Development of the vine root system in functon of rootstocks and soil physical and chemical atributes

The root system (RS) distributon in depth depends on soil physical and chemical conditons and on the rootstocks used. In feld conditons, the evaluaton was undertaken with the scion cultvar Niágara Rosada in an eight-year-old vineyard. In a greenhouse, eight rootstocks were tested in soil columns with and without subsuperfcial liming. In feld conditons,
rootstocks 101-14 Mgt and SO4 had deeper root systems, while VR 043-43 and Isabella were the most superfcial. In soil columns, rootstocks VR 043-43, Rupestris du Lot and IAC 572 showed a longer root system at inferior layers. Rootstocks SO4 and Rupestris du Lot root growth increased in zero-to-20cm layer of soil without subsurface liming compared to limed treatment, while the other rootstocks did not respond to subsurface liming. Comparison data of the two experiments indicate that soil acidity is not an important factor restrictng root growth in the inferior layers.