Lemon Groves of the Amalfi Coast: Innovate or Disappear

Lemon cultivation along the Amalfi Coast and the Sorrento Peninsula is not merely agriculture: it is landscape, history, and hard work carved into stone. It is a production system built on vertiginous slopes and terraces supported by dry-stone walls, the result of centuries of patient labor.

Since the time of the Maritime Republic of Amalfi, lemons have been a strategic crop: a source of income, but above all a vital resource for navigation, thanks to vitamin C, which protected sailors from scurvy. A true “yellow gold,” cultivated under extreme conditions using ingenious and entirely manual techniques.

“In these areas, lemon groves are south-facing,” explains Agronomist Vito Vitelli, “while the mountains behind them provide protection from the cold northern winds, to which lemon trees are highly sensitive. To defend the orchards from the salty sea winds, the pergola system was developed: wooden poles and vegetative coverings that guide the plant much like a vine.”

A fascinating model, which today is becoming increasingly fragile. In recent decades, the sector has faced a critical combination of rising costs, logistical difficulties, labor shortages, and worsening phytosanitary conditions.

The modernization of certain traditional structures has further aggravated the situation. “The introduction of dark plastic nets,” Vitelli points out, “has altered the microclimate of the pergolas: less air and light, more humidity. A ‘sandwich’ effect between netting, vegetation, and fruit that favors the development of a wide range of harmful organisms.”

The consequences are evident: an increase in mal secco (dry disease), the proliferation of harmful insects, and severe outbreaks of red spider mite. All of this occurs on small plots that are difficult to access and extremely costly to manage. Many historic lemon groves have already been abandoned.

Continuing along this path is not sustainable.

Drastic reform pruning

This is the context in which the technical proposal of Agronomist Vito Vitelli was developed, in collaboration with several local entrepreneurs: not to erase tradition, but to make it viable in the present day.

“We are initiating gradual conversion processes,” he explains, “reducing the productive role of the pergola while preserving the pole structures, which are an integral part of the landscape. The goal is to rebuild the orchard through reform pruning, transforming the trees into small free-standing forms cultivated beneath the pergola.”

This represents a shift from a horizontally spread canopy to a vertical, high-density wall structure. A form that improves light interception, increases air circulation, reduces stagnant humidity, and sharply lowers pressure from the main phytosanitary threats.

“In this way, the conditions favorable to fungi and pests are drastically reduced, while preserving the historic architecture of the pergola, which is part of the unique beauty of the Coast,” Vitelli concludes.

This is not about overturning the landscape, but about saving it by making it productive, sustainable, and technically defensible.

In a territory where every square meter is a conquest, the future of lemon groves depends on one uncomfortable but unavoidable word: adaptation.

Changing the training system does not mean betraying history.

It means allowing it to continue.

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Keywords:
#limonicoltura#CostieraAmalfitana#PenisolaSorrentina#limonetiStorici
#pergolato#malSecco#formeDiAllevamento#agricolturaSostenibile
#paesaggioAgrario#innovazioneAgronomica#AgronomoVitoVitelli

Editorial note:
Original content by Agronomist Vito Vitelli, developed and optimized with the support of artificial intelligence tools for educational, informational, and technical enhancement purposes.

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