Abstract
There is an increased demand for high quality winegrapes in the São Francisco Valley, a new wine producing area in Brazil. As the grape quality is closely linked to the soil water status, understanding the effects of rootstock and irrigation management on grapevine water relations is essential to optimize yield and quality. This study was carried out to investigate the effects of irrigation strategies and rootstocks on water relations and scion vigour of field-grown grapevines in Petrolina, Pernambuco state, Brazil. The cultivars used as scions are Moscato Canelli and Syrah, both grafted onto IAC 572 and 1103 Paulsen rootstocks. The following water treatments were used: deficit irrigation, with holding water after veraison; and partial root-zone drying, supplying (100% of crop evapotranspiration) of the water loss to only one side of the root system after fruit set, alternating the sides periodically (about 24 days). In general, all treatments had values of pre-dawn leaf water potential higher than -0.2 MPa, suggesting absence of water stress. The vine water status was more affected by rootstock type than irrigation strategies. Both cultivars grafted on IAC 572 had the highest values of midday leaf water potential and stem water potential, measured on non-transpiring leaves, which were bagged with both plastic sheet and aluminum foil at least 1 h before measurements. For both cultivars, the stomatal conductance (g s), transpiration (E) and leaf area index (LAI) were also more affected by roostsotck type than by irrigation strategies. The IAC 572 rootstock presented higher g s, E and LAI than the 1103 Paulsen. Differences in vegetative vigor of the scion grafted onto IAC 572 rootstocks were related to its higher leaf specific hydraulic conductance and deeper root system as compared to the 1103 Paulsen, which increased the water-extraction capability, resulting in a better vine water status.
Highlights
MATERIAL AND METHODSThere is an increasing demand for high-quality wine by wine producers in the São Francisco Valley, Brazil, considered a new region for grape crops for wine production under tropical conditions
In the New World vineyards, much effort has been spent on developing deficit irrigation strategies to control vegetative vigor, such as regulated deficit irrigation (RDI), where the water input is either reduced or withhold for specific phenological periods, or partial rootzone drying (PRD), where the water is only applied to one side to the root system, while the remainder is left to dry; or deficit irrigation (DI) where less than full ETo replacement is applied during the entire growing season in vineyards (McCarthy, 1997; Loveys et al, 2000; Santos et al, 2003; Souza et al, 2003)
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of rootstocks and water management on water relations of grapevines growing under semi-arid conditions in Northeast Brazil, since little knowledge on these subjects is available for that region
Summary
MATERIAL AND METHODSThere is an increasing demand for high-quality wine by wine producers in the São Francisco Valley, Brazil, considered a new region for grape crops for wine production under tropical conditions. Differences in vegetative vigor of the scion grafted onto IAC 572 rootstocks were related to its higher leaf specific hydraulic conductance and deeper root system as compared to the 1103 Paulsen, which increased the water-extraction capability, resulting in a better vine water status.
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