Abstract
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Aims:</strong> Vineyards in Uruguay are concentrated over soils formed from Quaternary sediments; however, in recent years vineyard surface over soils formed from metamorphic rocks has increased. In this context, this study assessed the relationships between soil physical properties and grapevine vegetative development, yield and berry composition, in order to understand how vine response is affected and characterize the viticultural production potential for different regions. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Methods and results:</strong> The work was conducted from 2011 to 2014 in non-irrigated Tannat commercial vineyards located in the Río de la Plata coastal region. Roots were studied by excavating trial pits and soils were described. For each vintage, the Dryness index was estimated and pre-dawn leaf water potential was measured. Vine response (vigor, yield and berry composition) was determined for each vineyard. Three soil texture classes over two types of parent rock were observed. Vineyards on soils formed over metamorphic rocks, coarse-textured and with lower depth and water availability, had lower yield, lower vegetative development and higher concentration of compounds associated with berry quality. In contrast, vineyards on soils formed over Quaternary sediments or over metamorphic rock but with greater water availability showed the inverse response.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusion:</strong> The amount of available water in the root zone significantly affected plant growth, yield, bunch rot and berry composition.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Significance and impact of the study:</strong> According to edaphic conditions, it is possible to optimize grapevine production within the sub-region of Río de la Plata coast by balancing the source:sink ratio for each soil through vineyard management.</p>
Highlights
Soils are essential components of viticultural terroirs, along with climate, plant and human factors (Seguin, 1986; Deloire et al, 2005), influencing vineyard performance and berry and wine composition (Tisseyre et al, 2007; Trought et al, 2008; Van Leeuwen, 2010).The volume of soil potentially explored by roots depends on its physical properties
According to USDA classification, three soil groups were identified on the studied vineyards (Table 2), and they belonged to three textural classes: silty clay loam, silty clay, and clay loam
Great differences among sites were observed for root zone depth, varying from 36 to 70 cm, with soils formed over Metamorphic rock (MR) being the shallowest
Summary
The volume of soil potentially explored by roots depends on its physical properties. Texture is widely used for soil characterization and as root-zone volume indicator (Oliver et al, 2013). The apparent influence of soil properties on berry composition is indirect (Zerihunet al., 2015), being mediated by their effects on canopy size, which is negatively associated with berry quality. Grape soluble solids content and pH are higher and titratable acidity is lower (Trought et al, 2008). Soils with less water and organic matter lead to higher anthocyanin concentrations in grape skins (Cheng et al, 2014)
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