Vine Nutrition & Soils
Just as you would never medicate your children without knowing whether or not they actually have an infection,you need to be able to diagnose nutrient deficiencies in your vineyards. How to do it? Soil and petiole testing can provide a clear picture of what is going on in your vineyard. The soil tests will determine what nutrients are available to be taken up by the vines' roots, and the petiole tests will show whether or not the roots are actually absorbing those nutrients. Once you have the soil tests, you have one sideof the story, and petiole tests will give you the other side of the vine nutrient story. A soil test can indicate that the soil pH, K, Mg, and N levels are all adequate, but if the vines are still puny, something else might be at work. This is where a petiole test comes in handy.