Ch 2 Vineyard & Growing Environment

Question 1

What are the two methods of propagation? How do you do each?

Answer 1

Both methods of propagation lead to the new plant being identical to the original.

(1) Cutting
(2) Layering

Cutting = cut shoot off the vine and plant it on the ground –> grow a vine

• cutting is used commonly in commercial nurseries that sell vines to growers

Layering = bending cane of a vine and burying it in the ground right next to it, and cane tip sticks up from the soil. Buried section takes root , once roots are established, the cane linking the new growth to the original plant is cut.

• layering takes place in the vineyard

Question 2

What are the most important vine species in modern viticulture? And what’s important about each

Answer 2

1) Vitis Vinifera (or V. vinifera)
* main Eurasian species
* produces nearly all grapes in winemaking
* been used for several thousands of years
* thousands of grape varieties (aka vine varieties) exist to this one species

2) American vines
* resistant to Phylloxera (vine pest that attacks roots)
* widely used to product rootsotcks onto which V. vinifera vines are grafted
* 3 most important species of vine native to North America
* rarely used to produce grapes for winemaking because vines have unattractive flavors

Question 3

What do grape growers care about in grape varieties

Answer 3

While wine drinkers only care about color and flavors of grape varieties, growers care about (1) color (2) flavors (3) budding time (4) ripening time and (5) resistance to diseases

Question 4

Define a “grape variety”

Answer 4

A grape variety is a group of individual plants that can all trace their lineage back through a series of cuttings and or layerings to a single plant.

divs words: they should have all propagated from a single plant (through cutting or layering).

Question 5

What are positive mutations of individual vines?

Answer 5

1) better quality fruit
2) better disease resistance

Often vines with positive mutations are selected for further propagation by cutting or layering.

Question 6

What is “clonal selection” and what has it led to?

Answer 6

Clonal selection = vines with positive mutations are propagated through cutting or layering.

It has led to development of new clones.

Question 7

What is a “clone”?

Answer 7

Clone = individual vine or group of vines that shows a particular set of unique characteristics

• the difference between clones is often small and all the individual plants that make up a clone would still be considered to be from the same grape variety
• SOME mutations have significant effect that the resulting plants are treated as IF they are new varieties even though strictly speaking they’re clones of the OG plant.
  –> examples: Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, and Meunier are all mutations of an ancient grape variety, PINOT!