What are the results achieved by the experimentation?

After three years of experimentation on small plots or even on portions of rows, we have thus arrived at specific formulations that manage to protect the plant from the two main targets of vine pathogens such as Erysiphe necator and Plasmopara viticola, as well as detecting an elicitory function towards flavonoids and terpenes. The activity plan of the ZEI project envisaged experimental fields for over 70 hectares divided between Oltrepò Pavese, Tuscany, Umbria, Lazio, Campania, Piedmont and Puglia, on native and international varieties, to evaluate the environmental and varietal response. The results were the same in all the territorial areas considered, with similar and, sometimes, better effects than controls on vineyards treated with synthetic or organic products.

At this point some of the greatest dogmas that support organic certifications can also be overturned. The definition of organic is doing agriculture without synthetic products, but then copper is used which is a heavy metal that accumulates in the soil without be disposed of, or in the liver causing serious pathologies. Imagine, therefore, the advantages of treating the vine with extracts of natural origin, without residues, without toxicological risks for operators and, moreover, qualitatively enhancing the characteristics of our grapes.

Doing agriculture without synthetic products, without environmental impact, with particular attention to the health of the operator and the consumer, without altering the precious Italian ampelographic heritage and, at the same time, improving the oenological-technological objective.

The ZEI Project goes exactly in this direction.