Influence of Undervine Floor Management on Weed Competition, Vine Nutrition, and Yields of Pinot noir

Abstract

Four undervine floor management techniques—composted bark mulch, reflective (white) and black geotextile mulches, and mechanical soil cultivation—were evaluated with regard to weed suppression, canopy sunlight regimes, soil temperatures, vine growth, and fruit composition of Pinot noir at an organically managed vineyard in the Finger Lakes Region of New York during 2004 and 2005. Composted bark mulch and black or white geotextiles significantly reduced weed biomass compared with cultivation, but did not affect vine vigor or overwintering primary bud survival in either year. Vines mulched with white geotextile had significantly greater yields, but there were few differences among treatments in ripening time or fruit composition at harvest. The white geotextile increased yields in one year of this experiment, but those yield increases did not compensate for the higher costs of geotextiles compared with the grower’s standard practice of mechanical soil cultivation.