Differencing between green cover and grape canopy is a challenge for vigour status evaluation in viticulture. This paper presents the acquisition methodology of very high-resolution images (4 cm), using a Sensefly Swinglet CAM unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and their processing to construct a 3D digital surface model (DSM) for the creation of precise digital terrain models (DTM). The DTM was obt...

Mycotoxin risk in the grape product chain is primarily due to ochratoxin A (OTA) occurrence in wine and dried vine fruits. Aspergillus carbonarius and the A. niger group are the main agents of Aspergillus bunch rot of grape, and they, especially A. carbonarius, are responsible for OTA contamination worldwide. Fumonisin B2 (FB2) represents an additional potential mycotoxin risk in the grape-wine...

Leaf removal is known to enhance light exposure of clusters and therefore may affect grape composition. Owing to the risk of decreasing grape quality or sunburn as a consequence of improper sun exposure, it is crucial to determine the optimum leaf removal techniques adequate for the particular climate conditions of a vineyard area. Defoliation experiments on vine cv. Regent were conducted in tw...

Black vine weevils, Otiorhynchus sulcatus (F.) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), are serious pests of container- and field-grown nursery crops. Management programs usually target the larval stage in container-grown plants and the adults in field-grown plants. We tested several new systemic insecticides for efficacy against black vine weevil in container-grown Sedum spp. and field-grown Taxus spp. In...

Leaf removal is a grapevine canopy management technique widely used to modify the source-sink balance and/or microclimate around berry clusters to optimize fruit composition. In general, the removal of basal leaves before flowering reduces fruit set, hence achieving looser clusters, and improves grape composition since yield is generally curtailed more than proportionally to leaf area itself. A...

The shapes of leaves are dynamic, changing over evolutionary time between species, within a single plant producing different shaped leaves at successive nodes, during the development of a single leaf as it allometrically expands, and in response to the environment. Notably, strong correlations between the dissection and size of leaves with temperature and precipitation exist in both the paleore...

A statistical analysis of functional data, obtained as reflectance values measured using a hyperspectral sensor, was used to determine water content in vine leaves. Our study was conducted using a sample of 80 vine leaves whose water content was determined by calculating the weight difference between leaves before and after drying in an oven. Two regression models, one linear and the other non-...

Application of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to disease diagnosis is limited in part by the presence of PCR inhibitors. Inhibition can be overcome and sensitivity increased by culturing bacteria on agar media prior to PCR (termed BIO-PCR). However, Xylella fastidiosa grows slowly, requiring 10–14 days for visible colonies to appear. In this study an agarabsorption BIO-PCR method for detec...

• As we know, the inflorescences that will produce any year’s grape crop start differentiating inside the buds in the previous year. There are 2 main stages of development: formation of primary branches starts in Year 1, before the vine goes dormant; secondary and tertiary branching, as well as individual flower differentiation, continues around budbreak of Year 2. Thus, the cropping potential ...