No abstract

The reduction of copper-based plant-protection products with the final aim of phasing out has a high priority in European policy, as well as in organic agriculture. Our survey aims at providing an overview of the current use of these products in European organic agriculture and the need for alternatives to allow policymakers to develop strategies for a complete phasing out. Due to a lack of centralized databases on pesticide use, our survey combines expert knowledge on permitted and real copper use per crop and country, with statistics on organic area. In the 12 surveyed countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK), we calculated that approximately 3258 t copper metal per year is consumed by organic agriculture, equaling to 53% of the permitted annual dosage. This amount is split between olives (1263 t y−1, 39%), grapevine (990 t y−1, 30%), and almonds (317 t y−1, 10%), followed by other crops with much smaller annual uses (<80 t y−1). In 56% of the allowed cases (countries × crops), farmers use less than half of the allowed amount, and in 27%, they use less than a quarter. At the time being, completely abandoning copper fungicides would lead to high yield losses in many crops. To successfully reduce or avoid copper use, all preventive strategies have to be fully implemented, breeding programs need to be intensified, and several affordable alternative products need to be brought to the market.

68Several technological applications can be used in order to reduce these negative effects. 69Cluster thinning (Guidoni et al., 2002; Prajitna et al., 2007), girdling (Singh Brar et al., 2008; 70 Koshita et al., 2011) and early defoliation (Poni et al., 2006; Poni et al., 2009; Kemp et al., 2011; variety, fungal infections and yield (Jeandet et al., 1995; Bavaresco 2003; Bavaresco et al., 2007; 75 Prajitna et al., 2007). There are also some paper which are dealing with increasing resveratrol 76 concentration in grapes using elicitors (Vezzulli et al., 2007; Santamaria et al., 2011). accumulation is very fast at the Nagy-Eged-hill, leading too alcoholic, unbalanced wines. 91Besides, the desired level of phenolic maturity cannot be achieved in most of the vintages. The Three one kg samples for each treatment were collected at random from several clusters before 121 vinification. The berries were selected randomly from the upper, middle, and lower parts of the 122 bunches. All the berry samples were prepared and analyzed within 2 hours after the harvest. juices was determined at 20 °C using a hand-held refractometer (Atago MASTER-α, Japan). 137 Assesment of grape phenolic maturity 138The phenolic potential of grapes was calculated according to the method described by with their pedicel were removed from the bunch, they were laid on the plate of the analyzer and 158 then they were punctured in the lateral face (Letaief et al., 2008a). The skin break force (F sk ), 159 skin break energy (W sk ) and Young's modulus of berry skin (E sk ) were calculated from the 160 puncture test data using the software Exponent 6.1.4.0. Berry skin thickness (Sp sk ) was measured 161 using a P/2 probe with 2 mm diameter. For this measurement, approximately 0.25 cm 2 skin was 162 removed from the lateral face of the berry. The skin was carefully and gently cleaned of pulp, and 163 then placed on the platform and the test was conducted as described by other authors previously 164( Letaief et al., 2008a; Letaief et al., 2008b; Río Segade et al., 2008

Reduction of copper-based fungicides with the final aim of phasing out has a high priority in European policy as well as in organic agriculture. Our survey aims at providing an overview of the current use of copper-based plant protection products in European organic agriculture and the need for alternatives to allow policy makers to develop strategies for a complete phasing out. Due to a lack of centralized databases on pesticide use, our survey combines expert knowledge on permitted and real copper use per crop and country with statistics on organic area. In the 12 surveyed countries, covering together 83% of the European organically managed horticultural area, we calculated approximately 3258 t copper metal per year are consumed by organic agriculture, equalling to 53% of the permitted annual dosage. This amount is split between olives (1263 t y-1, 39%), grapevine (990t y-1, 30%), and almonds (317 t y-1, 10%), followed by other crops with much smaller annual uses (<80 t y-1). Potato, usually considered a highly demanding plant for copper inputs, only uses 39 t y-1 of copper per year. In 56% of the allowed cases (countries × crops), farmers use less than half of the allowed amount, and in 27% less than a quarter, with some variability between countries. Considering the large volumes of copper used annually, replacement of copper seems only feasible if all preventive strategies from the crop protection pyramid are fully implemented and several affordable alternative plant protection products are successfully brought to the market.

The role of mycorrhizal fungi has special importance in the case of low soil moisture because the colonization of vine roots by mycorrhiza increases water and nutrient uptake and thus aids the avoidance of biotic and abiotic stresses of grape. Our aim was to investigate in the Eger wine region the changes of mycorrhizal colonization, water potential, and yield quality and quantity of grape roots at three altitudes, along a changing soil moist gradient. Our results show that the degree of mycorrhizal colonization is higher in drier areas, which supports the water and nutrient uptake of the host plant.