Organic mulches improve vine vigour, yield and physiological response in a semi-arid region

“Flavescence dorée” (FD) is a grapevine quarantine disease associated with phytoplasmas and transmitted to healthy plants by insect vectors, mainly Scaphoideus titanus. Infected plants usually develop symptoms of stunted growth, unripe cane wood, leaf rolling, leaf yellowing or reddening, and shrivelled berries. Since plants can remain symptomless up to four years, they may act as reservoirs of FD contributing to the spread of the disease. So far, conventional management strategies rely mainly on the insecticide treatments, uprooting of infected plants and use of phytoplasma-free propagation material. However, these strategies are costly and could have undesirable environmental impacts. Thus, the development of sustainable and noninvasive approaches for early detection of FD and its management are of great importance to reduce disease spread and select the best cultural practices and treatments. The present study aimed to evaluate if multispectral/hyperspectral technologies can be used to detect FD before the appearance of the first symptoms and if infected grapevines display a spectral imaging fingerprint. To that end, physiological parameters (leaf area, chlorophyll content and photosynthetic rate) were collected in concomitance to the measurements of plant reflectance (using both a portable apparatus and a remote sensing drone). Measurements were performed in two leaves of 8 healthy and 8 FD-infected grapevines, at four timepoints: before the development of disease symptoms (21st June); and after symptoms appearance (ii) at veraison (2nd August); at post-veraison (11th September); and at harvest (25th September). At all timepoints, FD infected plants revealed a significant decrease in the studied physiological parameters, with a positive correlation with drone imaging data and portable apparatus analyses. Moreover, spectra of either drone imaging and portable apparatus showed clear differences between healthy and FD-infected grapevines, validating multispectral/ hyperspectral technology as a potential tool for the early detection of FD or other grapevine-associated diseases.

The integration of sensor systems in viticulture is significantly improving vineyard management by enabling faster, comprehensive crop data collection across the entire vineyard, supporting more informed viticultural decision-making, and as a result promoting sustainability.

The bouquet of aged wines is a complex sensory concept that is strongly associated with a balance of fresh fruit notes, complemented by empyreumatic notes, toast, mint, and truffle.

Background: Polyphenols extracted from skins and seeds showed different sensory attributes including astringency and bitterness. In previous studies, it has been demonstrated that extracts obtained either from skins or seeds interact differently with salivary proteins.

The strategy of single berry phenotyping is a recently rediscovered research tool that has gained great attention. The latest studies have indicated that previous physiological models based on pooling asynchronous populations of berries provided biased or blurred information on berry development key players. The possibility of monitoring and sampling single synchronized berries to study their development sequentially has opened new lines of research aimed at unraveling the genes that regulate grapevine fruit development. This study aimed to decipher the gene pathways responsible for the activation/deactivation of physiological processes involved in the green phase of growth, the onset of ripening, and the second growth phase.