Location: Horticultural Crops Production and Genetic Improvement Research Unit
Project Number: 2072-21000-055-019-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2020
End Date: Sep 29, 2024
Objective:
The specific objective of the ARS PI is to lead the 'plant nutrition and product quality' focus group of the overall research team that will define grapevine nutrient thresholds based on environment and production market.
Approach:
The ARS PI and cooperators from multiple Institutions across the U.S. will manipulate nutrient supply in both commercial vineyard trials and controlled experiments to optimize tissue sampling protocols and define nutrient thresholds that impact plant productivity and health status for each grape market. Vine productivity and pre- and postharvest product quality will be assessed using standard viticulture techniques to assess canopy growth and yield, and the specific quality attributes used by different grape markets. Vine and fruit quality responses will then be related to a battery of different nutrient tissue tests to determine those tests that best predict vine responses. Nutrient deficiency and sufficiency thresholds will be derived from these experiments based on those nutrient tests that result in the greatest predictive power for the vine responses deemed most important to each grape market using regression. Data from the experiments conducted by this focus group will serve also to validate the real-time nutrient sensors derived from the 'sensors and engineering' focus group and serve as the production and quality targets used by the 'precision viticulture' focus group.
