Nutrient Management Research Database

Little work has been done to fully explore the seasonable changes in grape vineyard nutrient status. This work evaluated the vineyard nutrient status across the growing season, from both a plant and soil perspective, to increase understanding of spatial and temporal pattern of nutrient distribution in winegrape production. Two Australian vineyards, with contrasting soil and climate, were intensely sampled for an entire growing season by returning to the same target vines to collect soil, petiole, and berry tissue for nutritional analysis, which was used to develop and understand nutrient distribution patterns. Strong spatial and temporal distribution patterns were found for potassium, magnesium, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and zinc, meaning that potential zonal management of all these elements is high.

• Soil and tissue (petiole and berry) samples were taken from two vineyards, a Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard in Coonawarra and a Ruby Cabernet vineyard in Sunraysia, Australia in the 2000/2001 growing season.
• Samples were tested for nutrient content and then data were analyzed with a standard ANOVA to determine spatial and temporal patterns of nutrient status across the vineyards.
• This was done to better understand the spatial and temporal relationships among nutrients to inform management practices.

• Nutrient concentrations varied across both the vineyards and within the plant tissue during the growing season.
• However, results show that there was strong and consistent patterns of spatial variation in nutrient status at all times during the growing season.
• The results of the temporal analysis (comparing petiole, berry, and soil analysis at flowering, veraison, and berry nutrient status) showed that potassium and magnesium had the highest and most consistent temporal agreement, but that four additional nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and zinc had high temporal agreement.
• This means that potential zonal management of all these elements is high.