HOW TO RESTORE SOIL FUNCTIONALITY IN DEGRADED AREAS OF VINEYARDS

Summary

In both conventional and organic vineyards, it is quite common to have areas characterized by problems in vine health, grape production and quality, often caused by improper land preparation before vine plantation and/or management. Causes for soil malfunctioning can include: reduced contribution of the soil fauna to the ecosystem services (i.e. nutrient cycles), poor organic matter content, imbalance of some element ratio, altered pH, water deficiency, soil compaction and/or scarce oxygenation.
ReSolVe is a transnational and interdisciplinary 3-years research project of the within the FP7 ERA-Net CORE Organic Plus aimed at testing the effects of selected organic strategies for restoring optimal soil functionality in degraded areas within vineyard. The different restoring strategies implemented in each plot will be: i) compost produced on farm by manure pruning residue grass, ii) faba bean and barley green manure, iii) sowing and dry mulching with Trifolium squarrosum L. During two years of such treatments, the trend of the soil features and the grapevine status will be monitored in detail, to reveal the positive the soil features and the grapevine status will be monitored in detail, to reveal the positive and negative effects of such treatments.