The 4th version of the 2019 Future Farming Centre Bulletin is now available, and can be found here. The latest report by Charles Merfield focuses on sustainable vineyard floor management, which is described as the key space where sustainability issues in perennial cropping are all intertwined.
The booklet addresses the opportunities for a sustainable vineyard floor to:
- Replacing herbicide strips / bare undervine soil for weed management / crop competition with a living mulch of growing plants;
- Replace synthetic nitrogen fertilisers through legumes;
- Improve soil health and minimise erosion
- Sequester atmospheric carbon;
- Increase biodiversity and;
- Conservation biocontrol of vineyard pests & diseases.
“…many of the sustainability issues facing viticulture, and, indeed all perennial crops, e.g., pipfruit, stone fruit, nuts, vines, bush / cane fruit, come together in a nexus around management of the vineyard / orchard floor as all the issues are all interlinked / intertwined and meet on the vineyard floor. ” (Merfield, 2019).
The Future Farming Centre Bulletin is a free extension newsletter sent out quarterly, see past issues or find out more here and subscribe here.
Referenced
Merfield, C. N. (2019). Vineyard floor management: A sustainability nexus with a focus on undervine weeding. Report number 04-2019. The BHU Future Farming Centre, Lincoln, New Zealand. 51.
http://www.bhu.org.nz/future-farming-centre/ffc/information/bulletin/2018-v4/vineyard-floor-management-a-sustainability-nexus-2019-merfield-ffc.pdf