Response and Ability of the Vines of Cultivar Storgozia to Recover after Hail Damage

Abstract

A study was performed to determine the response and the ability to recover cultivar Storgozia after the extreme meteorological phenomenon mesocyclone registered in May 2018, accompanied by intense hail and hurricane wind. The hail damage impact on the actual fertility elements, the growing strength and the degree of shoots ripening, the yield quantitative and qualitative indicators, and the grape's chemical composition had been determined for the achieving of the objective. The study found that the damages by hail on the green parts of the vine in 2018 did not have a negative impact on the process of formation of inflorescences in the winter eyes and did not affect the vine productivity of cv. Storgozia in the following year. The damages caused by hail at the beginning of the growing season had little effect on the growing strength and the degree of shoot ripening. The leaves and leaf area (1.36 m²) of the main shoots are proven to be smaller in size in the year with hail, compared to the other two years, which reflects on the size of the leaves (3.38 m²) and leaf area of the lateral shoots, which are proven to be larger after the registered hail. The total leaf area per vine had remained almost the same in all three years, as the difference was only in the leaf area ratio of the main and lateral shoots in 2018 that did not result in disruption of the vital for the vine plant physiological and biochemical processes in the leaves. Hail had a considerable negative effect on the structure of the cluster, the berry size, the yield per vine. The overall assessment of the quality of the grapes from the three harvests shows that with varying degrees of evidence for the individual indicators, hail has a significant adverse effect on its chemical composition in terms of sugar, titratable acids, anthocyanins, and phenolic compounds.