IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v14y2024i9p1438-d1462567.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Anti-Hail Nets in Viticulture: Do They Affect White Grape Quality in the Mediterranean Region?

Author

Listed:
  • Corrado Domanda

    (Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento, Via Provinciale Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy
    Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, Viale Italia 39, 07100 Sassari, Italy)

  • Ileana Blanco

    (Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento, Via Provinciale Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy)

  • Riccardo Buccolieri

    (Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento, Via Provinciale Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy)

  • Laura Rustioni

    (Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento, Via Provinciale Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy)

Abstract

Anti-hail nets have been employed in viticulture to reduce the damage caused by hailstorms, but whether this strategy may have detrimental effects on grape quality in the Mediterranean region is still unknown. This study was carried out in the Salento region during the 2023 harvest to evaluate the grape microclimate and fruit quality attributes of ‘Fiano’ white grapes grown uncovered or covered with either crystal or black nets. The nets had a small but significant effect on the air temperature (about 0.3 °C and 0.1 °C higher with black and crystal nets, respectively) and relative humidity (about 1% lower with both black and crystal nets) in the grape zone. However, no significant variation was recorded for grape colouration (except for the chromaticity coordinate a*) nor for the main skin photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a , chlorophyll b , carotenoids), the total polyphenolic content, and the total soluble solids. Our preliminary results suggest that anti-hail nets can be effective to protect the grapevines against hailstorms and other adverse weather conditions, without having negative impacts on the colour development and bioactive compounds of white grapes in the Mediterranean region.

Suggested Citation

  • Corrado Domanda & Ileana Blanco & Riccardo Buccolieri & Laura Rustioni, 2024. "Anti-Hail Nets in Viticulture: Do They Affect White Grape Quality in the Mediterranean Region?," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-10, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:9:p:1438-:d:1462567
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/9/1438/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/9/1438/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:9:p:1438-:d:1462567. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.