Abstract
Sustainable management of mineral nutrition in vineyards, as well as in other fruit plantations, should aim at exploiting the use of internal sources of nutrients, in order to reduce the need for external nutrient inputs. In this paper we explore the potential of the grassed alleys to provide nutrients to the vines. We followed for one vegetative season the decomposition of ryegrass and clover, frequently present as floor vegetation in vineyards, using litter bags filled with 15N-enriched grass material. In addition, we quantified the amount of nitrogen (N) transferred from the decomposing litter to field-grown grapevines. Ryegrass and clover had a relatively rapid decomposition rate, with a loss of C approaching 80% in only 16 weeks. The release of nutrients was particularly fast for potassium (95% in 16 weeks) followed by nitrogen (80%), calcium (70–80%), phosphorous (65–85%), magnesium (70–75%), and sulfur (60–70%). In spite of the rapid release of N from decomposing material, the N uptake by grapevines was on average less than 4% of the initial amount of N present in the litter of ryegrass and clover. Even if N release during the decomposition of mowed perennial ryegrass and white clover little contributed to the N nutrition of grapevine in the same growing season, most N from mowed grassed was still recovered in the soil.
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Acknowledgments
To CAPES Foundation (Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education) (BEX 2139/06-5) for the scholarship of doctorate “sandwich” for the first author. The authors are in debt with Prof. Cesare Intrieri and Dr. Ilaria Filippetti for their support and for having hosted this study in the experimental fields managed by the Viticulture section of the Department of Fruit and Woody Plant Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy.
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Brunetto, G., Ventura, M., Scandellari, F. et al. Nutrient release during the decomposition of mowed perennial ryegrass and white clover and its contribution to nitrogen nutrition of grapevine. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 90, 299–308 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-011-9430-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-011-9430-8