Mitigating the impact of climate change with natural foliar applications
Tuesday, May 16 - National Hall
Module run in collaboration with LALLEMAND
The keynote speakers will be:
Tommaso Frioni, Sacred Heart Catholic University
Fabrizio Battista, Lallemand Oenology
Limiting the effects of multiple summer stresses on grape and wine quality
Tommaso Frioni, Researcher, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Department of Sustainable Plant Production Sciences
Multiple summer stresses are an increasingly recurrent phenomenon in all Italian wine-growing areas. They consist in the occurrence of high temperatures and high radiative regimes, corresponding to long drought periods. The negative effects on the vine are multiple and are manifested by a reduction in the accumulation of dry matter in the various organs, widespread yellowing in the canopies, reduced berry weight and yield, as well as the appearance of bunch scald and the impairment of the biochemical balance of the grapes (Palliotti et al. 2020). To address these issues, new natural foliar applications based on the action of specific microbial derivatives such as inactivated yeasts and bacterial derivatives have been developed by Lallemand Oenology.
Two new formulations were tested: LalVigne Resiliens, 100 percent derivative of selected oenological yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), fine-tuned to protect vines from abiotic stresses throughout the plant’s growing cycle; and LalVigne ProHydro, based on selected oenological yeast derivative (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and bacterial-derived L-proline, fine-tuned to improve the plant’s response to water stress. The trial was conducted in the Colli Piacentini in a Barbera vineyard, a grape variety particularly sensitive to summer stresses.
The data collected confirmed how both formulations were able to limit the negative effects of multiple summer stresses: both allowed the maintenance of greater photosynthetic and transpirative activity than the control, while ensuring higher water potential values when the untreated vines exhibited values corresponding to medium to severe stress, thus allowing the plants to better retain and use the little water available. Comparing the two formulations, the effect on water potential was significantly better with the use of LalVigne ProHydro.
From a production point of view, there were fewer production losses in the treated plants due to both less dehydration and less scald damage. Finally, the treatments resulted in more balanced pH, total acidity, malic and sugar compositions with inevitable positive effects on wine quality.
Specific chitosan from Aspergillus niger to contain botrytis and acid rot
Fabrizio Battista – R&D LalVigne, Lallemand Oenology
Botrytis and rot are some of the main vine diseases that frequently affect compact, thin-skinned grape varieties. Once environmental conditions suitable for the proliferation of Botrytis cinerea and/or the complex of yeasts and bacteria (Acetobacter) responsible for rot occur, their spread is rapid and virulent, so intervening in a preventive manner, at the fall of the calyptra,
certainly represents the most effective control strategy.
Lallemand to control these adversities has developed a brand new chitosan, LalVigne BOTRYLESS of fungal origin (Aspergillus niger) capable of reducing the presence of these pathogenic microorganisms.
In the numerous trials conducted, this new formulation has proven to be as effective as the main chemicals used to control botrytis and vine rot. This new technical solution is totally biodegradable and health-friendly, nonallergenic and above all without any negative impact on alcoholic fermentation.
This specific chitosan acts on two levels, on the one hand its elicitory action reinforced the plant’s natural defenses on the other hand it exerts an antimicrobial inhibition action on the proliferation of pathogenic fungi and bacteria. LalVigne BOTRYLESS besides being a potent antibacterial has direct action of impairing the cell membrane of Botrytis cinerea and other pathogenic fungi.
