Abstract
Precision irrigation of wine grape is hindered by the lack of an automated method for monitoring vine water status. The objectives of this study were to: Validate an automated model for remote calculation of a daily crop water stress index (CWSI) for the wine grape (Vitis vinifera L.) cultivar Malbec and evaluate its suitability for use in irrigation scheduling. Vines were supplied weekly with different percentages of evapotranspiration-based estimated water demand (ETc) over four growing seasons. In the fifth growing season, different daily CWSI threshold values were used to trigger an irrigation event that supplied 28 mm of water. All three indicators of vine water status (CWSI, midday leaf water potential (Ψlmd), and juice carbon isotope ratio (δ13C)) detected an increase in stress severity as the irrigation amount decreased. When the irrigation amount decreased from 100% to 50% ETc, 70% to 35% ETc, or the daily CWSI threshold value increased from 0.4 to 0.6, berry fresh weight and juice titratable acidity decreased, juice δ13C increased, the weekly CWSI increased, and Ψlmd decreased. Under the semi-arid conditions of this study, utilizing a daily CWSI threshold for irrigation scheduling reduced the irrigation amount without compromising the yield or changes in berry composition and remotely provided automated decision support for managing water stress severity in grapevine.
Highlights
Many New and Old World wine grape (Vitis vinifera L.) production regions are in climate zones that have a limited amount of available soil moisture during the growing season and irrigation can be used as a management tool to maintain vine balance [1], induce beneficial changes in berry composition [2], and increase water productivity [3,4,5]
We evaluated the suitability of its use in irrigation scheduling by relating daily crop water stress index (CWSI) values to the available soil moisture, leaf water potential, yield, and berry composition
The growing degree day accumulation was similar to the site average in all years except in 2015, when it was higher than the site average
Summary
Many New and Old World wine grape (Vitis vinifera L.) production regions are in climate zones that have a limited amount of available soil moisture during the growing season and irrigation can be used as a management tool to maintain vine balance [1], induce beneficial changes in berry composition [2], and increase water productivity [3,4,5]. Since a mild amount of water stress is usually desirable in wine grape production, the amount of water supplied during an irrigation event is usually a fraction of ETc. The lack of a rapid, automated method for monitoring vine water status between irrigation events limits the ability of vineyard managers to maintain a desired, consistent level of water stress severity in the grapevine during berry development.
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