CLIMATIC ADAPTABILITY AND REQUIREMENTS OF GRAPE

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CLIMATIC ADAPTABILITY AND REQUIREMENTS OF GRAPE
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Climate and Soil
Temperature, humidity and light are important for
grapes. Hot and dry climate is ideal. Areas with
high rainfall are not suitable. The climate
requirements of vinifera are different from those
of labrusca grapes. Mild temperature, not
exceeding 350C in summers, impairs the fruiting
of vinifera grapes, particularly, in Thompson
Seedless Higher night temperatures (above 250C)
during ripening hamper the colour development in
coloured grapes. Cool nights and hot days even
though congenial for coloured grapes, pink
pigmentation development in green grapes if the
diurnal differences are more than 200C during
ripening.


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Grape vines are deciduous under temperate
conditions and do not show dormancy under
tropical and sub tropical conditions.
Basically, it is a sun loving plant.
Excepting coastal humid regions with high
rainfall, climatic conditions varying from
temperate to subtropical and tropical are
suitable for grape culture. Temperature, light
and humidity are the climatic conditions playing
significant roles in vine growth and
development. High humid conditions result in
excessive vegetative growth, in turn affecting
yield and quality. Ripening of berries will be
affected and incidence of pests and diseases will
be more. Vinifera varieties prefer long, warm
to hot, dry summers and cool winters.
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• They need about 60 days of rest in winter, with
  an average daily mean temperature below 10C and
  some freezing temperatures.
• Shoot growth begins in spring.
• Bright sunny days help in development of sugar in
  berries.
• Maturity and ripening in grapes are influenced
  by degree-days - heat unit summation.
• Heat units are calculated by multiplying the mean
  daily temperature over and above 10C by the
  number of days.
• Certain amount of heat units is to be attained
  specific to varieties for berry ripening and this
  requirement varies from 1600 to 3500 degree days.
• Distribution of rain is important in grape
  culture.
• Rains at blooming time reduce fruit set and
  during ripening time result in spoilage of crop.

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• Vines tolerate low temperature or frost during
  dormancy period but during spring season, frost
  damages sprouting buds.
• Humidity is a limiting factor for vinifera grape
  culture, due to disease susceptibility.
• Vinefera varieties cannot tolerate high humidity
  or rain during harvest.
• Internal quality is reduced, fruit cracks when
  swollen with water, and fungal diseases are far
  worse.
• Thick-skinned, disease tolerant muscadines grow
  much better in humid climates.
• Viticulture is prevalent in semi-arid irrigated
  regions of North India and Central, Southern and
  Coastal tropical regions of other parts of
  country as well.
• Vines exhibit dormancy during winter in Northern
  India and under tropical conditions vines exhibit
  luxurious continuous vegetative growth.

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• Grape vines have strong root system and grow on
  a wide variety of soils.
• A well-drained sandy loam soil with good water
  holding capacity and a pH of 6.7-7.5 is the
  ideal one for best results.
• Vines tolerate moderate salt concentrations but
  presence of excess salts, especially sodium and
  free calcium is detrimental for growth.
• Electrical conductivity of soil extract should
  not be more than 4 mmhos/ cm and exchangeable
  sodium content should be less than 15 for
  successful viticulture.
• Free calcium concentration value exceeding 12
  results in severe iron deficiency to vines.
• High proline content in leaves is attributed to
  survival of vine under low to moderate salt
  stress conditions.
• Exogenous application of proline or cytokinins in
  initial stages of growth reduces damage by salt
  stress.

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• A number of rootstocks are identified to impart
  salt resistance to commercial grape varieties.
• They include Degrasset, Dogridge, Salt Creek, ARG
  No.1 and Vitis riparia. Degrasset and Dogridge
  are tolerant up to 6.8 and 6.5 dSm-1 under sodium
  salinity respectively.
• Soil moisture content has influence on yield and
  quality of grapes.
• Moisture stress during first three weeks after
  anthesis has direct adverse effect on berry set
  and size, resulting in poor yield.
• Delayed maturity, poor colour development and
  reduced berry size are results of soil moisture
  stress during berry development period.
• Selective use of rootstocks contributes to
  successful cultivation in moisture stress soils.
• Dogridge is a suitable rootstock for such
  conditions.

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PRESENT STATUS OF GRAPE CULTIVATION IN THE COUNTRY
Grape is grown under a variety of soil and
climatic conditions in three distinct
agro-climatic zones, namely, sub-tropical, hot
tropical and mild tropical climatic regions in
India.
Sub-tropical Region
This region covers the northwestern plains
corresponding to 28 and 32 N latitude including
Delhi Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh Hissar
and Jind districts of Haryana and Bhatinda,
Ferozpur, Gurdaspur and Ludhiana districts of
Punjab.
Cont
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Vines undergo dormancy and bud break starts in
the first week of March while the rains arrive in
the first week of June, and therefore, only 90-95
days are available from the initiation of growth
to harvest. Consequently, Perlette is the
only early ripening variety grown in this region.
Rain damage is a problem with Thompson Seedless
in this region. Single pruning and a single
harvest is the accepted practice here.
Hot Tropical Region
This region covers Nashik, Sangli, Solapur, Pune,
Satara, Latur and Osmanabad districts of
Maharashtra Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Mahbubnagar,
Anantapur and Medak districts of Andhra Pradesh
and Bijapur, Bagalkot, Belgaum, Gulberga
districts of northern Karnataka lying between 15
and 20 N latitude. This is the major
viticulture region accounting for 70 percent of
the area under grapes in the country. Vines do
not undergo dormancy and double pruning and a
single harvest is the general practice in this
region.

Cont
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Maximum and minimum temperature is 42C and 8C,
respectively. The major problems in this region
are soil and water salinity and drought. Berry
growth is impaired and in certain locations pink
blush sometimes develops on green berries due to
temperatures that drop to a low of 8C. Thompson
Seedless and its clones (Tas-A-Ganesh, Sonaka),
Anab-e-Shahi, Sharad Seedless and Flame Seedless
are the varieties grown in this region.
Mild Tropical Region
An area covered by 10 and 15 N latitude
including Bangalore and Kolar districts of
Karnataka Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh
and Coimbatore and Madurai and Theni districts
of Tamil Nadu fall in this region. Maximum
temperatures in a year seldom exceed 36C, while
the minimum is about 12C. Principal varieties
are Bangalore Blue (Syn. Isabella), Anab-e-Shahi,
Gulabi (Syn. Muscat Hamburg), and Bhokri.
Thompson Seedless is grown only with limited
success. Except for Thompson Seedless, two crops
are harvested in a year. \Vinifera varieties
susceptible to mildew suffer losses due to
unprecedented rains during flowering and fruit
set in both hot and mild tropical regions.
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Assessment

• 1. Higher night temperatures required for
  coloured grapes (True/ False)
• 2.Bright sunny days help in development of
  _________ in berries.
• a). Sugar b). Acid c).
  Alkaloids
• _____________ content in leaves is attributed to
  survival of vine under low to moderate salt
  stress conditions. (High proline).
• 4. _____________ is a suitable rootstock for
  moisture stress soils.
• (Dogridge)
• 5. pH range for grapes cultivation __________
• a). 6.7-7.5 b). 5.0- 6.0 c).
  8.0-9.0

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References

• Sawant, S.D. and I.S. Sawant. 1999. Effect of
  essential oils in controlling post - harvest
  pathogens. Annual Report (1998-99) of National
  Research Centre for Grapes. pp. 35.
• Somkuwar, R.G., S.D. Ramteke and S.D. Shikhamany.
  1999. Effect of growth regulators on productivity
  and quality of grapes. Annual report (1998-99) of
  National Research Centre for Grapes, Pune. pp.
  21.
• Singh, P.V. 1999. Note on effect of thiourea on
  breaking of dormancy of grapevine buds. India, J.
  Hort. 56(4) 312 3.
• Pramanick, P.K., V.P. Sharma, P.C. Jindal, S.K.
  Saxena and S.K. Singh. 2001. Effect of different
  bud-breaking chemicals for hastening maturity in
  Pusa Seedless grape (Vits vinifera L.). Indian J.
  Hort., 58(3) 232 - 238.

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