Strategies for the improvement of fruit set in vitis vinifera L. Cv. 'carménère' through different foliar biostimulants in two different locations

Abstract

'Carménère' is an important grapevine variety cultivated in Chile, which exhibits a high tendency to fruitlet abscission and "millerandage", reproductive disorders that seriously affect plant productivity. However, despite the existence of a lot of information about the effects of micronutrients on millerandage, few studies exist about the impacts of seaweed biostimulation on reproductive disorders in grapevines, which currently has been classified as elicitor. For these reasons, the aim of this work was to study the effect of different biostimulant applications to 'Carménère' grapevines on fruit set and cluster characteristics during 2011-2012 season. Viticultural parameters such as number and weight of berries, cluster weight, berry size and its distribution along the cluster were measured. In addition, physicochemical parameters in musts from the obtained grapevines were analyzed. The results showed that the treatments based on boron ethanolamine plus zinc oxide and brown algae (Ascophyllum nodosum) improved fruit set in 'Carménère' grapevines in both climate locations, mainly in the colder climate site. Different parameters such as weight and number of berries per bunch, among others, were improved after the application of this treatment. Therefore, the results suggest that it is possible to improve fruit set in 'Carménère' grapevines using a treatment based on certain microelements, such as boron and zinc, and an extract produced from seaweed algae.