Introduction of balanced pruning

Date or time period: 1960

Shaulis and co-workers in New York, mainly working with American grape species and hybrids, further advanced our understanding of the physiological basis of pruning and developed the concept of ‘balanced pruning’, i.e. that the number of nodes retained is determined by a measure of vine capacity ─  the most common and convenient method is a measure of pruning weight. Vine capacity is an indication of carbohydrate reserves and in principle a balanced-pruned vine will have sufficient shoot growth (and leaf area) to ripen the fruit load