(Luận văn thạc sĩ) propagation and plant technique wine grape in glenavon nurseries company

In Australia, wine grapes are the most popular compared to the rest of varieties, while Adelaide Hills is one of the largest re-gions for making wine in the state, where Merlot are domin

UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL AND FORESTRY

NGUYEN THI THUY DUONG

TOPIC TITLE: BENCH-GRAFTING PROPAGATION AND PLANT TECHNIQUES OF WINEGRAPE IN GRENAVON NURSERIES PTY LTD,

101 SOUTH BREMER ROAD, LARGHORN CREEK, ADELAIDE,

SOUTH AUSTRALIA, 5255

BACHELOR THESIS

Study mode: Full-time Major: Environmental science and management Faculty: International Programs Office

Batch: 2013-2019 Type: On-the-Job Training (OJT)

Thai Nguyen - 2019

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to sincerely thank you and express my deepest gratitude to all

AEP officers who provided me the opportunity to complete this research

First and foremost, I would like to thanks and deep regards to my

supervi-sor: Pham Bang Phuong, who guided me wholeheartedly when I implemented

this research He is always willing to give suggestions on scientific problems and

personal issues He is very supportive and a good listener, encouragement,

ad-vice, and guidance in writing this thesis Under his instruction with patience, knowledge and talent, I’m able to fulfill to my thesis

I also want to express my thanks to my work big boss Mark Clegget who

ac-cept me to become his casual worker in his company and my dear work supervisor

Lai Trong Tinh who was taught me how to work and make me understanding all

about grapevine and provide me all document of this research, who spending a great

number of time and introduce and help me fill up knowledge about grapevine

I want to thank all my colleagues in Glenavon Nurseries company Mrs Dieu

Hue who introduce this job for me and thank all about their help Mrs Kim

Nhung, Mr Jerry, Mr Roger, Jeongwoo,…I was great pleasure to work with

them, and my friends from Vietnam Quynh Lam, Khanh Linh Without them I

cannot successfully complete my thesis in Australia

I want to express my sincerest appreciation to my parents, my friends and

my team for their love and support me every time

Thai Nguyen, September 2019

Nguyen Thi Thuy Duong

PART I INTRODUCTION

Grapevine is an economic plant in several countries in the world According

to International Organization of wine and vine (OIV) in 2017, the total areas of

grapevines planted in 44 different countries worldwide are around 7.5 million ha

Australia is listed in the top 15 countries with highest grape production in the

same period (Aurand, 2016) In Australia, wine grapes are the most popular

compared to the rest of varieties, while Adelaide Hills is one of the largest

re-gions for making wine in the state, where Merlot are dominant in this region In

recent years, Merlot is considered as a high quality varietal wine and widely

grown across the world The vineyard area of Merlot was 5000 ha, which

occu-pied 5.4 % of the total area of vineyard in Australia (OIV, 2017)

Asexual propagation has been prove that it could reproduce the

highest-quality plants and ensure consistency of a variety of plant or crop for sale

(Benbya, 2018) Specifically, grafting method is commonly used over the

years for grafting vines since it could bring many benefits, such as change in

variety, pest resistance, maturity and propagation, which are helpful to reduce the

cost of production and enhance the quality of vines (Richards, 2019)

Glenavon Nurseries Pty Ltd is a family business producing grapevines for

the Australian wine industry, locating on Adelaide, South Australia In this

nursery, bentch-grafting propagation method is applied to propagate high-quality

grapevine varieties before planting outside to become youngvines During the

propagation and production processes, some issues might be happened, therefore,

the grapevines are need to be cared and trained by adequate method

The objectives of this research are:

- To investigate the propagation and production method of grapevines

- To recognize grapevine-related issues and make solutions

PART II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Grapevine

2.1.1 Grapevine origin

Grapevines are a woody-climbing plant which belongs to the botanical

fam-ily Vitaceae The scientific classification of grapevine includes”

Kingdom Plantae – Plants

Subkingdom Tracheobionta – Vascular plants

Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants

Division Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants

Class Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons

Subclass Rosidae

Order Rhamnales

Family Vitaceae – Grape family

Genus Vitis L – grape P

Species Vitis vinifera L – wine grape P

The popular seedlings of grapevine such as Vitis vinifera, Vitis labrusca,

Vi-tis riparia, ViVi-tis rotundifolia, ViVi-tis arizonica, ViVi-tis californica Most of them are

used for wine production as well as making jar and grape juice

Vitis vinifera is the most popular grapevine which accounts for most of total

grapevine quantity worldwide This species is dividing into two main groups

in-cluding white grape with no-color or pale green fruits when ripping, and red

grape with red or purple ones (Ha, 2014)

Merlot (Figure 2.1) is a popular red grape which has thinner skin and milder

tennis Merlot was normally used as a varietal wine or in a blend In the past,

Merlot used to be blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux varieties

in order to enhance softness and fruit complexity, shorten aging requirements and

prevent the risk of cool, late ripening conditions in Bordeaux In recent years,

this kind of plant is considered as a high quality varietal wine and widely grown

across the world The origin of the variety is not well-known, but it has been

cul-tivated in the Bordeaux region of France since the eighteenth century The first

botanical description was obtained in 1854 by V Rendue who described it

favor-ably for blending with Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon and as a component of

the great wines of Medoc (Poling, et al., 2015)

\

Figure 2.1: Merlot grapevine

2.1.2 Grapevine structure

Figure 2.2: Grapevine structures (Hellman, 2003)

Grapevine can be grown naturally on their own root system or they could be

grafted onto a rootstock (Figure 2.2) This thesis focus on bench-grafting method,

therefore, the structure of grafted vines was demonstrated

A grafted vine consists of two general parts, the scion variety producing the

fruit and the rootstock variety providing the root system and lower part of the

trunk Graft union is the position of the trunk where the two varieties were join

by grafting and subsequently grew together This part is normally larger than

ad-jacent part of the trunk since healing of the graft union often results in the

pro-duction of abundant callus tissue which is a wound healing tissue composed of

large thin-walled cells that develop in response to injury The trunk is an

individ-ual shoot which supports the aboveground vegetative and reproductive structure

of the vine The height of the trunk varies among training systems, and the top of

the trunk is referred to as the head The height of the head is determined by

prun-ing durprun-ing the initial stages of trainprun-ing a young grapevine The trunk of a mature

vine has arms, short branches from which canes originate The shoot arising from

a bud is the primary unit of vine growth and the principal focus of many

viticul-ture practices Some regular patterns such as tendrils flower, fruit clusters and

buds arranged along the shoot in (Hellman, 2003)

2.1.3 Growth condition

Grapevine is able to grow in various kinds of weathers; however dry season

is adequate for grapevine because it encourages sugar leading to quality of grape

The suitable temperature for grapevine development is 18-300c If temperature is

higher or lower, they still impact to develop of grapevine The lack of light in

long term period could directly affect to sum carbohydrate and withered flower

or small-size grape Air humidity also plays a key role for planting grapevine

The humidity from 70 to 75% is acceptable, since extreme high humidity could

result in several kinds of diseases The annual amount of rainfall for grapevine

should be 700-850mm Grapevine can grow in a bunch of soils, however perfect

pH level for grapevine is 5.5-7.5 If PH is lower than 4.5 or higher than 8.5 they

development of grapevine (Ha, 2014)

Merlot has medium-high vigor and a trailing growth habit, however

exces-sive growth creates a dense canopy due to lateral shoot development Merlot

could adapt from cool to warm climate regions as well as well-growing on deep,

sandy loam or well-drained soils that have good moisture-holding capacity

However, grapevines might be impacted by the frost in the spring leading to bud

break, soil problems involving zinc deficiency, salinity, or cold, excessively wet

conditions It is sensitive to downy and powdery mildew, botrytis and droughts

(Poling, et al., 2015)

2.1.4 Grapevine benefits

Grapefruit might contain more vitamin A amount in comparison with an

or-ange One-half of one grapefruit contains 28% of your daily value of vitamin A

(based on a 2000-calorie daily intake), or far more than the 4% in oranges

Grapefruit is able to lower bad cholesterol level, speed up weight loss, and

re-duce blood pressure Also, wine is considered as a well-recognized grapevine

product that has many advantages for human health To be more specific, it

con-tains antioxidants, boosting the immune system, increasing bone density,

reduc-ing the risk of stroke or heart disease, lower cholesterol and it can reduce the risk

of cancer (Gardner, 2019)

2.2 Grapevine production

Grapevine is an economic plant in several countries in the world According

to International Organization of wine and vine in 2015, the total areas of

grape-vines planted in 44 different countries worldwide is around 7,5 million ha with the

figure for 10 main varieties larger than 65000 ha, such as Syrah, Cabenet

Sauvi-gon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Sauvigon Blanc, Pinot Nior, Se’millon, Pinot Gris, ling, Muscat of Alexandried Grapevine productivity is around 5-35 ton/ha/year

Ries-and it depends on location, nurturing condition or purpose of application

In 2015 the global grape area and production was 7.5 million ha (as

men-tioned above) and 75.7 million tons, while the figures for Australia was stood at

149000 ha and 1.7 million tons respectively Therefore, Australia are listed in the

top 15 countries with highest grape production in the same period (Aurand, 2016)

In Australia, wine grapes are the most popular compared to the rest of

va-rieties, which occupied around 90% of total grape products in 2014 Shiraz has

the greatest percentage of total vineyard area at 26.8 % with 40000 ha, while

Cabernet Sauvignon was 16.8% of the total area with 25000 ha The vineyard

ar-ea of Merlot was 5000 ha, which occupied 5.4 % of the total arar-ea of vineyard in

Australia (OIV, 2017)2

The grapevine type of products mainly focuses on food (fruits and raisins)

beverage (wine juices and brandy) production, corresponding to each grapevine

variety (Keller, 2015):, which are shown on the table below:

Table 2.1: Grapevine types of products Purposes Characteristic Varieties

Table grapes

Large, freshly or juicy

grapes, often seedless

Cardinal,Cinsaut, Chasselas, and

Muscat of Alexandria

Dried grapes

Predominantly seedless

grapes

Thompson Seedless, Flame

Seed-less, Black Corinth (synonym Zante

Currant), and Delight

Wine grapes

Very sweet, juicy

grapes, often low

yield-ing

Riesling, Chardonnay, Semillon,

Sauvignon blanc, Gewurztraminer,

the Pinots and Cabernets, Merlot,

Tempranillo and Nebbiolo

Brandy

White grapes producing

bland, acidic wines

Ugni blanc (synonym Trebbiano),

Colombard, and Folle blanche

2.3 Propagation and production methods of grapevines

2.3.1 Grafting propagation method

Vegetative or asexual propagation, by cuttings, grafts or layers, produces

vines that are identical with the parents in all varietal characteristics unless

muta-tion or virus infecmuta-tions intervene Grafting is process in which a new grape vine

is produced by making a cut in the rootstock and then adding scion wood that is

cut to fit inside the incision made in the rootstock (Stafne, 2013) In this method,

the canopy and most of the trunk of one vine are replaced by a cutting of another

vine which is sealed by a graft union There are two main types of grafting

relat-ing to the propagation of a grapevine, which include bench-graftrelat-ing and field

grafting (Olmstead, 2014)

2.3.2 Bench-grafting propagation method

This thesis will focus on bench-graft method, which is the most commonly

used method for grafting vines throughout the world since it is the most suited

for mass production of grafted vines Bench-grafting is a rapid graft propagation

technique that is performed by rooting the callused graft under mist for 30 days

and hence moving them to a greenhouse for 30 days The grafted vines are

re-quired to be healthy and vigorous, without disease or insects, and relatively

young (Stafne, 2013)

The bench-grafting method is followed by these steps: Preparation of stock

and scion wood, machine grafting and preparation for callusing, callusing waxing

and planting in a nursery (Goldammer, 2018)

2.3.3 Production methods of grapevines

2.3.3.1 Vineyard design

Designing a vineyard is a step laying out the vineyard in blocks that have

straight parallel rows (figure 2-3) Factors that impact on vineyard design

in-clude site capacity, the grape variety, rootstock characteristics, management

prac-tices, the topography of the site and the type of equipment applied at the

vine-yard If a vineyard design is poorly matched to the vine size, good income and

high quality fruit will be difficult and costly to achieve Some of key factors for

designing a vineyard are Partitioning the Vineyard into Blocks, Row Orientation,

Row Spacing, Vine Spacing and Vine Density (Goldammer, 2018)

Figure 2.3: Grapevine vineyard in Glenavon Nursery

2.3.3.2 Preparation for planting

This step is necessary to improve soil conditions, water handling, and

effi-cient management of vineyard It includes (1) clearing land to remove

unneces-sary vegetation, such as trees, shrubs, stumps, logs or rocks; (2) carrying out soil

analysis to allow time for correcting deficient nutrients and soil pH (3), soil

prep-aration in order to obtain highest possible returns from a vineyard, (4) weed

con-trol to prevent weed competition with vines for water and nutrients, (5) soil

drainage to drain naturally poorly drainage soil, (6) cover crop and (7) windbreak

to reduce leaf tatter, sandblast desiccation, and wind damage to growing tip

(Goldammer, 2018)

2.3.3.2 Planting

Proper planting of young grapevines is essential for the establishment of a

productive vineyard The objective of is to plan strong, healthy, well-shaped

vines that meets the training system requirements To achieve this, all initial

growth is applied to develop a strong root system and trunks Paying attention to

all vineyard practices is important to ensure adequate growth and development of

young grapevines

Planting dormant grapevines are conducted during the growing season, but

normally in early spring after the date of the last freeze weather Planting vines

early is less stressful on the vines given favorable environmental conditions, for

instance, mild temperatures, adequate soil moisture, etc (Goldammer, 2018)

2.3.3.4 Cares of young vines

Cares of young vines includes irrigation, fertilization, and grapevines

pro-tection against external factors

Good irrigation management is required for efficient and profitable use of

water for irrigating the vineyard The requirement include monitoring weather

conditions, the amount of water stored in the soil, the vines and the vineyard

de-velopment stage, the soil types , the irrigation system type, and its efficiency

There are several types of irrigate systems can be chosen, however this thesis

fo-cus on young vine with a root system occupied a small part of the soil so that a

little amount of water is necessary Therefore, a pressurized method - drip

irriga-tion is suitable Drip system is normally used to apply nutrients or add fertilizers,

which is called fertigation (Finkel 1983), as well as herbicides or pesticides

(Jen-sen 1980, page 199)

Figure 2.4: Drip irrigation system

The usage of fertilizers is to provide nutrients and prevent nutrient

deficien-cies to improve the soil quality Fertilizers could be placed into the soil or applied

directly to the vines to achieve normal growth There are various types of

fertiliz-ers available for use in vineyards, each of which are suited to different situations

and serve different purposes, for example, Nitrogen-containing fertilizer,

Phos-phorus containing fertilizer, Potassium-containing fertilizer, fertilizer for other

elements, Mixed fertilizers, Organic fertilizers, Foliar fertilizers (Coombe & Dry,

1992) Fertilization of young grapevines differs from that of mature vines in that

heavy emphasis is placed on nitrogen (Goldammer, 2018), and the requirement

of fertilizers are mentioned in Table 2.2

Young vines must be protected by using weed control, fungicide and

insec-ticide Weed control is essential to prevent weed competition which is the most

critical during the early stages of vine growth, usually the first three years after

planting, which can decrease grapevine survival and growth Pesticides contain

substances controlling pest populations and reducing damage to the crops in the

vineyard Using fungicide and insecticide is helpful to prevent pathogens and

in-sects which are harmful to grapevines development and some of them are listed

in 2.3.3

2.3.3.5 Training

Training is the process of forming a vine with the desired shape and

struc-ture The final outcome is a vine with specific dimensions, including head height

and number, position, and length of arms, canes, or cordons Proper training is

essential for producing a good yield of high-quality fruit and maintaining a

bal-ance between vegetative growth and fruiting (Goldammer, 2018)

The basic training aim are to maximize production, to facilitate cultural

op-erations in the vineyard i.e spaying, tillage, pruning, harvesting, to improve

can-opy microclimate, to reduce disease incidence and optimize the quantity and

quality of production and to support the mechanical load of the grapevine

The function of training vine is to support the vine to achieve an optimum

production that is dependent on the capacity and vigor of the vine Capacity is the

productivity of the whole vine and vigor is the growth rate of its shoots

In Glenavon Nurseries has three large block training to harvesting rootstock

therefore they keep six branch which is strongest and biggest

Table 2.2: Fertilizer requirements for pre-planting and young grapevines (Coombe & Dry, 1992)

Form Main consideration

Concentration Preplanting Youngvines

Nitrogen

Easily leached in sandy soils

May reduce soil pH when used over a number

to supply vines for many years

0.5-1.0 tonnes of phate per hecta at 15-40cm

K fixing soils

None except light sands Use mixed fertilizer to apply both N and K (8:4:8) or equivalent at 40g/vine/moth

Magnesium Adequate Mg is present in most soil

Use dolomite and incorporate into soil The rate is based on the lime requirement or soil test

None

Form Main consideration

Concentration Preplanting Youngvines

Symptoms of iron deficiency are often related

to waterlogging and soil compaction Free lime in soil induces deficiency

If waterlogging is likely stall tile drainage

in-Iron chelates is used if toms are severe

(5kg/ha) or equivalent rates

of borax or boric acid

Boron foliar sprays if needs (3g/ L borax 1.25 g/L of

Sprayboron)

fungicides can be used

2.3.4 Problems of young grafted vines growth and solution

2.3.4.1 Weed competition, wind and water

Weed competition: Removing heavy weeds that distributes nearly to the vines

may contribute to the accidental loss of a proportion of vines Some pre-emergent

herbicides recommended in the first two year (MrCarthy 1981, page 41) are

napro-pamide (Devrinol), oryzalin (Suflan), oxyflourfen (Goal) and norfluzation (Solicam)

at specified rates Trifluralin (Treflan), Fusilade or Simazine

Wind and water: The shoots and leaves can be broken and lost respectively

due to wind blow that could negatively impact on the formation of the trunk

Therefore, developing herbage as a windbreak in the row centers is essential, for

example, cereal rye (Secale cereal) can play a role as a local windbreak

Vine-guards such as plastic, sisal,coated cardboard sleeves or milk cartons need to be

applied (Coombe & Dry, 1992)

2.3.4.2 Animals

Rabbits, hares and kangaroo

Rabbits and hares normally strip the shoots off young vines so that trapping

and poisoning may be efficient, especially low electrified multiwire fencing

(1.8mm) and boundary netting is the most important for planting grafted vines to

decrease the vulnerability of the scion growth Similarly, kangaroo need to be

fenced out

2.3.4.3 Insects

Grasshoppers: Many kinds of grasshoppers, such as Phaulacridium

vitta-tum and Chortoicetes terminifera are the most common grapevine pest in the

ini-tial years Spraying a band at least 100 m wide around the vineyard and using

technical grade maldison at the rate of 0.55L per sprayed ha could be suitable

Applying a bait containing 42 mL of 50% maldison and 1 kg of dry bran, mixing

and leaving overnight under polythene before scattering by hand or super

spread-er early next morning is suitable to against hoppspread-ers that are three parts grown (1

to 1.5 cm long) (Coombe & Dry, 1992)

Pink cutworm: The larva pink cutworm namely Agrotis munda normally

feeds from the edge of vines leaves, which could be recognized by a smooth,

scalloped feeding area One larva per plant can retard growth of grapevine

Con-trol should be started as soon as possible which should be carried out before 10%

of youngvines show symptoms Pyrethroids prevent leaf feeding by pink

cut-worm when spray on the leaves, cane and soil at the base of the vine

Beetle: Adult of curculio beetle, Otiorhynchus cribricollis, feed from the

edge of vine leaves that makes a serrated feeding area This insect is night

feed-ers and maybe found during the day by scratching the surface of the soil They

tend to retard growth of vines Adults or African Black Beetle, Heteronychus

ara-tor chewing young vine bark and the vines could suffer sudden death Adults

may be found in soil at the base of vines Pyrethroids reduce damage but since

feeding maybe underground, control by spraying may be difficult

Weevil: Apple weevil prefer to appear on heavier soils than sandy soils

Monitoring and control is as for pink worm Garden weevil, Phylctinus callosus,

make feeding holes in vine leaves which appear as “shot holes” when feeding is

intense Adults occasionally feed at night, however during the day they may

shel-ter the bark of vines or at the base of vines It is good practice to avoid planting

next to infested areas and carry weevils on farm machinery or apply a weed-free

or grassy fallow in the winter as well as use Pyrethroids or sprays applied at night

to kill weevils

Bug, vine moth and fungal diseases: Nysius vinitor is the most common

cause of wilted shoot These insects migrate from neighboring pasture or vine The

application of spraying or clean cultivation is able to reduce this harzard Vine

moth sometimes causes serious defoliation in autumn so that effective solution is

carbonyl usage In the first season the young vines have little reserves and may be

strongly effected by an infection of downy mildew Control may involve

preven-tion and protecpreven-tion for example achievement through management practices, that

increase air movement and decrease wetness in vineyards, as well as applying

fun-gicides or spraying when the disease appears (Coombe & Dry, 1992)

Figure 2.5: Harmful insects and animals

Chortoicetes Phaulacridium vittatum Agrotis munda larva Heteronychus arator

Otiorhynchus cribricollis Apple weevil Green weevil Vine moth

Nysius vinitor Rabbits and hares Kangaroo

2.4 Adelaide geographical characteristics

Figure 2.6: Adelaide, Australia

South Australia is home of 18 wine region and has officially been name a

great wine capital of world grab a glass and join the celebrations Adelaide is the

wine capitial of Australia and one of the nine Great wine capitials of the world

Adelaide Hills is one of the largest regions for making wine in the state In

addi-tion, it is also considered as one of the oldest wine-growing areas in Australia

be-cause the beginning of viticulture practices occurred during the late 19th Century

and followed by a revival in 1970s and 1980s

The altitude of vineyards for growing grape in Adelaide ranges from 1312

to 2130ft (400–650m), therefore the cool climate and numerous valleys with

dif-ferent slopes and exposure to sunlight are given to this region offer an

advanta-geous condition for grape cultivation In addition, the northern part of Adelaide

facing to the west is colder than the categories for the south because of the

coastal effect The dry ripening season in Adelaide Hills with the colder

tempera-tures allows the grapes to grow gradually The long and cool growing season also

ripen red grapes in the majority of the years; in particular Cabernet Sauvignon,

Shiraz and Merlot are dominant in this region (WS, 2017)

2.5 Glenavon Nurseries Pty Ltd

Figure 2.7: Glenavon Nursery

Glenavon Nurseries Pty Ltd is a family business producing grapevines for

the Australian wine industry It is owned and operated by Mark and Annette

Cleggett in the scenic town of Langhorne Creek in South Australia Their

nurse-ry has been in business for 30 years They provide a quality service to a wide

range of customers in South Australia and the Eastern States, utilizing the best

available vine material at competitive prices They have grown field dormant

grapevine rootling and grafted vines since 1988 at Langhorne Creek The vines

are grown in virgin soils to minimize the risk of soil borne diseases Their

propa-gation material is purchased from the South Australian Vine Improvement

Committee wherever possible They incorporate traceback systems and employ

an ampelographic annually to check our material is true to type they are a VINA