Response of Vitis vinifera cv. ‘Tempranillo’ to partial rootzone drying in the field: Water relations, growth, yield and fruit and wine quality
Introduction
Soil water availability is a critical factor for vine performance and wine composition. Irrigation allows increasing yields (Williams and Matthews, 1990), though a moderate water deficit is often desirable to improve wine composition (Jackson and Lombard, 1993). Deficit irrigation and “Partial Rootzone Drying” (PRD) (McCarthy et al., 2000) have been suggested as strategies to increase water use efficiency (weight of fruit produced per unit of irrigation water applied). The goal is also to improve fruit composition for premium quality wines by reducing canopy vigor, increasing fruit exposure to light and reducing berry growth to avoid dilution effects.
Deficit irrigation consists in reducing water application rates to replace only part of the potential vine evapotranspiration either during the whole season or only during certain phenological periods. Partial rootzone drying aims instead on alternating water application between the two sides of the vine in order to maintain part of the root system in contact with dry soil, while the rest of the rootzone is in a wet condition. The physiological mechanisms behind the PRD practice are based on studies with potted plants, where often roots were artificially separated in two containers (Antolín et al., 2006, Dry and Loveys, 1999, Stoll et al., 2000). These investigations showed that vines with half of the root system always in contact with dry soil had lower stomatal conductance and reduced vegetative growth, without detrimental effects on yield and improvement in fruit quality. In other research deficit irrigation under a PRD regime was compared to conventionally fully watered vines (Dry et al., 1996, Dry et al., 2000, Poni et al., 2007), with the absence of a proper control, e.g. deficit irrigation applied conventionally.
Further research on PRD conducted in the field showed absence of any significant effect of PRD when it was compared with the same amount of water applied conventionally (Bravdo et al., 2004, Gu et al., 2004, Pudney and McCarthy, 2004). Particularly under heavy deep soils (Marsal et al., 2008) the PRD technique seems to be less effective than under sandy soil (de Souza et al., 2003), where wetting and drying cycles can be achieved more easily. Recently, De la Hera et al. (2006) found somewhat higher yield in PRD treatments compared with conventional drip irrigation in one out of the three seasons of their study. Pedreira dos Santos et al. (2007) reported better fruit exposure to light and improved fruit composition when PRD was compared with the same amount of water applied conventionally.
Under these circumstances it was considered important to test the PRD practice in the field conditions of heavy and deep soils typical of the Utiel-Requena counties (Valencia, Spain). The aim of this work was then to evaluate the effects of the irrigation dose and of the system of application (conventional drip and PRD) on water relations, yield and wine quality of Tempranillo grapevines during two seasons. The ultimate goal is to provide growers with reliable information about the convenience of using the PRD drip-irrigation system in their vineyards.
Section snippets
Site description
The experiment was carried out during two consecutive seasons (2003 and 2004) in a ‘Tempranillo’ vineyard (Vitis vinifera L.) planted in 1991 on 161-49 rootstock at a spacing of 2.45 m by 2.45 m (1666 vines ha−1). The vineyard was located near Requena (39°29′N, 1°13′W, elevation 750 m), Valencia, Spain. In 2000, a drip-irrigation system was installed and vines trained to a vertical trellis on a bilateral cordon system oriented in the North–South direction. Shoot thinning was carried out each year
Climatic conditions and soil and plant water relations
Season 2003 was drier than the 2004 one with lower annual rainfall and also lower precipitation during the growing season (Table 1). Evaporative demand during the growing season was similar for both years.
The evolution of soil water content in the PRD treatments (Fig. 1, Fig. 2) did not always show the expected alternating drying and wetting cycles on both soil sides after each switching event. There was a noticeable drying in the portion of the soil that was not irrigated only in the ‘100-PRD
Discussion
Water relations and vine growth were not affected by the PRD type of irrigation. Probably because of this, vine performance and fruit and wine composition were not different in the PRD than in the conventional drip-irrigation treatments. Indeed, applying irrigation alternatively to only one side of the vine did not have any beneficial, nor negative effect, on the overall vineyard performance, when compared to similar amount of irrigation applied conventionally. However, it should be noted that,
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by funds from the Generalitat Valenciana, Consellería de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación, Project No. 2002TAHVAL0034. We are grateful to the STR personnel for the meteorological data, to Dr. E. Carbonell for statistical analysis of data and to personnel from Caja Campo for the field determinations. Thanks are also due to the “Estación de Viticultura y Enología, Requena” for the vinifications and to the Fundación Lucio Gil de Fagoaga for allowing this research
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