Th.--doct.-ing.--Toulouse 3, 1978. N°: 611.

Syrah is an important wine grape in California but is potentially difficult to manage in the vineyard due to its excessive vigor. Vigorous grapevines require more labor for canopy management and tend to create excess shade, decreasing fruit quality. Winter pruning level, shoot thinning and leaf removal influence the overall density of the canopy and the subsequent degree of shade in the fruit zone. An experiment was conducted to assess the effects of two pruning levels with three degrees of labor-intensive canopy management techniques on berry maturation rate and harvest berry parameters for two growing seasons. In 2008, repeated measures analysis showed no significant effects of severe pruning, shoot thinning or both sides leaf removal on maturation rate of performance indicators. At harvest 2008, severe pruning caused a decrease in yield/meter trellis and Ravaz index. In 2009, repeated measures analysis showed significant effects of severe pruning increasing brix, pH and sugar to acid ratio while shoot thinning and both sides leaf removal had no significant effects on maturation rate of performance indicators. At harvest 2009, severe pruning increased brix, pH, tannin, anthocyanins, phenolics, color density, potassium, amino acid % of yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN), and the following ratios: sugar/acid, amino acid/ammonium, tannin/anthocyanins and malic/tartaric acid. Additionally, severe pruning decreased tartaric acid, yield/meter trellis, ammonium % of YAN and Ravaz index. The findings presented in this thesis suggest that severe pruning could be used as a tool in viticultural areas with short growing seasons because of the increased ripening speed observed. However, because severe pruning generally increases berry size which is negative for vinification, it should be studied further with irrigation and management practices that decrease berry size.

Regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) is a common and useful practice for water conservation and improving grape quality. To attain better grape characteristics and wine quality, a substantial degree of irrigation stress is intentionally allowed to occur during the first part of berry formation and can continue until later into veraison. Understanding the effects of deficit irrigation on photosynthetic rates could be helpful in determining at what degree and duration a grower should perform this irrigation practice. The focus of this study was to determine the effects of using differing degrees of RDI in a vineyard located in Paso Robles, California (central coast region) on gas exchange of the Syrah variety. The target irrigation levels were set for each season at 75, 60, 45, and 30% ETc of a fully irrigated vine (100% ET). The 60% replication was considered as the control for this study, as it is the standard target ET rate for the vineyard where this study was conducted. A gas analyzer (LICOR 6200) was used to measure the overall rate of photosynthesis during two successive growing seasons (2004 & 2005). Measurements were taken from bloom through harvest and were compared among the four different irrigation levels. Along with overall photosynthetic rate, the leaf temperature, stomatal conductance, light level, and relative humidity were also measured. The results of the two year study were statistically compared through an analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analyzed for their significance. The results of the study showed that minor differences in the mean photosynthetic rates were found to occur during brief periods of the growing season. These differences ranged from 1-4 weeks and did not occur at similar times of the growing season. However, no statistical significant differences were found to exist when compared among the four irrigation levels for the entire growing season. Observed differences in canopy sizes indicated that irrigation amounts had affected the overall growth to some degree during this two year study. Several plant physiological measurements showed a significant difference in the measured gas exchange rates between sun exposed leaves and the shade leaves within the treatment area. A significant correlation of the effect of leaf temperature on stomatal conductance was observed to exist in one of the irrigation treatments (45% ET) during this study. Other plant physiological measurements indicated that highly significant differences existed between the photosynthesis rate and leaf temperature. Photosynthetic rates were highly significantly correlated to leaf conductance, air temperature, and relative humidity. A significant difference of photosynthetic rates was identified to occur between stomatal conductance and air temperature. This study concludes that differential irrigation amounts on Syrah in the Central Coast region, specifically Paso Robles, have minimal effect on overall photosynthetic rate and does not fully support the anisohydric stomatal reaction that has recently been studied by plant physiologists working with this variety.