Project co-financed by the European Union through intervention 7161 of the CAP Strategic Plan (PEPAC) 2023-2027.

The vineyards of Penedès are in a situation of vulnerability to climate change. In fact, due to the drought of recent years, the state of the vines is delicate with vigor problems associated with plant stress largely due to lack of water and high summer temperatures. This has implications for harvests and can even affect the quality of the grapes.

In order to adapt vineyards to droughts and torrential rain episodes that are expected in the context of climate change, the use of woody plant materials can be a strategy for regenerating soils depleted in organic matter and improving their physical and biological state. We know that mulching has several advantages in various aspects of management including improving water availability, protecting the soil against erosion or reducing competition from weed plants. Recently, there is also talk that maintaining mulches in combination with no-till also brings benefits in relation to soil fertility.

Now this initiative aims to extract this crushed plant matter from the forest, resulting from forest management to avoid or reduce the intensity of forest fires, in order to apply it to the cultivation of the vineyard with the intention of giving life to these agricultural soils, fertilizing them and retaining soil moisture to face the challenge of drought. On the other hand, in addition to the woody plant remains (RVLL) from forests, mostly from Scots pine forests, RVLL from other common broadleaf species in the gardens of the towns of the region is also available. The main objective is to adapt the methodology for regenerating vineyard soils from the use of various local woody materials to the conditions for producing quality grapes in the Penedès.