New Vineyard Planting #2: Soil Pits and VR Fertilizer
This video series follows the establishment of a new research vineyard at the Cornell Lake Erie Research and Extension Laboratory. The first video shows how we used various sources to map the vineyard soil and then used MyEV to direct soil sampling for chemical analysis. This video talks about digging soil pits according to our soil map to get a better idea of soil depth and drainage and then the application of variable-rate fertilizer in preparation of planting a summer cover crop.
In our cool-climate and non-irrigated vineyards in the Northeast, key observations I am looking for:
Drainage and Potential Rooting Volume: Since most of our vineyards are dry-farmed, rooting volume and soil water holding capacity become the highest importance for vine water management. Wet soils with poor drainage limit root growth and need to be drained, if possible. In contrast, excessively well drained soils with low percent organic matter can run out of plant available water during the middle of the growing season, leading to reduced canopy growth and photosynthesis…and possible ripening issues.
Percent Organic Matter: In general, our target for New York vineyards is for 3-5% organic matter. Soil organic matter increases soil water retention and releases nitrogen and phosphorus over the course of the growing season. We estimate that the soil will release about 20 pounds of nitrogen per percent organic matter and we will use this number to calculate the amount of supplemental nitrogen needed through fertilizer. If the %OM is too low, the vineyard will struggle with both water retention and nutrient release. If the %OM is too high, the vines can become over vigorous. “In viticulture, maximum is not necessarily the optimum.”
Soil pH: New York vineyard soils can vary greatly in soil pH, which will impact effective soil cation exchange capacity and the balance of Potassium, Magnesium, and Calcium available to grapevine roots. Lake Erie vineyard soils tend to be low is soil pH, which can increase the amount of soluble Aluminum in the soil solution, which can inhibit root growth and Phosphorus availability. We target soil pH to be between 5.5 and 6.5.
