Simplified Mechanisms for Fruit Zone Leaf Removal and Impact Assessment of the Applied Technique in Grapevine Under Tropical Climate

Antonio Odair Santos, Claudio Alves Moreira

The importance of leaf area index on the vine fruiting zone is the influence it can have on the quality of grapes and therefore wine, due to modification on chemical properties, especially on the concentration of flavonoids. In the tropics, where the grape cultivation, not rarely, is done with the presence of high humidity from flowering to harvesting, the fruiting zone defoliation is particularly important when dealing with the incidence of plant diseases. To address this question an experiment was carried out in Jundiaí (São Paulo state, Brazil), to study the implementation of simplified mechanisms for semi-automation of defoliation of Vitis spp, and check the practical influence of the implemented defoliation on the vineyard. The results showed it is possible to manufacture a low impact leaf remover prototype with a pneumatically- generated drag force guided to inside of rotary cylinders, arranged to promote a leaf pulling without bunch damage. The effect of defoliation on the vine was more related to grape quality than yield composition.