FERTILISATION GUIDELINES FOR THE TABLE GRAPE INDUSTRY

CHAPTER 7

I N CONCLUS I ON It is a fact that sub-optimal nutrition or malnutrition has a detrimental effect on grapevine performance, and consequently on grape quality. Meaningful fertilisation practices are essential for the acquisition of optimum grape quality, because both excessive and inadequate fertiliser application can have negative effects. However, it has already been mentioned that quality problems are wrongly ascribed to under fertilisation by a considerable number of table grape producers. Producers should guard against merely attributing problems with fruit quality and post-harvest storage ability to a poor/defective fertilisation programme. The direct role of nutrients on grape quality is limited and their effect on fruit quality is usually of a secondary nature, specifically via their effect on photosynthesis, growth, production and accumulation of carbohydrates, as well the translocation of sugar and colour pigments to the bunch.

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