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

Simone Magni,Giovanni Caruso,Luisa Martelloni,Monica Gaetani,Andrea Peruzzi,Marco Fontanelli,Marco Mazzoncini,Mino Sportelli,Alberto Minelli,Nicola Grossi,Michel Pirchio,Marco Volterrani,Daniele Antichi,Gabriele Vittori,Lisa Caturegli,Giacomo Palai,Michele Raffaelli,Alberto Materazzi,Christian Frasconi

doi:10.3390/agriculture10050189

Simone Magni, Giovanni Caruso + Show 17 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture10050189

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Abstract

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.

Highlights

Sustainable viticulture has been defined as a global strategy covering economic issues, product quality, environmental aspects and consumer health related to grape production and processing [1]
During June 2018 and June 2019, the decrease of ground cover percentage in the conventional management system was due to the flail mowing
During July 2018, both management systems showed a similar presence of resident species, while the innovative management system showed a higher total ground cover percentage because of bermudagrass spreading

Summary

Introduction

Sustainable viticulture has been defined as a global strategy covering economic issues, product quality, environmental aspects and consumer health related to grape production and processing [1]. The establishment of permanent cover crops is becoming a common floor management practice in vineyards, especially to prevent soil erosion and to facilitate machinery access [6,7]. No matter what species is used as a cover crop, its growth needs to be controlled in order to prevent competition with the vine plants [8]. Conventional programs of vineyard floor management include soil tillage and periodical mowing of the interrow aimed at maintaining nutritional balance between vines and cover crop. Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.) is not included among the list of species considered suitable as vineyards cover crops by various authors [6,8] and is indicated as one the most aggressive vineyards weeds [4]. The undesirable traits associated to bermudagrass refer mostly to the naturally occurring wild types, while turf-type cultivars have a reduced vertical growth, an increased density, an enhanced lateral growth, a higher wear resistance and a higher shade tolerance [15,16]

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