ISHS Acta Horticulturae 792: V International Symposium on Irrigation of Horticultural Crops
EFFECTS OF CROP LEVEL AND IRRIGATION ON YIELD AND WINE QUALITY OF TEMPRANILLO GRAPEVINES IN A DRY YEAR |
| Authors: | D.S. Intrigliolo, J.R. Castel, S. Cárcel |
| Keywords: | Vitis vinifera, soil water content, stem water potential, leaf water potential |
| Abstract:
The effects of combined treatments of crop level and irrigation on yield, grape and wine quality were studied during 2005 in a mature vineyard planted with Vitis vinifera ‘Tempranillo’ trained to a bilateral cordon. Irrigation was applied by drip at two levels: R2 (at 100% of estimated crop evapotranspiration, ETc until harvest) and R1 (at 50% ETc until veraison and at 100% ETc thereafter) and compared to non-irrigated (R0). Total seasonal water application was 127 and 84 mm for R2 and R1, respectively, and rainfall during the growing season was 137 mm. Crop levels studied were Low (L, 9 clusters per vine), Medium (M, 16 clusters per vine) and High (H, 23 clusters per vine) for the R2 and R1 and only L and M for the non-irrigated vines. Crop level was regulated by shoot thinning performed by May and additional cluster thinning by June. Results show that irrigation increased yield, compared to non-irrigated, nearly proportional to the amount of water application. This yield increment was due to the significant increase of both berry size and berry number per cluster produced by irrigation. Crop level increased yield in the three irrigation treatments, in proportion to the number of clusters per vine. Large differences in grape, must and wine components occurred between non-irrigated and irrigated vines, but practically no differences existed between R2 and R1. Wines from non-irrigated vines were more acid, had higher total anthocyanins and phenolics content and moreover, had much higher color intensity. Crop level, however, did not significantly affect most parameters of grape and wine quality within any irrigation treatment, except the slight but significant reduction of alcohol, total anthocyanins and total phenolics content that occurred with increasing crop level in the R1 and R2 treatments and especially in the R2-H. | |
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