Trees in vineyards: Umathum's Austrian plan has no budget
A Burgenland organic grower says Austrian viticulture is in its deepest crisis and wants tens of thousands of trees among the vines. His release names no cost, and one 2026 study points the other way.
Josef Umathum, an organic grower in Frauenkirchen, Burgenland, wants tens of thousands of trees in vineyards across Austria to shade vines against heat and drought. His press release names no total, no cost and no one to pay for it.
The call went out on 5 October through the Austrian press wire OTS from Weingut Umathum. Its headline says viticulture is in its “greatest crisis”. Umathum lists longer dry spells, which he says he has watched for 20 years, alongside falling sales, new diseases and rising costs. The method he proposes is vitiforestry: agroforestry applied to a vineyard, with vines, trees and shrubs on the same plot.
He has practised it since the 1990s. According to the release, he began with single trees and now counts well over 1,000 trees and shrubs among his vines, mainly field maple and mirabelle plum. He has run the estate since 1985 and has worked biodynamically since 2005. By his own estimate, such plantings are “not even in the per-mille range” in Austrian viticulture.
A plan measured in tens of thousands of trees still needs one number: degrees.
What the plan leaves out
The release gives no national target beyond “tens of thousands”, no density per hectare, no cost per tree, no funding source and no timetable. It reports no temperature measured in his own vineyards, with or without shade. The appeal is addressed to other growers, not to a ministry. At his own density, tens of thousands of trees means a few dozen estates planted like his.
The context he cites is documented. On 10 September the Weinbauverband, the growers' association, estimated this year's crop at 1.7 million hectolitres, 28% below the 2021–2025 average and the lowest since 2010, as we reported in Austria's 2026 wine harvest, figures Trend also carried. ORF reported in August that the association had considered distilling up to 10 million litres of unsaleable red wine.
Trees in vineyards: what research shows
The evidence on shade is less settled than the release suggests. A study from Hochschule Geisenheim University, published this year in the journal OENO One, measured vines at 4, 6 and 18 metres from tree rows at three German sites in 2025. One of the species was field maple, one of the two Umathum rates highest. Vines nearest the trees were under more water stress, with a pre-dawn leaf water potential of −0.37 MPa at 4 metres against −0.14 MPa at 18, and gave lighter berries and lower yields. The authors conclude that competition for water outweighed any benefit from shade.
They also state the limits: six excavated vines, one soil type, a temperate climate. Geisenheim is not the Seewinkel, and three decades of trees in vineyards on one biodynamic estate count for something. But they remain one grower's observation, with no published figures. Before anyone orders trees by the ten thousand, the useful number would be a thermometer reading from Frauenkirchen.
