Wine Grapes
Acadian Plant Health™ (APH™) seaweed extract improves yield and quality of wine grapes by enhancing root growth and berry set and improving cluster architecture. Treated vines also display better stress tolerance due to increased levels of protective compounds. Not only do these improvements enhance yield, but they also improve wine quality.
BENEFITS FOR WINE GRAPES INCLUDE:
- Improved root growth and plant establishment
- Longer, looser bunches
- More berries
- Enhanced abiotic stress resistance
- Improved wine colour and quality attributes
SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN, FIELD-TESTED SOLUTIONS
ROOT GROWTH
WINE GRAPE TRIAL ‘MERLOT’
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
Applying APH™ seaweed extract enhances root growth, particularly during periods of natural root flush. Increased root growth leads to better plant establishment and increased ability to uptake water and nutrients, in both newly planted and established vines.
Increases in root growth were evident on these own-rooted ‘Merlot’ grape vines. The roots of both vines were pruned to the same length prior to planting. After four weeks, the treated plant (right) had a much larger increase in root mass than the Control vine (left).
RACHIS LENGTH
SUMMARY OF TRIALS
VARIOUS LOCATIONS
Applying APH™ seaweed extract to wine grapes has been shown to increase rachis length, leading to improved airflow within the bunch. Looser bunches improve pesticide penetration and mitigate disease. In addition, increased rachis length gives the berries more room to expand and reduces number of berries that break due to compaction.
Applications of APH™ seaweed extract resulted in an average 8.3% increase in rachis length (as measured from top to bottom of rachis). Additional increases were observed when we used a more advanced technology (e.g. pedicel) to measure all the components of the rachis.
BERRY SET
SUMMARY OF TRIALS
VARIOUS LOCATIONS
Applying APH™ seaweed extract can also increase berry set. This benefit can be particularly important when vines grow under poor environmental conditions during bloom, or in low-set varieties. If an increase in set is not desired, applications timings of APH™ seaweed extract can be tailored to minimize this effect.
Berry set was evaluated in 38 filed trials. Vines treated with APH™ seaweed extract showed an increased berry set by an average of 9.4%. This indicates a potential to produce more berries that are small, and so have a better skin-to-pulp ratio.
STRESS RESISTANCE
WINE GRAPE TRIAL ‘CABERNET SAUVIGNON’
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
APH™ seaweed extract has a significant impact on stress resistance within plants, resulting in improved yield and quality even under stressful environmental conditions.
During drought, plants treated with APH™ seaweed extract had higher water status (less negative leaf water potential) and were better able to grow through the stress. This difference is physiologically significant to the plant.
During drought stress, vines treated with an APH™ seaweed extract also had higher levels of chlorophyll, as measured with an Apogee chlorophyll concentration meter. More chlorophyll results in greater productivity of sugars and phenolic compounds in the plant.
JUICE QUALITY
WINE GRAPE TRIAL ‘SANGIOVESE’
CENTRAL ITALY
In addition to simply reducing stress, vines treated with APH™ seaweed extract showed increased levels of phenolic compounds in the plants’ tissues. These compounds are antioxidants that protect vines from stress and improve wine quality.
APH™ seaweed extract applications increased anthocyanins and phenolics in the skins of Sangiovese red wine grapes at harvest. This is indicative of improved juice quality for wine making.
WINE GRAPE TRIAL ‘PINOT NOIR’
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
Treating Pinot Noir grapes with APH™ seaweed extract resulted in wines that had greater levels of anthocyanins, tannins and phenolics than wine from Control grapes. In this trial, the anthocyanins increased 17%, tannins increased 34% and phenolics increased 15%.
In addition, wine colour was improved with a lower hue value (indicative of a redder, less brown wine), and a greater colour intensity.