Seaweed spray and hand-thinning cut synthetic hormone use in grapes
Crop Improvement
If you grow grapes on a backyard arbor, this points to seaweed extract and simple bunch-thinning as ways to get plumper, sweeter fruit without reaching for synthetic growth hormones.
Table grape growers usually spray vines with a synthetic hormone called gibberellic acid to make seedless grapes bigger and better looking, but it's costly and some growers want to use less of it. This study tested whether a natural plant compound called 24-epibrassinolide, a seaweed extract, and simply removing some grape clusters by hand could do part of that job instead. The combination improved berry size, sugar levels, and overall grape quality, showing that a mix of natural inputs and old-fashioned pruning can stand in for some of the synthetic spray.
Key Findings
24-epibrassinolide and seaweed extract, when combined with cluster thinning, improved berry size and quality in 'Thompson Seedless' (H4 strain) grapes
The natural treatments served as partial substitutes for synthetic gibberellic acid, a hormone conventionally used to enhance seedless grape development
Cluster thinning played a key role alongside the biostimulants in boosting fruit quality metrics such as size and sugar content
chevron_right Technical Summary
Grape growers may be able to cut back on synthetic gibberellic acid, a hormone spray widely used to plump up seedless grapes, by combining natural plant extracts with simple hand-thinning of grape clusters. Researchers found that treating 'Thompson Seedless' vines with 24-epibrassinolide or seaweed extract alongside cluster thinning produced grapes with better size, sugar content, and quality, offering a lower-input path to the same result.
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