What to Do When Grape Inflorescences Are Small? Cause Analysis and Solutions

The quality and quantity of grape inflorescences directly affect the later yield and quality of grapes. Many orchards commonly experience the phenomenon of few and small inflorescences, especially in fruit trees under early-forcing cultivation, where the problem of no inflorescences even occurs. So what causes this? How should it be solved and remedied? Let's take a look together with the editor below.

I. Causes

1. Light reasons

Light has a relatively large impact on grape flower bud differentiation. Light is divided into long-day and short-day. If the orchard leaves too dense a density of shoots, insufficient light will lead to few or no inflorescences the following year.

2. Nutrient reasons

In grapes, flower bud differentiation, the new growth period, the flowering and fruit-setting period, and the fruit swelling period overlap, and all of these periods require the consumption of large amounts of nutrients. If new shoot growth and fruit development gain the advantage in nutrient competition, while flower bud differentiation and inflorescences are at a disadvantage, it will cause poor nutrition in the winter buds and affect flower bud differentiation, hence few inflorescences.

3. Orchard management

Not applying base fertilizer or applying insufficient base fertilizer, excessive fruit load on the trees, excessive use of nitrogen fertilizer, neglect of organic fertilizer, and poor pest and disease control - all of these will lead to insufficient nutrient reserves in the tree, massive consumption of nutrients, and difficulty for the root system to absorb nutrients, all of which will cause the inflorescences of the fruit trees to shrink and degenerate, and even lead to no inflorescences and many new shoots the following year.

4. Bud removal too early

In greenhouse cultivation, if the greenhouse is closed and heated too early, it will cause insufficient chilling for grape flower bud differentiation, affecting flower bud differentiation, or if bud removal and dormancy breaking are done too early, it will cause the flower buds to suffer frost damage during the inflorescence stage, damaging the new growth parts.

II. Remedial Measures

For fruit trees with few buds and few inflorescences, beneficial supplements should be applied in time. You can apply 5 kg of balanced water-soluble fertilizer at the roots, combined with a biostimulant, to enhance the root system's absorption capacity, and at the same time pair it with foliar fertilizer spraying, so that the fruit trees can quickly replenish nutrients and improve tree vigor as soon as possible. You can also, when new shoots have grown more than 10 leaves, take pinching measures on the fruit trees to inhibit vegetative growth, and retain the 2 summer bud secondary shoots below the pinch, delaying winter bud sprouting and promoting inflorescence differentiation. For spring shoots without inflorescences, you can pinch and top them early, and reasonably increase the application of organic fertilizer and trace elements to promote the maturation of spring shoots until secondary shoots sprout, using the secondary shoots to form inflorescences and cultivate a second batch of flowers and fruits.

The above is an introduction to what to do when grape inflorescences are small. We hope it can help you. If you want to learn more related knowledge, please stay tuned to us.