Effect of pruning severity on growth, yield and fruit quality of Kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa Chev.)

The experiment was conducted to find out the effect of different pruning severity on growth, yield and fruit quality of Kiwifruit cv. Allison. Vegetative growth increased with the increase in pruning severity and the maximum growth was recorded in vines having a bud load of 25 canes with 6 buds/cane. However, the number of bearing shoots and fruits/cane, and total yield decreased with the increase in severity of pruning. The results indicated that pruning treatment having a bud load of 75 canes with 6 buds/cane gave the highest yield of ‘A’ grade fruits and produced better size and quality fruits without affecting the total yield and also gave maximum gross return per vine as compared to other pruning treatments.