Regional Institute of Wine and Oil

IRVOS at GiESCO

The 18th International Symposium GiESCO 2013 took place from 7 to 11 July 2013 in Porto, Portugal. It is one of the most important scientific events at an international level, held every two years, on vine physiology and viticultural modelling. Researchers and experts from all over the world discussed various topics (ecophysiology, water relations, mountain and warm region viticulture, vine management systems, new technologies in viticulture, sustainable viticulture, etc.), taking stock of the situation on the new knowledge made by the different research groups.

As part of the congress, the “Viticultural and Oenological Research” unit of the IRVO presented a work entitled “FIRST EVALUATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF LEAF REMOVAL ON THE VEGETATIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF GRAPEVINE CV. NERO D'AVOLA (Vitis vinifera L.) GROWN UNDER SEMI-ARID CONDITIONS”. The study, conducted in 2012 in collaboration with the University of Palermo in an experimental vineyard in western Sicily on the Nero D'Avola variety, had the aim of evaluating the effects of the changes in the relationships between the vegetative and reproductive parts, resulting from the application of the practice of defoliation after fruit setting, with particular attention to the dynamics of herbaceous growth of the bunches and to the technological, phenolic and aromatic quality of the grapes in the ripening phase. The study also made it possible to evaluate the effects of leaf removal on the source-sink relationships and in particular on the changes induced by the application of this cultivation technique on the growth dynamics of the shoots and on the growth dynamics of the leaf surface. It emerged that the leaf removal carried out after fruit setting in the bunch area modifies the vegetative activity of the plants and the growth dynamics of the shoots. The effects of this cultural intervention are manifested on productivity through a reduction in the average weight of the berry and on the technological quality of the grapes with changes in the sugar and acid contents, in the phenolic maturity with increases in the polyphenol content, at least in the first stages of ripening of the grapes , and of the anthocyanin fraction.