Deep Placement of Compost into Vineyard Soil Affecting Physical Properties of Soils, Yield and Quality of Grapes

Abstract

In recent years, research has focused on verifying various ways of dosing organic matter into the soil in Central European conditions. The main reason for this is to search for the optimal management methods for soils with permanent vegetation. In this article, we state and evaluate the results of experiments carried out at the Lednice experimental site (Sauvignon Blanc variety) and the Velké Bílovice experimental site (Pinot Gris variety) between 2018 and 2020. The experiments evaluated the deep placement of compost and compost enriched with lignohumax at a rate of 30 t·ha−1 in the areas around vineyard tree trunks on the basic physical properties of the soil and the yield and quality of grapes. Results proved the positive effect of compost heaps and compost combined with the applied lignohumax on improving soil density (2–10% difference compared with the unfertilized reference variant) and porosity, which ultimately resulted in improved soil moisture conditions at both experimental sites (8–25% difference compared with the unfertilized reference variant). At the same time, the results demonstrated the positive effect of the applied compost and the chosen method of application on the yield and quality of grapes. In the case of Sauvignon Blanc, the increase in yield in the fertilized variants was 12–34%, while, in the case of Pinot Gris, it ranged from 24 to 33%. Among qualitative indicators, the grapes of both varieties were evaluated for sugar content, total acidity, pH, and amount of yeast assimilable nitrogen. In this case, results were not unambiguous in favor of fertilized variants; however, in most cases, fertilization had a positive effect.