Green manure effects on inorganic nitrogen dynamics in soil and its accumulation in grape must

Abstract

The adoption of green manure practices in organic agriculture is increasingly spreading. This work aims to prove whether winter green manure—when compared to a traditional mineral fertilizer— alters the dynamics of inorganic nitrogen (NO 3 − and NH 4 + ) availability in soil and the yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN) in grape musts. During a two-year period, the soil nitrogen content was influenced by climatic trend and, especially, by rainfall. In fact, rainy periods reduced inorganic nitrogen availability in the soil. In both years, the green manure plot presented higher soil content of inorganic nitrogen at fruit-set, while different dynamics were shown over the following phenological phases. The must YAN concentration did not differ among treatments over the two-year experiment.