High Cordon Training System Reduces Labor Hours and Load Compared with a Conventional Cordon Training System

Goals: The cordon training system has a horizontal main cordon arm extending in one or two directions. We examined the effects of a high cordon training system in which the cordon arm was trained on a wire 100 cm from the ground on labor hours and load and compared them with the effects of normal cordon trained on a wire ∼50 cm from the ground.

Key findings:

• The high cordon training system reduced painful working postures during training and pruning operations compared with the normal cordon training system, irrespective of operator skill or height.

• The high cordon training system decreased the number and duration of half-rising postures by 11% and 1.1% and those of crouching postures by 18% and 11%, respectively, compared with the normal cordon training system.

• The high cordon training system had no effect on vegetative growth, such as the timing of budbreak, bloom, full bloom, veraison, and harvest, or on the morphological characteristics of shoot, node, and internode compared with the normal cordon training system.

• The high cordon training system had no effect on berry quality, measured as bunch and berry characteristics, berry composition, and yield, compared with the normal cordon training system.

Impact and Significance: The high cordon training system reduces painful working postures, such as half-rising and crouching postures, during training and pruning operations without loss of vegetative growth and berry quality compared with the normal cordon training system. The aging of vineyard operators and the decrease in the number of vineyard operators have become serious problems in Japan. This study is expected to contribute to further development of the labor-saving high cordon training system.