Effect of Vineyard Floor Management on Seasonal Changes of Cultivable Fungal Diversity in the Rhizosphere

Vineyard floor management has been widely discussed for many decades, but it is still unclear how its intensity levels change the fungal community structure of grape rhizosphere. Our objective was to examine the density and rate of the habitats of fungi in three vineyards that differ only in the methods of tillage procedure applied, namely intensive, extensive and none (abandoned). The hypothesis was that in the cases of lower intensity or no soil tillage, there would be a higher level of fungal diversity with a lower ratio of pathogen strains in grape rhizosphere. In the course of this research, it has been determined that the level of fungal colonization of roots is the highest in the extensively managed vineyard, unrelated to season (spring and summer). Four of the five fungal genera detectable in all of the three sampled vineyards are registered as opportunist grape pathogens, however the fifth one, Trichoderma, is commonly used in biological plant protection. The diversity of fungal communities in grape rhizosphere, in accordance with the expectations, was the lowest in the intensively cultivated and highest in the abandoned vineyard, and it was not affected by seasons. The proportion of opportunist plant pathogen groups was higher in the intensive variant than in the other two (less-intensive variants); therefore, it is possible to conclude that soil under similar conditions but disturbed by intensive tillage methods tends to exhibit lower suppressivity.

Autonomous Mowing and Turf-Type Bermudagrass as Innovations for An Environment-Friendly Floor Management of a Vineyard in Coastal Tuscany

The establishment of permanent cover crops is becoming a common practice in vineyard floor management. Turfgrass science may provide species and techniques with a high potential for improving the sustainability of vineyard floor management. Based on this assumption, an experiment was carried out during 2018 and 2019 at the Donna Olimpia Vineyard, Bolgheri, Italy. The trial aimed at comparing an innovative floor management system based on a turf-type cultivar of bermudagrass mown with an autonomous mower with a conventional floor management system. Ground cover percentage, energy consumption, CO2 emissions, grapevine water status, leaf nitrogen content, fruit yield and must composition have been assessed in order to perform the comparison. The innovative vineyard floor management produced an almost complete ground cover (98%) at the end of the second growing season, with the resident species reduced to a small percentage (4%). Resident species growing under-trellis were efficiently controlled without herbicide applications. A lower primary energy consumption and a reduction in CO2 emissions were observed for the innovative management system compared to the conventional management system. Grapevine water status, leaf chlorophyll content, soil–plant analyses development (SPAD), fruit yields and must composition were similar between the different soil management systems. Based on results obtained in this trial, turf-type bermudagrass and innovative mowing machines may contribute to enhance the sustainability of vineyard floor management.

SUSTAINABILITY OF GRAPEVINE PRODUCTION THROUGH MORE EFFICIENT SYSTEMS OF SOIL MAINTENANCE AND AGRO-BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS

Tillage practices in viticulture are very important, with major effects on quantitative and qualitative production, on vines phenology and stages of growth. In this study the aim was to identify the most appropriate vineyard floor management, located on flat land or mild slopes, with medium or high soils fertility. The research was carried out during 2011–2013 in the vineyard of the BUASVM Didactic Station from Timisoara and focusing exclusively on several variants of soil maintenance in order to replace the need for manual labor. Leaf area was estimated by concentric circles method and sugar concentration was evaluated by refractometry. Total acidity in must and wine was determined by titration. Grape yield was estimated by bunches counting and weighing, for each variety and productive potential (kg ha-1) was appreciated by multiplying the average yield per vine with the number of vines per hectare. Statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism 6. Performance of Burgundy variety for superior red wines group and Silvania table grape variety – with a medium ripening, were analyzed in the experiment. For both Burgundy and Silvania varieties the sixth variant (V6–bare soil by tillage middles row (tractor and rotary hoe)/rotary hoe undervine (tractor and adjustable offset rotary tiller) registered the highest grape yield during the research. The lowest grape yield fulfils to the seventh variant of vineyard floor management. Burgundy variety had the average must sugar content of 195 ± 4.27 g l-1 and that of the leaf area of 7.09 ± 0.58 m2 while in Silvania variety the average of grape must acidity was 4.66 ± 0.35 g l-1 H2SO4 and the leaf area of 7.42 ± 0.51 m2/vine. Between must sugar content and leaf area, in Burgundy and Silvania variety has been established a significant positive linear correlation (r = 0.94 ***) and (r = 0.88 **; p <0.001) respectively, variables being virtually indistinguishable.