Bush vine cultivation in Sicily
From the vineyards of the Latin people to Daino’s: old values unite with high quality modern, organic cultivation
Bush-training was the preferred method of planting for the ancient Latin people since the arrangement of the vines in regular rows ensured that the available land was exploited in the best way and gave each plant the right amount of soil and sun. In fact, the sunlight reached all the vines equally and with the same intensity, if we exclude the fact that one plant shades another. The vines were arranged according to a regular geometric design in the form of a rhomboid (quincunx), which kept them in perfect harmony with the land.
In keeping with these longstanding vine-growing traditions, the Daino estate decided to bush-train their vines in staggered rows, where the individual plants are part of a “system” which is constituted by the vineyard as a whole and by the relationships between the vines. In addition, each vine is supported by a chestnut wood stake to which the shoots are tied with twine made from pampas grass (Cortaderia Jubata), a typical Mediterranean maquis plant known in Sicily as “liama”.
Bush vines occupy the space in a three-dimensional way, which allows the wind and the sun to circulate around them. As the old vine growers say, the bee must be able to fly around the vine.
Interdependence among the vines is dictated by the symmetry of the system in which the amount of space occupied by each individual vine is constant throughout the entire vineyard. With this cultivation technique, the vineyard behaves like a single organism: it responds to external environmental stimuli and the properties of the soil by developing self-regulatory mechanisms that control the various vegetative and productive stages of the individual vines (root activity, growth of the shoots, fruit production, final product).