The precise knowledge of the beginning and the end of the growing season is necessary for the calculation of climatic indicators with evident effect on grapevine production. The aim of this study is to develop suitable methods on the basis of thermal conditions that can be used for calculation of the beginning, the end, and the length of the growing season for every single year. The two most accurate methods ('5mid' and 'int') are selected using the root-mean-square error compared to the reference growing season values based on averaging the daily mean temperature for several decades. In case of the '5mid' method, the beginning (or the end) is the middle day of the first (or last) 5-day period with temperature not less than 10 °C. In case of the 'int' method, the beginning (or the end) of the growing season is the day after March 15 (or September 15), when the smoothed series of daily temperature using the monthly average temperatures of March and April (or September and October) exceeds 10 °C (or falls below 10 °C). As a next step, several climatic indicators (e.g., Huglin index and hydrothermal coefficient) are calculated for Hungary for three time periods (1961−1990, 2021−2050, and 2071−2100*) using the '5mid' and 'int' methods. For this purpose, the bias-corrected daily mean, minimum, and maximum temperature and daily precipitation outputs of three different regional climate models (RegCM, ALADIN, and PRECIS) are used. Extreme temperature and precipitation

Historically, grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) leaf characterisation has been a driving force in the identification of cultivars. In this study, ampelometric (foliometric) analysis was done on leaf samples collected from hand-pruned, mechanically pruned and minimally pruned 'Sauvignon blanc' and 'Syrah' vines to estimate the impact of within-vineyard variability and a change in bud load on the stability of leaf properties. The results showed that within-vineyard variability of ampelometric characteristics was high within a cultivar, irrespective of bud load. In terms of the O.I.V. coding system, zero to four class differences were observed between minimum and maximum values of each characteristic. The value of variability of each characteristic was different between the three levels of bud load and the two cultivars. With respect to bud load, the number of shoots per vine had a significant effect on the characteristics of the leaf laminae. Single leaf area and lengths of veins changed significantly for both cultivars, irrespective of treatment, while angle between veins proved to be a stable characteristic. A large number of biometric data can be recorded on a single leaf; the data measured on several leaves, however, are not necessarily unique for a specific cultivar. The leaf characteristics analysed in this study can be divided into two groups according to the response to a change in bud load, i.e. stable (angles between the veins, depths of sinuses) and variable (length of the veins, length of the petiole, single leaf area). The variable characteristics are not recommended to be used in cultivar identification, unless the pruning method/bud load is known.

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) shows morphological plasticity influenced by environmental factors such as radiation and temperature. The effect of row orientation, exposition of leaves and orchard altitude on leaf morphological traits was evaluated. Grapevine cultivar ‘Furmint’ was investigated in this study with the new version of the GRA.LE.D. raster graphic software. The standard OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine) descriptors were used with additional size parameters. High morphological variability was observed among the leaves collected from 4 different row orientations and 5 levels of expositions. Exposition levels were assigned according to the estimated total radiation collected by leaves at their position. Selected parameters also responded sensitively to changing elevation in the range of 110–289 m. According to the results, traditional leaf morphological investigations performed with machine vision systems may be recommended to reveal significant ecological factors on ampelometric traits.

The Bois noir (BN) disease induced by 'Candidatus Phytoplasma solani' (CPs) is common in European vineyards. Its damage has not been fully investigated, especially with regards to wine attributes. The impact of BN on yield, berry composition and wine characteristics of Vitis vinifera L. cv. 'Chardonnay' was therefore comprehensively characterized in a 3-year field experiment in Hungary, Eger winegrowing region. Additionally, the bindweed-related tuf-b1 genotype was identified to be involved in the BN pathosystem in the experimental vineyard. Infection of CPs tuf-b1 genotype resulted in severe yield loss, the average decrease in number of bunches and total yield per vine was 56.7% and 68.4%, respectively. Analyses of wines produced from grapes of BN infected vines revealed decreased alcohol, epicatechin and iron contents; and increased organic acids, titratable acidity, catechin and calcium contents. Sensory evaluation of these wines confirmed

Grapevine berry shape has important marketing value in the table grape commerce, hence variability evaluation of this characteristic is highly important. In this study berry shape of 5 table grape genotypes: “Fanny”, “Lidi”, “Hamburgi muskotály”, “Moldova”, and “Orsi” were compared. To evaluate the shape variability graphic reconstruction and elliptic Fourier analysis have been carried out. Shape outlines have been investigated and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has been performed with the SHAPE software package. PCA of the contours showed that 6 out of the 77 principal components were effective to describe shape attributes. The first 6 PCs explained 94.51% of the total variance. PC1 associated with the width and length of the berry. PC2 related to the shape of the top and bottom of the berries, while PC3 linked to the ratio of the top and the bottom width. ANOVA of the principal component scores revealed significant difference among the genotypes. Results suggest that morphology of the berry is a variable not only among but within the accessions. Our findings confirmed that elliptic Fourier descriptors (EFDs) would be a powerful tool for quantifying grapevine berry morphological diversity.