The Hungarian Innovation Hub, Living Interrow, has completed its third and fourth masterclasses with sessions on living interrow seed mixtures. In the past year the IH’s focus has expanded – they are continuing to optimise existing seed mixtures for vineyards (especially with regard to climate adaptability), but have also started developing a new seed mixture tailored for apple orchards across different regions in Hungary.
Agroecological winegrowing practices
The third masterclass took place at the Experimental Vineyard and Winery of the Eszterházy Károly Catholic University and covered agroecological winegrowing practices where researchers of the Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (ÖMKi) and the Eszterházy Károly Catholic University shared their latest results.
The presentations explored different ways to improve vineyard practices in Hungary, finding that:
- Planting cover crops between rows can have mixed effects on biodiversity but can benefit pest control and soil health.
- Choosing the right grapevine rootstock is important for dealing with water shortages, and further investigation of drought-induced stress is important for successful grape cultivation.
- Managing the amount of grapes on the vine mainly affects sugar levels, while the grape variety has a bigger impact on wine flavour.
The session ended with an open-table discussion on inter-row greening. The winegrowers supported the researchers' findings, highlighting erosion control as a key issue on sloping vineyards. Concerns were raised about soil compaction, cultivation, fertilization, and plant protection. Several farmers expressed interest in future on-farm research partnerships.
Inter-row greening of vineyards and orchards
The fourth masterclass was held at the Institute for Agricultural Research and Educational Farms of the University of Debrecen, the Research Institute of Újfehértó, Hungary, with the aim of disseminating the research results on inter-row greening of vineyards and orchards.
The presentations covered the following:
- Collaborating with farmers using the Living Lab approach creates practical, useful results.
- In orchards with existing ground cover, sowing cover crop mixes between rows might not be necessary, but some light management can still improve biodiversity.
- Some sown plants established well even after three years, despite grass regrowth.
- Looking at the importance of insects in orchards, it was found that flowering cover crops attract more beneficial insects without harming yield or crop protection.
- A simple sugar water method can help control aphids by stopping ants from protecting them.
- Inter-row greening using cover crops supports soil life and is important for long-term orchard health and a thriving ecosystem.
The session highlighted the benefits of working with farmers in research. A round-table discussion took place following the presentations where farmers shared their experiences of, and thoughts on, inter-row greening and suggested new topics for future research.
Find out more about the Living Interrow Innovation Hub.