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Experiments with Sultana vines left unpruned for 15 years or unpruned but skirted to facilitate management (minimal pruned) for 6 years have shown that traditional pruning limits production, particularly in seasons when the district average is high.
Minimal pruning increased the production of 50-year-old, non-clonal vines over 6 seasons by about 60 %. At harvest, minimal pruned vines had a canopy similar in size to the pruned vines, and thus a smaller leaf to fruit ratio, but still matured the crop.
Minimal pruned vines developed into larger vines because only 15 % of the wood was removed at pruning compared to 85 % from the controls but the weight of 1 year-old wood was lower.
The shoots of minimal pruned vines were smaller ), had fewer leaves, closer nodes with their mature length regulated by ‘self pruning’ (i.e. abscission of non-mature wood). Minimal pruned vines could be hand-harvested but were most suited to mechanical harvesting..
Production and Growth of Minimal Pruned Sultana Vines
1984, Vitis, vol 23, pages 42-54
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