Autonomous Mowing and Complete Floor Cover for Weed Control in Vineyards

Christian Frasconi,Marco Fontanelli,Mino Sportelli,Marco Volterrani,Andrea Peruzzi,Lisa Caturegli,Simone Magni,Marco Mainardi,Michele Raffaelli,Michel Pirchio

doi:10.3390/agronomy11030538

Abstract

Enhancing vineyards sustainability and reducing herbicides usage is a crucial theme, thus alternative weed management methods are starting to be studied. Cover crops have been shown to provide for several environmental services such as performing an efficient weed control and promoting biodiversity, thus improving the sustainability of the overall management system. However, the use of cover crops is usually confined to the interrow area in order to avoid competition with vines. Under-trellis weed management in vineyards is an important challenge, conventionally fulfilled by cultivation or repeated herbicides applications. Autonomous mowers are small autonomous machines that have shown a great efficiency when employed in agricultural contexts. Due to their reduced size, they can easily prevent the excessive vertical growth of weeds both in the interrows and under trellis without the use of chemical applications. The aim of this trial was to evaluate if the combination of cover crop species and autonomous mowers management could improve vineyard sustainability. Vineyard floor cover that was managed with an autonomous mower had a shorter canopy height and a lower weed dry biomass compared to the conventionally managed vineyard floor cover. Vineyard floor management providing cover crops and autonomous mowing had a significantly lower weed cover percentage compared to conventional floor management, especially under-trellis. The results of this trial suggest that the combination of cover crops and autonomous mowers may be a sustainable and reliable technique to include in vineyards floor management.

Highlights

Viticulture is one of the most important economic and cultural activities of the Mediterranean region [1]
Since 2006, conventional management (CM) of the vineyard floor consisted in multiple interrow flail mowing operations of spontaneous species and under-trellis weed control based on post emergence non-selective herbicide applications
The highest ground cover percentage was recorded at the UT of cover crop 2 autonomously mowed (CC2-Autonomously mowed (AM)) plots with an average value of 39% and on the UT of spontaneous cover autonomously mowed (SC-AM) plots (36%) (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Viticulture is one of the most important economic and cultural activities of the Mediterranean region [1]. Magni et al [28] obtained similar results by testing an autonomous mower to manage a perennial grass complete cover vineyard floor. In this trial, significant reductions of power consumption and CO2 emissions were observed compared to the ordinary technique. Despite designed for lawns mowing, autonomous mowers have shown promising results for agricultural purposes [28,37] due to their reduced size and high frequency of cut [38] This last characteristic has the potential to exert a continuous mechanical control of both CC and weeds, preventing them from reaching an undesirable vertical growth [38]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion