Bio-protection Post-doctoral fellow Marco Jacometti won a major prize in this year’s MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year Awards. Marco took out the “Adding Value to Nature” category, for his work on the use of easily-sourced and inexpensive mulch materials to battle grey mould caused by the plant pathogen, Botrytis cinerea.

Marco’s experiments examined the effect of mown grass, shredded office paper and composted grape pressings as mulches on top of prunings under grapevines, rather than leaving the ground bare. Results showed that the mulches significantly reduced the amount of grey mould, eliminating the need for spraying on the trial vineyard.

The mulches work by improving decomposition of vine debris, increasing competition between soil microbes and the fungus and increasing the strength of the grape skins; the latter makes the grapes more resistant to disease. Berry sugar concentration is also increased.

Along with crunching data and running trials, Marco also developed “Vineyard Wars”, a small, off-beat video to introduce the need for his work. Click here to view.