High culture (viticulture)
The high culture is a vine education system that replaced the stick culture in Austria after the Second World War . It is also called Lenz Moser Education ; in Germany one speaks instead of the Lenz-Moser culture .
Vine education
In the high culture according to Lenz Moser approx. 3,000 vines per hectare are planted instead of the 10,000 vines per hectare in the older Austrian stock culture. This gives the vine three to four square meters and a trunk height of 1.2 to 1.4 meters. The line width is about three meters ("wide space education"), which means that the vines receive more sunlight and, as a result, achieve a higher level of photosynthesis . The larger row width between the rows allows the use of normal tractors . Since the advent of narrow-track tractors in the 1970s, the line width has been reduced to 1.60 to 2.20, which is also referred to as normal education. Greening the ground is possible with larger row spacings and a higher grape zone. In addition, better ventilation is achieved. The further away the grape zone is arranged, the less labor-intensive the care will be. The grapes ripen later and that is an important argument against cultivation areas in the north. Today, due to climate change, the delay in ripening is no longer as important as it used to be. The distance from the ground of the grapes is a considerable advantage in areas with higher rainfall. All fungal diseases that require moisture for infection, and especially downy mildew , botrytis and black rot , occur less frequently. A higher arrangement of the grape zone (80–130 cm and higher) has a greater influence on the acidity than on the sugar content.
history
The dense, labor-intensive cultivation method of stick culture was no longer profitable for several reasons after the Second World War. In particular, the labor shortage in the course of advancing industrialization tied more and more people into a permanent work process, so that the winemakers no longer had seasonal workers available. Furthermore, the work in viticulture was intensified by increased pest infestation by around 20 percent and wine prices fell in the 1950s. So the high culture was able to establish itself as a cultivation method. This was tested by Lenz Moser in his parents' business in Rohrendorf near Krems an der Donau between 1925 and 1928. In 1929 Lorenz (Lenz) Moser (1905–1978) founded the Lenz Moser nursery and subsequently propagated this cultivation method throughout Austria .
literature
- Jutta Fiegl: The development of viticulture and the Heurigen business in Neustift am Walde. Dissertation, Vienna 1983.
- Karl Bauer, Ferdinand Regner , Barbara Schildberger: Viticulture. 9th edition, avBuch im Cadmos Verlag, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-7040-2284-4 .
