Abstract
Limited water resources are placing pressure on the wine grape industry to improve vineyard water use efficiency by continuing improvements in vineyard management. One way to improve vineyard water use efficiency is to improve transpiration efficiency, and judicious use of scion-rootstock combination can play a role. Accordingly, this paper examines the influence of rootstocks on the water use physiology of a common scion variety (Shiraz) and assesses the importance of variation in xylem sap abscisic acid (ABA) as an indicator of relative water use efficiency of different scion-rootstock combinations. Shiraz scions (clone BVRC12) grafted to seven rootstock varieties (along with an ungrafted control), were observed over two consecutive seasons in a field trial located in Adelaide, South Australia. Those two seasons (2001/02 and 2002/03) offered sharp contrasts with respect to soil and atmospheric water stress. Rootstock genotype had a significant impact on scion gas exchange, water status, canopy growth and yield in both seasons. Those impacts were associated with an inverse relationship between xylem sap ABA and stomatal conductance. We suggest that strategic analysis of xylem sap ABA may provide a marker for comparative water-use physiology of different stock-scion combinations, while recognising that irrigation pre-history, and associated degree of vine water stress, will be a further source of variation in grapevine water use.
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