Restoring optimal Soil functionality in degraded areas within organic Vineyards

Summary

The ReSolVe project aims at testing the effects of selected agronomic strategies for restoring optimal soil functionality in degraded areas within organic vineyard. The term "degraded areas within vineyard" means areas having been reduced vine growth, disease resistance, grape yield and quality. These areas can have lost their soil functionality because of either an improper land preparation, or an excessive loss of soil organic matter and nutrients, erosion and/or compaction, metal accumulation. The project will individuate the main causes of the soil functionality loss and test different organic recovering methods, such as adding compost, adoption of green manure with different species, and dry mulching. The effects of these techniques will be tested through the monitoring of soil organic matter content and turnover, soil nitrogen and water availability, soil and root-zone microbial and microfauna biodiversity, soil enzymes, plant water stress, plant phenology, and grape yield and quality. The techniques will also be tested for the capability to reduce the copper bio-availability.
The project involves 8 research groups in 6 different EU countries, which are Italy, France, Spain, Sweden, Slovenia, and Turkey. The experimental vineyards are situated in Italy (Tuscany), France (Bordeaux and Languedoc), Spain (La Rioja) and Slovenia (Primorska) for winegrape, and in Turkey (Adana and Mersin) for table grape.
The results of the project will be made available through the project portal and by publishing guidelines on soil functionality restoring techniques. Best practices of soil management and soil functionality restoring will be transferred to grape-growers, agricultural industry confederations, and agronomists through preparation of marketing materials (posters, flyers, brochures) and local training workshops.
Project results will be also popularized through current collaborations with national web-platforms of best practices groups, as well as with participation to Focus groups of EIP-AGRI.