Monday, November 5, 2007
52-6

Fine root distribution of Concord grape (Vitis labruscana Bailey) in furrow irrigation.

Suphasuk Pradubsuk and Joan Davenport. Washington State University, 24106 N Bunn Rd, Prosser, WA 99350

Concord grape fine root distribution was studied in 42 year-old furrow-irrigated Concord vineyard located in Prosser, WA (lat 46o15'59” N, long 119 o44'4” W. Four vines with uniform trunk diameter (4.4-5.1 cm) and height (87-99 cm) were sampled at key growth stages throughout the 2006 growing season. At each sampling time, soil cores were collected at 20, 60, 120 cm from trunk in a radial pattern. Fine root fractions were individually extracted from each soil core by root washing and weighed. The result showed that fine root distribution of Concord was strongly influenced by growth stage and soil depth but was not affected by distance and direction around the vine trunk. During the growing season, lowest and highest root densities were found at bloom and veraison, respectively. Root densities at surface soil were higher than subsurface soil at every growth stage. Root maps created by interpolating the root density data with Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW, ArcGIS 9.1, ESRI, Redlands, CA) reflected variation of root densities according to growth stage and soil depth.