hUNGARiAN AGRicUltURAl RESEARch

c., The vine stock themselves
regulate the number of clusters,
however as we remove young
shoots at first in spring and just
the remaining buds will produce
and this is more closely optimized
to the vines stock capacity than
any other pruning methods.
d., The desired shape of the
stock could be maintained well
with the strict process of bud
selection.
e., The vine physiologically
will serve the required amount of
photo synthetically produced
organic matter to the fruit because
of the fertile seed production and
store all the required components
in the wooden part which needs to
support living. It has enough
canopy to do so.
f., Every year the old dried
parts of the canes will partially fall
out, however, of course sometimes
it is necessary to remove
dead wooden parts.
aa., We always have enough on
two year old parts to develop
yearly shoots.
bb., Fertility will be more
even, only a short section of the
cane matures well. Therefore it
looks like two bud pruning
method is applied sometimes.
cc., There are no excessively
vigorous canes on the stock.
dd., We have high numbers of
short internode canes.
ee., As the canes are short and
because their number is high and
cluster development occur on it,
thus they ripen very well.
ff., These methods fulfill, as
vine vigor is a vital part of
maintenance and quality yield
production, even if the quantity is
great as well.
Establishment of the
Babo Branch Cordon System
We begin by erecting a support
structure. Support columns are
placed three meters apart and three
support wires are strung between
Fig. 1: Vine-stocks in third year
of BBCS cultivation
Monterey, California vineyard
Chardonnay grapes (year 2002)
50% of canes have been pruned.
We left vines 25 (35) cm apart
reaching towards the ground.
This fostered uniform appearance
of new buds.
the columns. One wire is strung
on top of the columns (160 – 190
cm high), the second wire about 30
cm below, and the third about
25–30 cm above ground. The top
wire supports the cordon branch
and the other two wires support the
shoots coming from the cordon
branch. During the first couple of
years of cultivation we nurture
vine-stock and cordon branch
development; cordon branches
will grow close to one another and
eventually touch. At 8–10 cm
apart on the cordon branches (at
the nodes where shoots appear) we
cultivate shoots to grow downwards
and eventually reach the
ground. In the following spring
we remove about half of the canes
that grew on the branches. Those
canes that remain should be about
25–35 cm apart; these we trim to
25 cm above ground and fix them
vertically to the support wires.
(Fig. 1)
Fig. 2: On harvested vines we
find short branches in the spring
of the fourth year of cultivation.
Monterey, California vineyard
Chardonnay grapes (year 2003)
Branches on harvested vines are
cut back to three bud-lengths.
These now we call productive
vines.
We control yield by rubbing off
light-colored (winter) buds. On
vine-stock producing small clusters
we leave more, those producing
large clusters fewer light-colored
buds. Width of the swath rubbed
clean by purpose designed machinery
is adjustable by positioning
the appropriate brushes (Fig. 4)
Near the rubbed off main
shoots we find smaller auxiliary
shoots. These will be barren
higher up on the branch, but those
near the ground will produce fruit.
(Fig. 6) Fewer clusters aid
fecundity of shorter branches.
We leave harvested branches on
vine-stock. (Fig. 2). In a few years
these branches will grow short
length fruit-bearing vines (Fig. 3).
Sugar content of fruit and area of
foliage will depend on how much
we thinned out buds. Foliage
should be kept thin to permit
sunshine reaching the fruit, even at
the cost of trimming new shoots.
22 Hungarian Agricultural Research 2009/3–4