Viticulture
Over three years, trials on multiple commercial vineyards in New Zealand’s North Island were conducted to verify initial findings on a vineyard in Gisborne, showing fruit bunches were fuller and heavier and vines appeared healthier and greener before and after harvest.
Method
Sites chosen with merlot and chardonnay blocks were selected for the trial. All vines grown within a bay constituted a trial plot. Five bays were selected at random from each vineyard, permanently marked, with treatments applied by knapsack sprayer in the same plot each year.
Normal commercial applications of pesticides and artificial fertilisers were still being applied during trial, yet the results were recorded despite the difficulty of building up beneficial soil microbes under this regime.
Treatments
AgriSea Foliar Nutrition at 1/200 dilution first applied when shoots emerging, then at 3 weekly intervals to harvest. AgriSea Soil Nutrition at 5L/ha Spring and Autumn applied.
Results
All trials showed an increase in the bunch weight of the fruit.
There was an average increase of 11.1% in all four trials, with a range of between 4.4% and 17.8%.
