Effects of Substrate and Crop Load On Yield and Mineral Nutrition of ’Early Sweet’ Grape Cultivar Grown in Soilless Culture [Auswirkungen von Substrat und Fruchtbehang auf Ertrag und Mineralstoff-Versorgung der Rebsorte ‘Early Sweet‘]

The study was conducted to determine optimum substrate type and crop load in soilless grape culture. ’Early Sweet’ table grapes were used as the plant material. Grapevines were grown under plastic cover with nutrient solutions. Three different substrates (Cocopeat, mixture of Perlite and Peat (2:1, v:v) and Basaltic Pumice) and two different level of crop loads (10 and 15 clusters per grapevine) were experimented. To determine the effects of applications, in the first year, some shoot parameters and in the second year, grape yield, cluster, berry and must characteristics and leaf nutrients were examined. The highest grape yield (38?t ha-1) was obtained from Perlite:Peat medium and 15-cluster crop load treatment. Average cluster weights varied between 263.87?g (Cocopeat) and 346.18?g (Perlite:Peat). For all treatments, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron and zinc concentrations of the leaves sampled at veraison were lower but, magnesium concentrations were higher than the optimum limits reported the previous literature. So, sufficient yield and quality levels were achieved, Perlite:Peat medium and 15 clusters vine-1 crop load treatments were recommended for ’Early Sweet’ cultivar to cultivate in soilless culture under plastic house. However, because it was a locally available and cheap material, Basaltic Pumice with close yield levels to the other growth media was also recommended for soilless grape culture. © 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland, ein Teil von Springer Nature.Çukurova Üniversitesi: FYL-2016-6078This paper was derived from the Master Thesis of Perihan Ceren Baştaş. The authors thank to Project Development and Coordination Unit of Çukurova University for the financial support provided for this study (Project number: FYL-2016-6078)