Effects of Mechanical Winter Pruning on Vine Performances and Management Costs in a Trebbiano Romagnolo Vineyard: A Five-Year Study

Vineyard mechanical winter pruning has been spreading worldwide, and the physiological basis ascribable to it has been consolidated throughout the years. Despite labor savings and reduction of costs having been proven, the demonstration of its economic viability might be challenging. In this context, this work aims to evaluate the vine performances and the costs of different degrees of the mechanization of winter pruning over a five-year trial (2011–2015). In a vineyard of cv. Trebbiano Romagnolo (Vitis vinifera L.) located in northern Italy, three pruning treatments were laid out as follows: (a) manual pruning (MAN); (b) mechanical pre-pruning and simultaneous manual follow-up (MP + F); (c) mechanical pruning without a manual follow-up (MP). The results showed a strong increase in the node number of MP. Nevertheless, the yield compensation factors (i.e., the shoot fruitfulness and cluster weight) limited the increase in productivity. Soluble solids did not differ between the pruning treatments, while titratable acidity resulted slightly higher only on the MP berries. The MP treatment was the most economically convenient, with a vineyard surface of 1.5 hectares, while mechanical pruning with manual finishing resulted more advantageous, compared to manual pruning when the vineyard surface was greater than 2.9 hectares. The agronomic and economic results obtained in this five-year trial suggest that mechanical pruning may be profitably applied also on grapevine varieties characterized by low basal bud fruitfulness, such as Trebbiano Romagnolo.