Application of Spectroscopy for Measuring Leaf Nitrogen, Chlorophyll and the Other Pigments in Pinot Noir Grape

Abstract

Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrition factors affecting grapevine growth performance and berry quality. Leaf pigments contents and leaf areas are the important indicators of grapevine nitrogen status and plant performance. In order to find a efficient way to nondestructively measure leaf nitrogen and pigments status, the SPAD meter, CCM-200 and CM-1000 chlorophyll meter in comparisons with FOSS NIR system were used in measuring leaf nitrogen, leaf chlorophyll, carotenoids, flavonoids and anthocyanins in 7-year-old Pinot Noir grape with different rate of N treatments. The results indicate that the reading of all these meters have a good relationship with leaf N, leaf chlorophyll and leaf area. But the accuracy among these meters was different, in which the accuracy of FOSS NIR is better than that of the SPAD meter, CCM-200 and CM-1000. There is the good relationship between leaf nitrogen contents, leaf area, leaf chlorophyll and carotenoids contents. Flavonoids and anthocyanins have the inverse relationship with leaf N contents and leaf area. FOSS NIR system can be use for nondestructive assessing nitrogen, leaf chlorophyll, carotenoids, flavonoids and anthocyanins whereas the other meters can only used for nondestructive assessing leaf nitrogen and leaf chlorophyll. These results indicate it is possible to use nondestructive spectral methods as the precision viticulture tools to manage vineyards nitrogen fertilization and grapevine performance.