Three-year field response of drip-irrigated grapevine (Vitis vinifera L., cv. Tempranillo) to soil salinity

24 Pag., 6 Tabl., 3 Fig. The definitive version is available at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/0032-079x/We evaluated the salinity tolerance of young Tempranillo grapevines over a three year’s period, and the related effects on growth to leaf Na and Cl concentrations. Soil salinity, rootstock growth and leaf Na and Cl concentrations were measured in a drip-irrigated saline field. Salinity tolerance was determined using the slope (percent growth decline per unit increase in soil salinity) of the upper-boundary line fitted to the maximum growth-salinity observations. Based on a slope of 17.1% for the 3 years, Tempranillo was shown to be more sensitive to salinity than other reported varieties (slopes between 9.3% and 13.2%). The salinity tolerance of Tempranillo decreased along the study period. Tempranillo excluded Cl and, in particular, Na from the leaves more efficiently than other grape rootstock-scion combinations. Tempranillo was classified as moderately sensitive to salinity, and decreases in growth with increases in salinity were attributed to the osmotic effect rather than to specific ion toxicities.This study was partially supported by the European Commission (INCO-CT-2005-015031) and by an INIA (Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria, Spain) doctoral fellowship given to V. Urdanoz.Peer reviewe