What to do about low grape fruit set? Practical methods to improve fruit set
The prospects for grape growing are very good, but growing grapes is not simple. Grapes are a very delicate fruit, and failing to control the surrounding environment can have a considerable impact on their yield. For example, temperature, nutrients and water. This leads to serious flower and fruit drop in grapes and a lower fruit set rate. So how to improve the fruit set rate of grapes is the problem many farmers most want to solve. So, how should the fruit set rate of grapes be improved? Let's take a look together below!
1. Prevent excessive vigor
Many friends do not pay attention to excessively vigorous and leggy shoots during the growing process and let them keep growing. What they do not realize is that if a certain shoot of the grapevine grows too strongly, it will affect the flowering and fruiting rate of the grapes. The growth vigor of the grapevine must not be too strong, because if it is too strong it will need a large amount of nutrients and will compete for the nutrients of the lower branches of the grape, causing poor development of the grapes. The ability of the newly grown branches in the second year to flower and fruit will also decrease, so the strongly growing branches should be properly pruned back, leaving a small number of secondary shoots to increase the leaf area. However, attention should also be paid to weakly growing branches, leaving more secondary shoots to sprout and strengthen growth.
2. Reasonable fruit retention
When growing them, most people think that the more fruit the better, so they do not carry out reasonable flower and fruit thinning on the trees. This not only cannot increase the fruit yield, but also causes the quality of the grapes to become worse and reduces the tree vigor of the fruit trees. It causes poor development of the fruit trees, lowers the pollination rate of flower buds in the second year, reduces the accumulation of nutrients in the branches of the plant, affects the flowering and fruiting rate, and thereby leads to flower and fruit drop. So we should carry out reasonable fruit retention, control the quantity, ensure the quality, and reduce the phenomenon of flower and fruit drop.
3. Ensure nutrition
Ensuring sufficient nutrition for the growth of the grapevine is the key factor in strengthening the growth vigor of the grapevine and improving the fruit set rate. After harvest, sufficient base fertilizer should be applied to the orchard, and the application amount should reach at least more than half of the fertilizer amount needed for one year. Topdressing should be done at least three times a year. Applying an appropriate amount of nitrogen fertilizer before budding is the first time. The second topdressing is carried out during the fruit swelling period, and the fertilizer can be decomposed farmyard manure. The last time is when the fruit colors, mainly with some trace elements, and attention should be paid to the application of nitrogen fertilizer.
4. Prevent and control diseases
Pests and diseases are also one of the main causes of grape flower and fruit drop, so if you want to improve the fruit set rate of grapes, you must also prevent the occurrence of pests and diseases. The main pests and diseases of grapes include downy mildew, leafhoppers, etc. After harvest each year, the orchard should be thoroughly disinfected in time, and the remaining diseased and residual branches and damaged fruits should be gathered together for cleanup. Note that they must be kept away from the orchard, and then the orchard should also be regularly cultivated and disinfected to remove pathogens and insect eggs in the orchard, reduce pathogen sources, and lower the incidence of disease.
The above are the methods for improving the fruit set rate when growing grapes, which are mainly some management issues during the growing process. Growing grapes cannot be done carelessly; you must be careful and patient to ensure the growth and development of the grapes so that they can flower and fruit well. You cannot blindly retain fruit in order to increase yield, so everyone should retain fruit reasonably, otherwise it will backfire.