How crop nutrition affects grapevines

High grapevine yields are obtained on the most freely drained soils where water is not limiting. Vines will grow across a wide range of soil pHs, but extremes will render many nutrients unavailable and thereby restrict yield.

While smaller grapes may produce a more intensely flavoured, quality wine, the grower needs to balance this with the need for a high yield from well-sized berries on his vines.

Nitrogen and phosphorus are significant in increasing wine grape berry set and weight.

The aim of any grower is a high yielding, top quality wine grape that satisfies the wine-maker. Both yield and quality are strongly influenced by nutrition.

Strong vine canopies can lead to excessive nitrogen and potassium uptake, which increases grape and wine pH.

Growing temperature and grape variety are the major factors that influence the wine’s eventual color.

The amount of sugar in the grape influences potential alcohol content after fermentation, and the amount of residual sugar remaining in the wine.

A certain level of acidity is considered important to the taste of any wine. This can be influenced by crop nutrition

The total nitrogen content of wine grapes as well as the relative distribution of nitrogen compounds influences the production of yeast biomass and fermentation rate.

Yara's fertiliser recommendations and crop nutrition programmes for grapes can help you to achieve excellent crop performance and maximise the yield and quality of all grapevines and vineyards.

Grapes need to be free of the different disorders and rots in order to meet market requirements. The extent of these varies according to environmental conditions, varietal susceptibility and crop nutrition.

Grapes are subject to attack from a wide range of pests and diseases. Black rot, Botrytis, downy and powdery mildew are all caused by wet weather and if allowed to move from the leaf to the grape can cause considerable wine grape yield loss and quality deterioration.

Bunch stem necrosis (water berry) in grapes affects fruit set and fruit ripening. It can occur around the bloom, in which case it is called early bunch stem necrosis, at veraison or later. The occurrence of it is associated with weather conditions and crop nutrition.

Young vines with high levels of nitrate in the tissue often die or remain unproductive throughout the life of the vine. The disorder is known as ‘Merlot Disorder’. Symptoms of “Merlot disorder” are smaller leaves than usual, leaf-edge burn, poor leaf colour and the wood fails to mature. The application of molybdenum significantly reduced the level of disorder.

Fertiliser application strategies mainly include rate and time of application.

Grapevine nutrient requirements vary depending on the crop growth stage. Find out which nutrients are most important and the roles of nutrients at different grape growth stages.

Grapes are cultivated on a very wide range of soils from gravelly sands to clays that can be of high or poor fertility.

A deficiency of any single nutrient is enough to limit grape yield or affect grape quality so the availability of each nutrient needs to be related to the crop requirements.

There are a large number of factors that affect top quality grapevine production. Many are within the control of the grower, under given climatic and soil conditions.