Lauren Picone,* Charlotte Decock, and Cristina Lazcano
*Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, 1802 14th St., Los Osos, CA, 93402 
(laurenmpicone@gmail.com)

Vineyards are often developed on slopes or marginal lands, which results in soils that are particularly susceptible to erosion and degradation. To mitigate these impacts, regenerative management methods—including the use of cover crops, no-till, compost application, and livestock integration— can be used to improve soil health and increase soil organic matter. These practices can improve crop productivity and quality, water infiltration, nutrient availability, and carbon sequestration within soils. Because building soil health is a slow process, there is little knowledge regarding the effects of long-term use of regenerative management practices on vineyard soil health.
To improve soil health and create more resilient agricultural systems, this project aims to assess the effects of long-term management practices on vineyard soil health across an edaphoclimatic gradient in California. Soils were collected from 87 different vineyard blocks across CA, specifically targeting vineyard blocks where one or several regenerative practices have been adopted for five or more years. Following recommendations from the Soil Health Institute, all samples were analyzed for a minimum suite of soil health indicators, which included soil organic carbon concentration, carbon mineralization potential, and aggregate stability. For each vineyard block, growers completed a qualitative survey on the management history and the performance of the vineyard, including yield, crop quality, water, nutrient, and pest management. Our preliminary results show that finer-textured soils had more total soil carbon concentrations than coarse-textured soils in the vine and alley row.  Total soil carbon concentrations in the vine and alley rows increased significantly with the number of years livestock integration had been adopted. Additionally, the years of livestock integration and adoption of no-till increased aggregate stability indices within the vine row. Texture class and location were more important in predicting total carbon and aggregate stability indices than the duration of practice adoption.

Funding Support: Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research, and CDFA