Physiological response of Vitis vinifera cv. Malbec, Bonarda, and Tempranillo to contrasting soils of Altamira, Mendoza

Abstract

The study site was on the alluvial zone of the Tunuyán river, Mendoza, a geomorphology with incidence in soil attributes. The aim of this work was to assess the effect of soil variability on the physiology of three grapevine cultivars. Shallow soils (SS, 0.3 m depth) with a stone proportion greater than 85% and deep soils (DS, 2 m depth) with a sandy matrix, were evaluated for their incidence in the physiology of Malbec, Bonarda, and Tempranillo cultivars placed on a Familia Zuccardi vineyard. Homogeneous soil sectors were identified by electromagnetic conductivity, soil depth, trunk diameter, number of shoots, and NDVI. For each soil type, 6 replicates (128 plants each) were considered. Plants were on their own roots, pruned by Guyot system, had the same genetic provenance, and water regime. Plants were evaluated for shoot water potential (ψ_stem) at midday, leaf temperature at midday, vegetative vigor and fruit yield during 2016-2017 season. The interaction “cultivar x soil” was significant in variables “production per plant” and “number of clusters per plant”, showing Bonarda the higher values in SS. Moreover, there was significant responses in trunk and shoot diameter and length of internodes considering the soil type, with the highest values in DS for all varieties, probably due to the greater water supply in the profile. Significant differences were found in the Malbec variety for ψ_stem, leaf temperature, relative chlorophyll content and number of berries per bunches according to the soil type. The results suggest that Malbec is the cultivar with the highest phenotypic plasticity.