<p style="text-align: justify;">A method for producing fruiting cuttings of grapevine cv. Cabernet Sauvignon is described. The main developmental features of these cuttings are presented. The clusters reach maturity after 5 months and the period of cluster development is not shortened. Before flowering, a careful control of stem and leaf growth improves the partitioning of stored carbon towards the roots and the cluster. Vegetative growth occurs mainly between fruit set and veraison. During ripening, the leaf to fruit ratio is between 20 and 30 cm<sup>2</sup> of leaf area per gram of fruit. In the cuttings as well as in grapevines from the vineyard, free polyamine content in the leafblade does not change during development. Conjugate polyamine content does not evolve in the same way. It peaks at veraison for vineyard leaves but decreases continuously for cuttings. A proper nutrient solution provides a minerai composition in accordance with viticultural requirements. The cuttings also behave like vineyard plants in response to different levels of potassium in the nutrient solution.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Five indicators of vine nitrogen status were compared for their accuracy to differentiate two levels of nitrogen fertilization (0 and 45 kg N / ha) : petiole total nitrogen content, leaf blade color intensity measured by a device called “N-tester”, grape juice total nitrogen content, grape juice assimilable nitrogen content and grape juice ammonium content. Differences in must total nitrogen content and must assimilable nitrogen content were highly significant between fertilization levels. They can be considered as two powerful tools to assess vine nitrogen status. Levels of must total nitrogen content and must assimilable nitrogen content were highly correlated.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Mineralizing must in order to measure its total nitrogen content is difficult, mainly because of the presence of large amounts of sugar. This operation can take more than 12 hours and it can fail because of caramelization and the appearance of foam. We propose mineralizing must by means of microwave. Complete mineralization was obtained in only one hour. No foam or caramelization was observed on any of the samples mineralized.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Vine nitrogen uptake is likely to vary to a considerable extend with soil parameters, even if no nitrogen fertilization is applied. Figuring among those parameters are: soil organic matter content, organic matter C/N ratio and soil organic matter turnover. The latter depends mainly on soil temperature, soil aeration, soil pH and soil moisture content. Differences in vine nitrogen status depending on the soil type were clearly evidenced by measuring must total nitrogen and must assimilable nitrogen at ripeness. Limited nitrogen uptake, as a result of particular soil conditions, can limit vine vigor and be a quality enhancing factor in red grape production. This emphasizes the role of moderate environmental stress in the production of high quality potential grapes.</p>
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.