Pruning and trellising trials with the Vitis vinifera cultivars Shiraz and Semillon under irrigated conditions

Abstract

Two trellises (single wire and 37 cm wide 'T') and four pruning methods were compared on irrigated Shiraz grapevines, Vitis vinifera at Griffith. The pruning treatments were 'spur', 'rod and spur', 'hare's ear' and 'cane' pruning. Similar trellises and 'spur' and 'cane' pruning were compared on the vigorous cultivar Semillon. Yields were generally increased as node numbers increased. Thus 'T' trellises outyielded single wire trellises for each cultivar. There was no evidence of bud fruitfulness or photosynthetic capacity being increased by the 'T' trellis. Cane pruning generally produced larger crops in the early years of the experiments, but over all years there was little difference between pruning systems on individual vine yields. Cane pruning simply offered a means of increasing the node numbers of young vines. It is concluded that spur pruning, as the cheapest, is the most desirable method although cane pruning may be necessary in the future for mechanical harvesting.