What is 'struggling vine' technique?

Question

I know it is putting the vine under stress by giving scanty irrigation. Any idea how to creat these conditions? Explain in details please.

Thank you in anticipation

Answer 1

They use a technique called partial root drying. Normal irrigation techniques can make vines too lazy to produce top quality fruit. However, this technique takes advantage of the fact that struggling vines concentrate more of their energies on fruit production. Partial root drying involves irrigating one side of the vine while letting the roots on the other side undergo a period of drought (lasting from 5-14 days). Then the irrigation is switched to the other side, and the cycle continues so that at any one time part of the root system is always under water stress. This causes the roots to send signals to the shoots (the plant hormone abscisic acid is involved) that tell them to concentrate on grape production, not growing leaves. As well as improving grape quality, this system also reduces the amount of water used by the plant. An added bonus is that there’s no loss in yield, a trade-off that normally has to be made with enhanced grape quality.

If you live in an area that gets adequate rainfall and you do not irrigate. plants can be stressed in other ways, like withholding nutrients far a time, or over pruning. This will usually result in lower yields but better grapes.

http://www.wineanorak.com/struggle.htm