Sustainable management of an intercropped Mediterranean vineyard

In the Mediterranean area, the use of cover crops in vineyards is still debated and the results of the fewscientific experiments considering the influence of cover crop on grapevine are often conflicting. Thiswork aims at providing useful indications on sustainable management for irrigated vineyards growing ina hot and dry region. A five year study was carried out in NW Sardinia, Italy, in a 8 year old vineyard cv.Carignano. To evaluate interactions between grapevine and cover crop as well as the economic impact ofintercropping, soil tillage (T1) was compared with 4 inter-row treatments: natural covering (T2), complexcommercial grass–legume mixture (T3), simple experimental grass–legume mixture (T4) and perennialgrass Dactilys glomerata cv Currie (T5).During the five years of the experiment, the mixtures have ensured a higher level of soil coveringcompared to the other treatments. Moreover, the covering and the contribution to the dry matter yieldfor every component of the mixtures changed drastically with an increased presence of D. glomerata.Compared to the soil tillage, the cover crops reduce the vigor but does not affect yield. Regarding fruitquality, only the perennial grass influenced positively the amount of total anthocyanins. The cost analysishas not evidenced strong differences among treatments or limiting factors for growers related to the useof cover crop in vineyards.