Studies on Canopy Regulation in Grape cv. Italia

Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) is an important commercial fruit crop in India and its area is increasing steadily with the introduction of exotic varieties. Recently, an exotic cultivar Italia, commercially under cultivation in Italy and other parts of the world, is introduced; the performance of which under Tamil Nadu conditions is unknown. Pruning is considered as the most important cultural practice, and pruning all the matured canes to fruiting results in gradual depletion of reserved food materials leading to loss of vigor, quality and early setting of senility in vines. So, the present study is to standardize the optimum crop load management practices by means of pruning and study certain phenological and physiological characters with respect to yield attributes in grape cv. Italia.