Advantages of intercropping between vines and roses
Advantages of intercropping between vines and roses
The association between plants, whether herbaceous or arboreal or shrubby, is a rather ancient technique but also one on which future research will develop.
Many association techniques are lost in the mists of time such as those between vines and roses.
We can say that, in almost all areas with a wine-growing vocation, we find rose plants placed between the rows or, simply, at the head of the vine rows.
For non-experts it would seem an aesthetic device and, in fact, the rosacea gives the vineyards, especially during the flowering period, a notable aesthetic value.
However, aesthetics is the last of the reasons.
In fact, the presence of roses in the vineyards, especially at the beginning of the rows, is a practice used since ancient times. The rose has, in fact, a very specific function: it is a sentinel, also called a “spy plant”, capable of preventing “diseases” in the vineyard. Compared to the vineyard, rose plants show symptoms of any attacks of plant diseases and physiopathies, in the presence of parasites, as well as mineral deficiencies deriving from the soil, in advance of the vine rows (about a week before).
Therefore, when we find rose plants, established at the head of the rows, they have the task of monitoring the health of the row, favoring a rapid intervention by the winemaker in case the vine cultivation was threatened by a disease.
This practice, much more widespread in the past, was about to be abandoned because, with the development of agricultural and vine growing techniques, the function of the “sentinel” rose no longer seemed necessary.
With the advent of agroecology and the techniques associated with it, this technique is not only finding new diffusion but the presence of the same plants within the vineyards is no longer relegated to the sentinel function (therefore at the head of the rows) but in association (within the rows).
This is because the consociative effects are not limited only to the function of a spy plant but of a real accessory plant for the most optimal cultivation of the vine.
In fact, we know that roses are more sensitive than vines to many fungal diseases, such as: Oidium (white mold) and Peronospora, hence the sentinel role of this plant, but rose flowers attract entomofauna, such as pollinating insects and predatory insects of parasites (such as ladybugs, predators of aphids). This helps to create a more balanced ecosystem and reduces the need for insecticides.
Furthermore, this consociation improves plant and animal biodiversity both above and below the soil.
The presence of different species (as in this case of roses and vines) in the same area enriches the soil microbiota, improving the availability of micro and macroelements, the service of microorganisms and associated mycorrhizae and, in general, makes the environment (above and below the soil) less favorable to the uncontrolled spread of specific parasites.
Finally (and not as a secondary function) the presence of roses in the vineyards represents a symbol of care and attention for the vineyard and enters not only into a local tradition of viticulture (characterizing it) but enhances the companies both in terms of marketing them and of tourist attraction and usability of the same.
In general, therefore, the rose-vine association, if done with criteria, gives greater production and quality to the vineyard (and in the case of must grapes to wines) and embellishes the vineyard, adding tourist and cultural value, especially in wine areas that focus on agritourism and wine tourism.
Photo source: Farm Airone of Emanuele Gionfriddo family.