James Madison University JMU Scholarly Commons Masters Theses The Graduate School Fall 2013 Sustainable management of the main two Maltese indigenous grape varieties for winemaking Jonathan Falzon James Madison University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019 Part of the Viticulture and Oenology Commons Recommended Citation Falzon, Jonathan, "Sustainable management of the main two Maltese indigenous grape varieties for winemaking" (2013). Masters Theses. 200. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019/200 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the The Graduate School at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Sustainable management of the main two Maltese indigenous grape varieties for winemaking Jonathan Falzon A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of UNIVERSITY OF MALTA JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Science Sustainable Environmental Resources Management Integrated Science and Technology November 2013 The research work disclosed in this publication is partially funded by the Strategic Educational Pathways Scholarship (Malta). This Scholarship is part-financed by the European Union – European Social Fund (ESF) under Operational Programme II – Cohesion Policy 2007-2013, “Empowering People for More Jobs and a Better Quality Of Life”. Operational Programme II – Cohesion Policy 2007-2013 Empowering People for More Jobs and a Better Quality of Life Scholarship part-financed by the European Union European Social Fund (ESF) Co-financing rate: 85% EU Funds; 15% National Funds Investing in your future ii To my parents for all the dedication they showed throughout my life, and to all the growers of the Maltese indigenous vines for the devotion they put in their work. iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my main supervisor, Dr. Everaldo Attard, for helping me throughout this project, especially for carrying out the chlorides tests and also for the use of his statistical package software for data analysis. I would also like to thank Dr. Anthony Sacco who was my co-supervisor for this project and who also provided me his nitrate kit to use it for water analysis. Appreciation is also due to JMU committee member Prof. Maria Papadakis, who also provided essential advice for the Institutional Review Board (IRB) application. Thanks as well to Ms. Claudette Gambin and Mr. Darren Borg from the Permanent Crops Unit within the Directorate of Agriculture for the information they provided. My appreciation extends to Mr. Joseph A. Schiavone and Mr. Nicholas Vella from the Meteorological Office for providing me with the weather data requested. I would also like to thank Mr. Matthew Delicata from Emmanuel Delicata Winemaker Ltd. for providing me with harvest data for both indigenous varieties and for enhancing my interest in viticulture. Finally, my thanks go to my family and friends who provided heartening support during this work. iv Table of Contents Dedication…………………………………………………………………………….iii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………...iv List of Tables…………………………………………………………..………...….viii List of Figures………………………………………………………………………...ix Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….xi 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 General introduction .................................................................................... 1 1.2 Agriculture in Malta .................................................................................... 2 1.2.1 An overview of the Maltese agriculture industry ................................... 2 1.2.2 Irrigation .............................................................................................. 4 1.2.3 The Maltese Code of Good Agricultural Practice (CoGAP): ................. 8 1.2.4 Pesticides Use and Regulation ............................................................ 10 1.3 Viticulture in Malta ................................................................................... 13 1.3.1 History ............................................................................................... 13 1.3.2 Current situation ................................................................................. 15 1.3.3 Green Paper about the Maltese Wine Sector. ...................................... 16 1.3.4 Research ............................................................................................. 20 1.4 Articulation of the research problem .......................................................... 21 1.5 Aim and objectives .................................................................................... 23 2 Literature Review ............................................................................................ 24 2.1 Vitis vinifera, the European grapevine ....................................................... 24 2.1.1 Rootstocks .......................................................................................... 25 2.2 Vineyard practice ...................................................................................... 27 2.2.1 Vineyard establishment ...................................................................... 27 2.2.2 Training and pruning .......................................................................... 28 2.2.3 Canopy management .......................................................................... 32 2.2.4 Irrigation ............................................................................................ 33 2.2.5 Fertilization ........................................................................................ 34 2.2.6 Grapevine diseases and pests .............................................................. 38 2.2.7 Disease and pest control ..................................................................... 39 2.2.8 Tillage and weed control .................................................................... 40 2.3 Organic viticulture ..................................................................................... 42 2.4 Climate and weather .................................................................................. 43 2.4.1 Scales of climate................................................................................. 43 2.4.2 Climate change ................................................................................... 44 v 2.5 European Policies and Projects .................................................................. 47 2.5.1 The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) ............................................ 47 2.5.2 The Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) ................ 48 2.5.3 BioDiVine .......................................................................................... 48 2.5.4 ProMed .............................................................................................. 49 3 Methodology.................................................................................................... 50 3.1 Area of study ............................................................................................. 50 3.1.1 General overview of the geography of the Maltese Islands ................. 50 3.1.2 Maltese soils ....................................................................................... 52 3.1.3 Weather data ...................................................................................... 55 3.1.4 Ground water...................................................................................... 56 3.2 Interviews with local growers .................................................................... 57 3.2.1 Recruitment ........................................................................................ 57 3.2.2 The visit ............................................................................................. 58 3.3 Irrigation Water Tests ................................................................................ 60 3.3.1 Test for water conductivity ................................................................. 60 3.3.2 Test for chlorides ................................................................................ 60 3.3.3 Test for nitrate .................................................................................... 61 3.4 Data from the Permanent Crops Unit ......................................................... 62 3.5 Analysis of yield and brix .......................................................................... 63 4 Results and Analysis ........................................................................................ 65 4.1 Vineyard parcels and locations .................................................................. 65 4.2 The Weather .............................................................................................. 69 4.2.1 Temperature ....................................................................................... 69 4.2.2 Precipitation ....................................................................................... 71 4.2.3 Wind speed......................................................................................... 73 4.3 Yield and sugar levels................................................................................ 77 4.3.1 Correlation between yield and brix using harvest data ........................ 77 4.3.2