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Weed control in vineyards is essential to allow optimal vines development. In this study, three different techniques (hoeing, chemical control, and mulching) used in vineyard’s under-row weed control were compared considering their: operative and economic aspects, energy consumptions and environmental impacts. Trials were performed in a vineyard located in Canelli (AT), Italy, characterized by 3 different gradient slopes (<5%, 10-15%, >20%). Each technique has been tested in 3 adjacent rows per each of the 3 vineyard slopes (randomized block test). Two weed control treatments were performed (at 50 days interval) during the peak vegetation growth period (from mid-April to mid-August). Major families of weeds in the test rows were described and scored (%), and weed control efficiency was measured by comparing the weeds cover area projected to the ground vs the test area. Results highlights that the use of mulching machine and the boom sprayer permits to maintain a weed coverage lower than 30% independently of slope gradient. The hoeing, characterized by low operational costs (26 € h–1) and energy requirement (550 MJ ha–1), scored acceptable working performances, but, in case of heavy rains, it can cause a runoff of the soil. The chemical weed control, also if results a valid choice in term of work quality, is not a valid solution from the environmental point of view. The mulching machine, although shows higher operating costs compared to other machines tested (30 € h–1), can be considered as the most viable alternative to chemical weed control because its working efficiency is comparable to that obtained by the sprayer. Introduction In Europe vine cultivation is very spread, especially in Mediterranean area which is the location of three major European wine producers: Italy, France and Spain (OIV, 2018). Only in Italy about 700,000 hectares are dedicates to vineyards accounting for 6.9 million of tons of grapes produced (OIV, 2018). In order to improve the quality and quantity of grapes production, vineyards require an accurate weed control. In fact, the weed incidence is considered one of the main causes of the grapes production reduction (Cirujeda et al., 2012). Generally, in vineyards it is possible to distinguish two different type of weed control: inter-row and under-row. The inter-row weed control can be carried out using conventional implements coming from the agricultural sector adapting their working width to inter-row distance. Differently, the under-row weed control must be performed using specific implements developed for this purpose able to remove weeds near the vine trees without damaging them (Tamagnone et al., 2011). Independent of inter-row or under-row weed control techniques used, the techniques adopted are dependent on morphological area characteristics or vineyard training system. To date, the widespread weed control techniques are fundamentally three: i) chemical control by use of herbicide application; ii) mechanical control trough grass shredding; or iii) soil harrowing (Balsari et al., 2006). Herbicides use, even if it is cheaper compared to other techniques, causes some problems linked to environmental contamination and human health (Narayan et al., 2017). In the last years, to reduce the pollutant process due to plant protection products application during grow cycle of the vineyards, several direct and indirect measures were proposed. Among direct measures spray drift reducing technologies were proposed as effective to reduce spray drift at source (Grella et al., 2017; MirandaFuentes et al., 2018). Considering the weed control operations, the permanent grassing, soil covered with rock fragments, soil mulching using different plastic and organic materials, were proposed as the main alternatives to the chemical weed control in order to achieve a higher environmental sustainability. In fact, the choice of better weed control technique is based on various criteria like soil erosion, area slope, soil conservation, and environmental impact, not only the efficacy in weed control . Nevertheless, in order to reduce the cultivation costs increasing at the same time crop profitability, some farmers prefer to group different agricultural activities in one operation; the growers make the soil tillage combined with the weed control because it aerates the soil with consequent agronomic benefits. The soil tillage can be made using different implements that generally are chosen considering the following parameters: soil working device, main technical characteristics (mass, power required, working width), working quality (weed control efficiency), soil main characteristics (geomorphology, type, rocks presence), and vineyard layout. A wrong implement choice may proCorrespondence: Marco Manzone, Department of Agricultural, Forest, and Food Science, University of Turin, Largo Braccini 2, 10095 Grugliasco (TO), Italy. Tel.: +39.011.6708638. E-mail: marco.manzone@unito.it

Technical solutions for under-row weed control in vineyards: Efficacy, costs and environmental aspects analysis