The effect of ornamental ground covers on the growth and fruiting of containerized Seyval blanc grapevines.

摘要

Container grown, own-rooted Seyval blanc grapevines (Vitis spp.) trained to a single shoot with one cluster were grown with seven different ground covers and a control of no ground cover. The ground covers were also grown without grapevines. The ground covers had no effect on total dry weight of the grapevine and no effect on the dry weight of the shoots, petioles and roots. Grapevine total leaf area was only diminished significantly by English pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium). There was no effect by the ground covers on the cluster characteristics or the pH, titratable acidity and soluble solids levels of the juice. At the end of the growing season, mazus (Mazus japonicus var. albus) and English pennyroyal had produced twice the dry weight of creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum var. minus) and veronica (Veronica prostratum [V. prostrata]), with companion grass (75% ryegrass [Lolium spp.] + 25% red fescue [Festuca rubra]), strawberry clover (Trifolium fragiferum), and Kentucky-31 tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) being intermediate. At destructive harvest, strawberry clover and Kentucky-31 had over 40% of their total root biomass located in the bottom half of their pots; companion grass and veronica between 21 and 23%; and English pennyroyal, mazus and creeping thyme grew less than 15% of their roots in the bottom half of their respective pots. Mazus and English pennyroyal gave the earliest complete coverage of the soil surface, while companion grass, creeping thyme and Kentucky-31 never reached complete coverage in the 14 weeks of the experiment. Strawberry clover had the highest amount of above-ground growth removed during the growing season, followed by English pennyroyal, Kentucky-31 and companion grass. Much less above ground growth was removed from mazus and veronica, and none was removed from creeping thyme. The competition from the grapevine resulted in a 20% reduction in the growth of the ground cover, and this effect was seen across all ground covers.