Abstract
Aims: Soil acidity decreases soil fertility and grapevine growth. Aluminum toxicity has been recognized as one of the most common causes of reduced grape yields in acid vineyard soils. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of two liming materials, i.e. dolomitic lime and sugar foam, on a vineyard cultivated in an acid soil.Methods and results: The effects were studied in two soil layers (0-30 and 30-60 cm), as well as on leaf nutrient contents, grape yield, and must and wine quality properties, in a vineyard dedicated to Vitis vinifera L. cv. Mencía cultivation. The data management and analysis were carried out using ANOVA.Conclusion: Sugar foam was more efficient than dolomitic limestone as liming material since it induced the highest decrease in soil acidity properties at the same calcium carbonate equivalent dose. Effects of liming on leaf nutrient contents, grape yield, and must and wine quality properties were barely observed.Significance and impact of the study: Until recently, little was known about the effects of liming on both vine nutritional status and must/wine quality properties. Thus, this research fills an important knowledge gap.
Highlights
With an approximate land area affected by soil acidity of 4 billion ha, representing about 30% of the total ice-free land area of the world (Sumner and Noble, 2003), this edaphic characteristic is one of the most yield-limiting factors for crop production as a result of high Al3+ levels and low availability of basic ions in both surface and subsurface soil.Liming is one of the main methods used by farmers to enhance the fertility of acid soils because it decreases the contents of exchangeable Al3+ through replacement with Ca2+ and Mg2+, and the contents of soluble Al3+ by precipitation with the hydroxyl anions generated by carbonate hydrolysis in the soil solution
Sugar foam was more efficient than dolomitic limestone as liming material since it induced the highest decrease in soil acidity properties at the same calcium carbonate equivalent dose
The important exchangeable soil acidity in the plot is further indicated by the larger-than-one differences between pH in water (pHW) and pHKCI at both soil depths
Summary
Liming is one of the main methods used by farmers to enhance the fertility of acid soils because it decreases the contents of exchangeable Al3+ through replacement with Ca2+ and Mg2+, and the contents of soluble Al3+ by precipitation with the hydroxyl anions generated by carbonate hydrolysis in the soil solution. Some common liming materials, such as limestone (CaCO3), used in agriculture to increase yield potential lose their effectiveness in vineyards established on acid soils due to the low solubility and mobility of carbonate in the soil profile, the liming effects being usually limited to the lime application/incorporation sites (Soratto and Crusciol, 2008). Among certain strategies used to ameliorate subsurface soil acidity, it can be cited the replacement of lime by the surface application of more soluble materials (Castro and Crusciol, 2013)
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