Fruit Zone Leaf Removal Timing and Extent Alters Bunch Rot, Primary Fruit Composition, and Crop Yield in Georgia-grown ‘Chardonnay’ (Vitis vinifera L.)

Fruit zone leaf removal is a vineyard management practice used to manage bunch rots, fruit composition, and crop yield. We were interested in evaluating fruit zone leaf removal effects on bunch rot, fruit composition, and crop yield in ‘Chardonnay’ grown in the U.S. state of Georgia. The experiment consisted of seven treatments: no leaf removal (NO); prebloom removal of four or six leaves (PB-4, PB-6), post–fruit set removal of four or six leaves (PFS-4, PFS-6), and prebloom removal of two or three leaves followed by post–fruit set removal of two or three leaves (PB-2/PFS-2, PB-3/PFS-3). Although leaf removal reduced botrytis bunch rot and sour rot compared with NO, effects were inconsistent across the two seasons. Fruit zone leaf removal treatments reduced titratable acidity (TA) and increased soluble solids compared with NO. PB-6 consistently reduced berry number per cluster, cluster weight, and thus crop yield relative to PFS-4. Our results show that post–fruit set fruit zone leaf removal to zero leaf layers aids in rot management, reduces TA, increases soluble solids, and maintains crop yield compared with no leaf removal. We therefore recommend post–fruit set leaf removal to zero leaf layers over no leaf removal if crops characterized by relatively greater soluble solids-to-TA ratio and reduced bunch rot are desirable for winemaking goals.