Root morphology, yield and must composition of grapevine subjected to application of urea methods and rates

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) is often applied to soil surface during the grapevine cycle, increases N losses. One way to reduce N losses lies on its application method, however how N dose and application mode impact on grapevines remain poorly investigated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the root growth, as well as grape must yield and composition, in a sandy soil and subjected to different N application doses and modes under subtropical climate conditions. Grapevines were implanted in 2011 and, since 2014, they were subjected to surface (N-Surf), and fertigation (N-Fert) N application, at rates of 0, 40 and 100 kg N ha⁻¹year⁻¹. Leaf N concentration, yield, must quality parameters and root system morphology were evaluated in the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons. The application of N in both rates (40 and 100 kg N ha⁻¹year⁻¹), in the N-Surf and N-Fert methods, increased the surface area of root, number of living roots and root production. The application of N rates, in both N application modes, provided adequate N supply to the soil and increased root system development, which contributed to the increase of soil N uptake by plants, higher N concentration in leaves and greater grape yield. However, N supply decreased the quality of the must, as observed in decreased TSS and total anthocyanins values and in increased total titratable acidity values, which are not desirable for red wine making processes.

Keywords:

• Grapes quality
• minirhizotron
• nitrogen fertilization
• root system
• sandy soil

Author contribution

Conceptualization, MSSK; data duration, MSSK, LOS and RS; formal analysis, MSSK, LOS and RS; funding acquisition, MT, EB and TLT; investigation, WSA, GAS, CFP, GS, JPJS and ROSS; project administration, GB; supervision, GB; writing—original draft, MSSK; writing—review and editing, LOS, RS, MT, EB, TLT and GB.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

We are grateful to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) – CNPq (Process number 301509/2015-8, 408318/2018 and 423772/2018), Coordenaçao de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education) – CAPES, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation) – Embrapa (Call announcement 04/2016), and Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio Grande do Sul) - FAPERGS (Term of grant 17/2551-0000925-8) for granting scholarship provided and the financial resources made available for this study.