Analysis of grapevine phenology in the region of Sremski Karlovci

Abstract

A comprehensive analysis of phenological timing and growth intervals for eight red and thirteen white wine grape cultivars in the region of Sremski Karlovci was performed using a long-term (1986-2011) data set. Four phenological stages of grapevine were examined: beginning of budburst, beginning of flowering, beginning of veraison and harvest. The phenological stages studied exhibited a 30 to 51 day variation between the earliest and latest years for red cultivars and 29 to 49 day variation for white cultivars. The beginning of flowering exhibited the least, while harvest showed the highest inter-annual variation. The difference between red and white cultivars was the greatest for harvest - the mean harvest date averaged over all red cultivars was 24 September and over all white cultivars 14 September. The beginning of flowering to the beginning of veraison interval showed the smallest and budburst to harvest interval the greatest year-toyear variability. The beginning of budburst to harvest period for the cultivars examined averaged 165 days for red and 156 days for white cultivars, with the mean interval range of 58 days for red and 55 days for white cultivars. In addition, it was found that a variability of the onset and duration of phenological phases was greater between years for a single cultivar than among cultivars within individual years, meaning that climatic factors are more important than genetic characteristics of cultivars for phenological timing.