Soil management of a organic vineyard is a key factor to keep the soil healthy and fertile, and ensure a the grapevine good balance for the production of high quality grapes. Soil treatment is a crucial point in agriculture and, consequently, in organic wine growing. We also have to consider that some methods and trials of modern wine growing are useful for organic practices.

They mainly use these practices on new vineyards, where climate is particularly dry and soil very loose. Even in those conditions, tough, they are testing new alternative techniques in being cheaper and more compatible with organic growing, like temporary cover crops, followed by green manures, mulch, or leguminosae.

Cover crops are the most common organic method, adapted to several different aspects like soil and climate interaction, grapevine needs, containment of topsoil erosion, preserving soil fertility. Cover crops can be natural or artificial, can stay for the whole year or for a shorter time, can cover the whole area of the vineyard or just a part of it. In this case cover crops can be used in each  row, away from trunks, or in every other row.

Soil management affects the vineyard ecosystem in fundamental ways to organic growing. You have to consider the biological complexity (macro and microflora); the erosion, mainly in hill vineyards; soil physical, chemical and biological features.

As to grapevine feeding needs, there are not specific problems in organic wine growing. Grapevine, in general, is not very demanding of nutritional elements. We just want to underline that organic methods don’t interfere negatively with vineyard yielding: on the contrary, increasing soil fertility helps microbiological vitality and microelements presence. However, you always have to consider the balance between organic compound and nutrients: you need to promote the supply of pruning waste.