Vegetative and productive behavior of kiwifruit ‘Elmwood’ submitted to pruning with different bud loading levels

Abstract The objective of this study is to evaluate the vegetative and productive behavior of kiwifruit trees cv. ‘Elmwood’ submitted to different intensities of pruning, in “Serra Gaúcha” region. Treatments consisted in maintaining different bud load levels in each cane of 10, 15 and 20 buds cane-1. The experiment, carried out during the 2016/2017 vegetative season had a completely randomized design with nine repetitions per treatment. Bud fertility, vegetative, productive and fruit quality features were evaluated. The percentage of mixed buds was higher next to the cane apex in three different treatments, while in the base of each cane ocurred the highest percentage of non sprouting buds. The decrease in the number of buds per cane induced larger leaves and increased leaf dry matter. Longitudinal and transversal diameter of fruits and fruit mass were inversely proportional to the number of buds per cane. Pruning of ‘Elmwood’ kiwifruit tree with different number of buds did not influence the index of real bud fertility, but affected directly leaf and shoot size. Pruning maintaining canes with 10 buds favors the increase of fruit weight and did not reduce productivity.摘要 本研究旨在评估‘埃尔姆伍德’（Elmwood）品种猕猴桃树在南里奥格兰德山区（Serra Gaúcha）不同修剪强度下的营养生长与生产性能。试验设置每根结果母枝保留10、15、20个芽的不同芽负载量作为处理，于2016/2017生长季开展，采用完全随机设计，每个处理设置9次重复。测定指标包括芽萌发力、营养生长、产量及果实品质相关性状。三种处理中，混合芽占比在结果母枝顶端区域更高，而每根结果母枝基部的未萌发芽占比最高。每结果母枝的芽数减少，会使叶片更大，叶片干物质含量提升。果实纵径、横径及单果质量与每结果母枝的芽数呈负相关。不同芽负载量的修剪处理并未影响实际芽萌发力指数，但直接影响叶片与新梢的生长尺寸。保留10个芽的修剪方式可提升单果质量，且不会降低产量。