Analysis and modelling of the growth of grapevines affected by downy and powdery mildew

Plant activities, involving physiological processes such as photosynthesis, respiration, stomatal conductance, are strongly affected by pathogen infections, and specific experiments can be set up to investigate single effects. However, the crop responses to pathogen activity can be globally evaluated only analysing growth and development of plants. On this basis, the aims of this work were to analyse under field conditions growth of healthy and diseased grapevines in order to evaluate differences in the rate of organ appearance, dry matter accumulation, leaf area expansion, and to simulate crop responses to fungus infection coupling growth and disease models.