Environment friendly nutrition supplying and soil cultivation methods applicable in the upper zone of hillside vineyards

Somló is Hungary’s smallest wine district, however one of the best producing white wines. The majority of vineyard areas are located on the slopes of Somló-hill, situated at the point where the Kisalföld meets Bakonyalja. The upper zone of hillside vineyards was traditionally cultivated by manpower, demanding serious efforts. Nonetheless invested efforts were rewarded by the highest quality, e.g. premium wines. Nowadays machine cultivation also gained ground in these areas. Cultivation by machine had unfavourable effects on the soil in more than one way. Besides ongoing research work focusing on maintaining favourable soil structure extreme weather conditions, dry summers in recent years brought about the necessity to find soil cultivation solutions and technologies able to preserve moisture in soil. In our experiments we have been observing the effects of soil coverage by organic plant debris, turfing and machine cultivation ont the soil and on vines for two vegetation periods. Furthermore we examined the possibilities of N supply in soils with shallow root zone and of unsatisfactory water management in the same area. On the whole for grape growing on such mixed soils of basaltic rubble with shallow root zone, unsatisfactory water management and low mould content it is of primary importance to preserve and maintain adequate moisture and to ensure nitrogen supply among other important nutrients which are provided by the weathering of basalt.