A cincturing experiment on the sultana.

Abstract

An experiment is described on sultana vines in which single or double cut cincturing every year for seven years, and double cut cincturing in years of low fruitfulness only, were compared with no treatment. The yield of vines cinctured every year did not decrease progressively after an initial increase, as was previously supposed, but appeared to reach equilibrium at a lower level than for untreated vines. An initial increase in berry size due for treatment gradually disappeared in later seasons as the treatment was continued. An increase in yield on vines cinctured in one season only was more than offset by a decrease in the following year. It is concluded that even occasional cincturing is not likely to be useful for dried fruit production, and that for fresh fruit production the desired increase in berry sire will be obtained only if different vines are cinctured in successive seasons.