The adopted spacing is 3 x 2 m f or Muscat and 4 x 3 m for other varieties

9. Training in grapes *) Numerous systems for training grape vine – head, kniffin , trellis and bower system of training.
*) Choice of training systems depends on many factors such as apical dominanace , vine- vigour,cultivars , bearing zone and climate. *) I n Tamil Nadu, the grapevine is trained over Pandal of 2 m height .

10. The technical terms used in viticulture are as follows : Trunk – is the main stem of the plant. ■ Arm – is the branching vine from the trunk. ■ Shoot – is the young growth of current season. Π Cane – is the matured shoot of past season. ■ Spur – is that portion of cane left behind on the vine when it is pruned. ■ Fruiting spur – spur with 3 or more buds meant for bearing fruits .
■ Foundation spur (or) renewal spur – spur with only one bud for giving shoot for next crop.

11. Head system Grapes Head System

12. Pandal system

13. Telephone system

14. Kniffin system

15. Pruning in grapes * Weak and immature canes should be pruned to one or two buds to induce vegetative growth. *The vines are pruned at the end of 11 to 12 months from planting for the pandal trained vines.
*At the end of 18 months , the vine is ready for pruning for fruit
* The pruning consists of mainly thinning out and heading back.

16. Pruning season ■ Winter pruning is done during last week of September- October at fruit bud level Summer crop: Pruning is done in December – January and harvesting in April – May. Monsoon crop :Pruning is done in May-June and harvesting in August-September

17. Special practices Tipping of shoots and tying of clusters in the pandal after the fruit set should be done. Nip the growing shoots of axillary buds and terminal buds at 12 to 15 buds. Fruit thinning is done in compact bunches by removing 20 % of the berries at pea stage.
Dip the clusters in solution containing Brassinosteroid 0.5 ppm and GA3 25 ppm at 10-12 days after fruit set to maintain vigour, yield and quality parameters * Note : Weeding and manuring are followed

18. HARVESTING AND YIELD Grapes is a Non-climacteric fruit.
■Grapes berries begin to ripening stage is called veraison Seedless(January-April) : 15 t/ha/year
Muscat : 30 t/ha/year Pachadraksha : 40 t/ha/year Anab -e- Shahi and Arka hybrids (February-May, July, November- December) : 20 t/ha/year.

19. Physiology disorder Blossom-end rot A black sunken spot develops at the blossom-end of the berry which later on spreads with water-soaked region around it. Defective calcium nutrition and assimilation appear to be the cause for it. Spray of 1.0 per cent calcium nitrate may correct it. Boron deficiency The presence of small sized fruits and large sized fruits in the same bunch The fruits are sour in taste. Spraying of 0.2% boric acid a week before bloom and another at full bloom control the disorder effectively. Iron deficiency The leaves turn yellow (chlorosis) during iron deficiency and the entire shoot become yellow to yellowish green under extreme conditions. I ron deficiency may occur due to the presence of excess calcium in the soil (lime induced chlorosis). The corrective measure is two sprays of 0.2% ferrous sulphate, one before bloom and the second after fruit set.