Tips for Great-Looking Grapes
July 23, 2012 As summer temperatures rise, keep your grapes looking cool with ProTone® Plant Growth Regulator.
Hot summer temperatures give table grape growers a break from major disease concerns, but they present another pressing challenge. As the mercury rises, so does the difficulty in achieving ideal fruit color.
Like many plant processes, the development of color in red table grapes is directly impacted by weather conditions. High daytime temperatures and cool nights are an ideal recipe for great coloring. But when it’s hot during the day and nighttime temperatures remain high, color development becomes very difficult to achieve.
Under these conditions, ProTone® PGR can be used to enhance color and help grapes look their best at harvest. ProTone increases the activity of naturally occurring enzymes, resulting in more uniform, natural-looking color without negatively impacting berry or cluster quality.
“Growers talk about good and bad color years,” said Rob Fritts, technical development specialist for Valent BioSciences Corporation. “Color is closely tied to price, and even in good color years, red table grapes can often use some help from ProTone.”
According to Fritts, it has already been a very challenging year for color due to high temperatures in the Coachella Valley. That could prove to be the case further north as well with the onset of summer.
“It definitely puts growers on edge when they know some of their peers in other areas have had difficulties,” Fritts said. “It’s better to be proactive. ProTone can increase color. Achieving more color sooner improves harvest efficacy because you can pick more fruit any time you harvest.”
Crimson seedless — the No. 1 red table grape — is one of the most difficult varietals to color, and Fritts reports that July is the ideal time to apply ProTone. Grapes left untreated on the vine at this time of year can fail to color sufficiently, but ProTone improves color and harvest efficiency to such an extent that growers can pick as many grapes in three harvests as they might otherwise in five—saving valuable time and labor in the process.
ProTone is OMRI-listed and NOP-compliant, and it is exempt from residue tolerance requirements, increasing flexibility.
For best results, ensure proper calibration and thorough coverage of all clusters.
To learn more about ProTone, visit www.valent.com/protone or www.ProTonePGR.com.
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