Management of vineyard variaability: a simple and effective alternative to the precision viticulture

Abstract

Each vine within a parcel has a specific growing force and depends on several factors such as type of rootstock, soil properties, water and nutritional status of the plant. The quality of grapes produced by the vines of different vigor is heterogeneous (if treated conventionally) which creates a general loss of quality of the harvest. Thus, the management of the heterogeneity of the vigor within a plot represents a particular interest in increasing the quality of the harvest and maximizing the qualitative potential of the parcel. The first year the plot is left without trimming so that each vine could express 100% of its vigor. In winter, the vine is pruned and the wood is then weighted for each plant. This weight is divided by 50 g (the weight of a stem of 1 m. 20 cm) to avoid trimming during the growing period and to have a possibility to repeat the procedure the following year. The number obtained is the load that must be left for the vine for the current year. The load is then corrected by green pruning for each vine. All plants are divided into four groups of different vigor in order to compare the quality of grapes and wine from each group. After two years of using the technique of dividing vegetative mass on a specific number of shoots per vine, it was found that the wines made of grapes from vines of four groups studied are only slightly different at the analytical and organoleptic level. The average length of stems has been brought to the same level for all the 4 groups of vigor. Keyword: vineyard variability, precision viticulture, vigor management, pruning, vine balance.