Carbon and nitrogen mineralization in a vineyard soil amended with grape marc vermicompost

Abstract

Vineyard soils in many areas suffer from low organic matter contents, which can be the cause of negative effects such as increasing the risk of erosion, so the use of organic amendments must be considered a good agricultural practice. Even more, if grape marc is recycled as a soil amendment in the vineyards, benefits from a good waste management strategy are also obtained. In the present study, a grape marc from the wine region of Valdeorras (north-west Spain) was used for the production of vermicompost, and this added to a vineyard soil of the same area in a laboratory study. Mixtures of soil and grape marc vermicompost (2 and 4%, dry weight) were incubated for ten weeks at 25°C and the mineralization of C and N studied. The respiration data were fitted to a first-order kinetic model. The rates of grape marc vermicompost which should be added to the vineyard soil in order to maintain the initial levels of organic matter were estimated from the laboratory data, and found to be 1.7 t ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ of bulk vermicompost (if the present mean temperature is considered) and 2.1 t ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ of bulk vermicompost (if a 2°C increment in temperature is considered), amounts which could be obtained recycling the grape marc produced in the exploitation.