Viticulture
Cover crops and vineyard biodiversity
What grows between the rows, and why it is no longer considered a weed problem.
Overview
Cover crops — grasses, legumes, flowering plants — reduce erosion, improve soil structure, host beneficial insects and compete with the vine for water in a controlled way.
That competition is often the point. A vine competing mildly for water puts less energy into foliage and more into fruit.
Practice has shifted substantially from bare, herbicide-treated soil towards managed cover, on both agronomic and environmental grounds.
Sources
Sources consulted
- INRAE — French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment — INRAE
- UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology — University of California, Davis
More in the vineyard
Viticulture
Climate and wine style
The largest single influence on what a wine tastes like — larger than grape, producer or winemaking, and the reason the same variety is unrecognisable in two places.
Viticulture
Climate change and wine
Warming is already reshaping where wine is grown and what it tastes like.
Viticulture
Harvest and picking decisions
When to pick — the single most consequential decision a producer makes each year.