Vine Nutrition

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

vine nutrition, the supply of inorganic nutrients (sometimes called mineral nutrients or nutrient elements) to the vine. Vines, like other plants, require the essential macronutrients nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, and chlorine (at concentrations greater than 1,000 ppm in their tissues), and the micronutrients manganese, iron, zinc, copper, molybdenum, and boron (at concentrations less than 1,000 ppm in their tissues). See minerals.

Among horticultural plants, the vine is regarded as having low nutrition requirements. A common recommendation for vineyards, depending on the soil and the grower’s objectives for the wine to be made, would be 0–50 kg/ha nitrogen, 0–25 kg/ha phosphorus, and 0 to 100 kg/ha potassium. These low requirements reflect the low levels of nutrients that are removed from the vineyard each year by the grape harvest. Fertilizers supplying the macronutrients (see soil nutrients) nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are normally applied in amounts giving up to 50, 25, and 100 kg/ha per year of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, respectively.