Explore every episode of the podcast Sustainable Winegrowing
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
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| 242: How to Talk SIP With Your Wine Club | Marketing Tip Monday | 26 Aug 2024 | 00:02:15 | |
[00:00:00] Beth Vukmanic: For your wine club members. Is there anything more exciting than delivery day? Unboxing the latest assortment, stir sweet memories of their last visit to the winery and welcomes them to once again, connect with your community. [00:00:13] Welcome to marketing tip Monday with sip certified. We know customers are looking for wines labeled as sustainable. While, our longer form episodes help you learn about the latest science and research for the wine industry. These twice monthly micro podcasts will help you share your dedication to sustainable. Winegrowing. [00:00:32] Your wine club newsletter prepares your customer for the delights ahead, but does it invite them to relish in the social and environmental virtues of their loyalty? [00:00:42] Next time you send out a newsletter, include a sustainability tidbit. So your brands enthusiasts know that they're sipping sustainably. [00:00:50] You can start by including a brief description of the sustainable practices at your property. For SIP certified brands, we talk about the seven values. Which includes social responsibility, wiper management, safe, pest management. Energy efficiency, habitat business, and always evolving. [00:01:08] A great way to help your customers really see what you're doing to be sustainable is to share your sustainable story. [00:01:15] You can talk about attracting barn owls and releasing beneficial insects to help manage pests naturally. [00:01:22] You can share pictures of the native plants in your cover crop and explain how they benefit pollinators and help improve soil health. [00:01:28] Or you could talk about how you treat winery, process water. So that it can be reused to irrigate the landscape or the vineyard. [00:01:36] Your customers will love learning how your brand conserves and protects natural resources. Tell Your Sustainable Story[00:01:42] If you need more ideas, make sure you check out our newly updated course. We spent over 40 hours writing new sustainable stories, refining our training module and recording and editing video content to bring you an updated online course. [00:01:58] The simple yet powerful free tool will help you tell your own personal sustainable message. Go to the show notes, click on the title. Tell your sustainable story to sign up and start writing yours today. Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team. Resources: Vineyard Team Programs: | |||
| 241: The Biochar Handbook – How to Make it and Use it in Your Vineyard | 15 Aug 2024 | 00:29:40 | |
For thousands of years, wildfires have produced a byproduct known to improve soil and plant health - biochar. Today, researchers like Kelpie Wilson of Wilson Biochar Associates, Consulting and Manufacturing are learning how to use this form of charcoal for carbon sequestration. Kelpie explains the different stages of combustion, what types of material to include in your burn pile, incorporating biochar into compost, how to use biochar to amend alkaline or acetic soils, and an easy way to remove vineyard wires from your pile. Resources:
Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. Transcript[00:00:00] Beth Vukmanic: For thousands of years, wildfires have produced a by-product known to improve soil and plant health. This is known as bio char. Welcome to sustainable. Winegrowing with the vineyard team where we bring you the latest in science and research for the wine industry. I'm Beth organic executive director. And since 1994 vineyard team has brought you the latest science-based practices, experts, growers, and wine industry tools through both in-field and online education, so that you can grow your business. Please raise a glass with us as we cheers to 30 years. In today's podcast Craig Macmillan, critical resource manager at Niner wine estates with long time SIP certified vineyard and the first ever SIP certified winery. He speaks with Kelpie Wilson of Wilson, biochar associates consulting in manufacturing. Kelpie explains the different stages of combustion. What types of material to include in your burn pile? Incorporating bio char into compost. How to use bio char to amend alkaline or acidic soils and an easy way to remove vineyard wires from your pile. If you love this topic, then you won't want to miss Josiah Hunt's presentation. Practical applications of pyrogenic, organic material, AKA biochar in vineyards. He shares his expertise at the sustainable ag expo taking place November 12th or 13th, 2024 in San Luis Obispo, California. joy, the perfect blend of in-person and online learning. Speak directly with national experts. Earn over 20 hours of continuing education and explore sustainable ag vendors. As a listener to this show, you can take $50 off of your ticket when you use code podcast 24 at checkout. Get yours today@sustainableagexpo.org. Now let's listen in. [00:02:00] Craig Macmillan: Our guest, today is Kelpie Wilson. She's the owner of Wilson Biochar Associates, consulting and manufacturing. And as you may have guessed today, we're going to talk about biochar. Welcome to the podcast, Kelpie. [00:02:08] Kelpie Wilson: Thanks. Thanks for having me. [00:02:11] Craig Macmillan: What exactly is biochar? [00:02:13] Kelpie Wilson: Biochar is just charcoal, but it's special charcoal that, uh, you can use in soil or for purposes of carbon sequestration. That's the official definition from the International Biochar Initiative. [00:02:27] Craig Macmillan: And what does biochar do for us in the vineyard? [00:02:30] Kelpie Wilson: Well, it sequesters carbon, so it's a very stable form of carbon. Uh, Carbon comes in a lot of different forms. I mean, we're all made of carbon, and, you know, carbon can be a diamond, which is really stable, or it can be in a sugar, which, uh, you um, oxidized into CO2 pretty quickly. So uh, in is very, in a very stable form um, it's called aromatic carbon, so it's fused carbon rings. which are the basis of all organic chemistry. biochar is. It's carbon. The thing about biochar and charcoal is that charcoal can have, you know, widely ranging different properties depending on how you make it and what it's made from. And I should add also that uh, in the definition of biochar, For use in soil or for use in carbon sequestration, it needs to be made from organic you know, that is clean. So there are some environmental kind of limits around it that ensure that it's, it's really contributing to the carbon cycle in a positive way and that we're not making Materials that have, you know, toxics in them that could hurt soil. [00:03:41] Craig Macmillan: So we're introducing carbon in a fairly stable people have told me that the carbon that you put into the soil in the form of biochar could be there for thousands of years, but it's obviously available somehow, or it's involved in the soil microbiome somehow, or it's involved in nutrient cycling somehow. What are some of the properties that contribute to that soil health component, [00:04:00] Kelpie Wilson: Well, There's there's quite a few. The interesting thing about biochar is that it's naturally present in soils in many, many parts of the world because of fire, from vegetation fires, forest fires, it's it's supposed to be there in many cases. Uh, Especially here in the, in the in the west coast where we uh, natural fire regime in the forest. And if you look at the most productive soils in the world, for instance, the mollisols in Iowa or the um, in the Eurasian steppe, they have large amounts of biochar Um, In the case of the steppes and the plains, that's because of prairie fires. So you have these tall, tall grasses that would periodically burn off very regularly, like every 10 years or so, and the top would burn off in a flame, and that heat would radiate you know, kind of just above the root zone, the grasses are bunched up really thick, and some air is excluded, so they wouldn't burn all the way to ash, but the heat would turn it to char, the flame would move on, and you'd be left with char, and so this char builds up over years and centuries, and, you know, hundreds of centuries to make this a very black soil and then there are other places around the world historically going back thousands of years where it was deliberately to add to soil. So those are the terra preta soils in the Amazon naturally normally didn't have a lot of fires. And look, also can look at charcoal middens around ancient villages and even city states where people would dump their manure and their, you know, their hue manure, their night soil, and they would always deodorize it with charcoal and ash, and you find very fertile black soils in those places. So, it's not a new thing um, but we just kind of recently rediscovered So, as far as what it does in soil, you know, it doesn't break down. Like, you know, you asked, well, then how does it feed the It it sets the table. So It's the stable carbon with these fused carbon rings. It doesn't break down easily. And we'll also have the mineral ash. from the vegetation that burned. And so that's food. And then it also needs the carbs and the protein. So, and that comes from all the fertilizer that you add to it. So it basically sets the table for soil life because microbes like to sit down when they eat. And so you have all these little surfaces. In the charcoal, it's very, very porous. You know, think of activated carbon. People know that activated carbon is used for filtration. It's got all these pores. And so, in that way, it's kind of like a sponge. It can hold air and soil, which is beneficial. But also, there's the surface area. So, each of those tiny pores has a surface around it. And when you add up all the surface area, and this is kind of mind boggling, It's But you take a teaspoon of, of or, you know, that's got a lot of surface area or an activated carbon and it can have a football field's worth of surface area all inside It's, you know, it's, it's, it's amazing to think about, but all those surfaces are where the microbes can sit down and attach themselves. And if we, if we have added fertilizer as well, there are nutrients and water. Attached to those surfaces by electrostatic attraction. So the microbes just can hang out there and, and it's all there for them. So that's how biochar promotes um, the soil food web by, uh, promoting the microbes. And then the their mycelia in there to, you know, get it's a foundation of good soil. [00:07:42] Craig Macmillan: And you were talking about the fertilizer part. Is that one of the reasons why it's a good idea or a common practice to mix biochar with compost and spread it in that form? [00:07:50] Kelpie Wilson: Yes, but I would not just mix it with compost if I have any choice at all. I would put it in the beginning of the composting That's where you're going to get the most benefit know, it just takes time for all these things to come And so If you start it from the beginning, not only do you get the nutrients and the biology in there right you're um, having um, beneficial impact on your composting So, You'll have fewer greenhouse gas uh, the compost will get hotter quicker uh, and you know, the char will absorb any kind of nasty stuff that's in there, reduce odors, etc. it's really, The thing about biochar and to make it really work for you in a, in a farm um, is to get every, Benefit you can out of it. And there's a whole cascade of benefits that come with biochar. [00:08:40] Craig Macmillan: we can talk about that some more, but let's get to some practical things. Let's say I'm interested in this. I've been hearing about it. I'm excited about it. I want to try this out. How can I make some high quality biochar with the least amount of emissions and the highest biochar production on my farm? [00:08:57] Kelpie Wilson: Great So I've been working on this for quite a while. When I first heard about biochar, it was, I think, 2007, and it was the terra preta soils that we were all hearing about. I immediately got involved in it. I went to work for the International Biochar you know, was in close touch with people all around the world. that we're trying to find ways to start making and using biochar, and a lot of the first people to actually do it were people who uh, you know, making little cook stoves or just making biochar in burn piles, and I saw that myself because I live in the woods here in Oregon, and I'd go out to where they did burn piles to, you know, We had a lot of extra vegetation that had to be thinned to protect from wildfire. And I'd go to these burn piles and I'd find little chunks of charcoal left in them. And so we started making, doing experiments to see if we could optimize that. And we figured out make, take a burn pile and light it from the top. So it burned from the top down, and that would burn up a lot of the smoke so it was cleaner, and also leave us with a little pile of glowing coals at the end. And anybody who's made a campfire has seen this. You have that pile of glowing coals, and if you just walk away and leave it, it'll all go to ash. But if you just simply put it out with water, hey, you've got biochar. So that's the way to start, and you can can do it in your a, with a kettle grill. You know, just a little container that will improve the biochar recovery because if you cut off the air that comes in from and the sides of your you, you will just burn less of it to And again, you just put it out with water. So then I started making containers to improve the efficiency. compared to making biochar in an open burn pile, if you put it in a container, You can make three or four times as much so, I've been working with little containers ever those, We call those flame cap kilns. Because the idea of how they work is you put your, make your burn pile in a container. It's cutting off air from the bottom and the sides. So all the air comes from the And as it burns down, you keep adding more. And every time you add more material, it flames up. And the char that you've already formed on the bottom is protected from air by the container. And it's protected from air from the top because all the air that comes in is used in the flame of the currently burning material. And so what you've already made is, is protected from oxygen. So you can build up a huge pile of char in a container, and you're only limited by the size of your container, really. [00:11:34] Craig Macmillan: So the practice is put your feedstock in a container something that cuts off the bottom the sides from the air Light it from the top with kindling or something I would assume something lighter weight and then as that process goes and you can see the material come back Well, is it truly combustion if there's not a lot of oxygen? [00:11:51] Kelpie Wilson: Well, uh, I call it combustus interruptus. So basically it is combustion, but combustion happens in stages. Okay. myths combustion. One is um, wood wood burns, wood does not burn. Wood gas burns in a And you can see this if you look at your charcoal grill, you see, there's not a flame. Because the gas has already been mostly, you know, burned out of it. And so it just glows. So there's different stages of combustion. The first one is dehydration. When you heat a stick of um, water's going to come off of it, because water doesn't burn. And then the gases come out, and those are, methane, carbon burnable, burnable gases, and those make the flame. And then when the flame goes out, you know, you just, that glowing coal stage. So it's, it's really staged combustion, and you're just interrupting and saving the char. [00:12:49] Craig Macmillan: If I understand you correctly by putting more material on the top I'm continuing that process. The stuff on this top is heating up. You're getting that, flame cap. So you described it. And I can just keep layering on until my container's full. Basically. [00:13:04] Kelpie Wilson: Yep, that's how we do [00:13:06] Craig Macmillan: I want to come back to the kiln idea, but first, what are the, what are good feedstocks to make biochar from? What are feedstocks that are not good for making biochar? Right. Right. Uh [00:13:19] Kelpie Wilson: Good feedstocks are dry. You don't want a lot of wet stuff, because you use a lot of energy burning the wet. , Good feedstocks are also appropriately sized. So grapevines, for instance, are good because they're not really big. Even the trunk of a vine is not really big. And so if you try to put a big log in your container on your fire, you use so much energy to get the heat into the center of the log. So it's a progressive thing, right? You're charring the outside, and the heat's moving in, it's charring and charring and charring. But meanwhile, the outside of your char is starting to burn to ash. So it's not very efficient to try and char a big log. The kind of limit depends a lot on the fuel moisture. In Utah, we're We have really dry wood. People are putting six and eight inch diameter logs in a kiln and doing fine. In Oregon, I kind of keep it to four inches, usually. But you know, we could do bigger stuff. It's just not quite as efficient. So dry less than 25 percent moisture is ideal. We can do wetter stuff, and we often do because we're here in the middle of winter trying to get burn piles taken care of. So we go ahead and do it, and there's some techniques for optimizing how you do that, how you load it. But dry, less than 25%. and not too big, but also not too small. I've really tried hard to biochar hemp stalks, for instance, which are abundant around here, and they're just a little too small. if they're dry, they do pretty well, but you have to really make sure you don't pack them in too tightly because, small, small things like straw, and crop waste like that, they will pack and cut off the airflow and you'll get smoke. [00:15:07] Craig Macmillan: Oh, okay. [00:15:08] Kelpie Wilson: That's the main issue is you get smoke. And then as far as what species, the main difference between different species of wood, for instance, is density. And because we're making biochar in a flame, we're making it at a very high temperature. So it's, as long as we're not smoldering it, As long as we have the flame present, we know we're making it at a high enough temperature to burn out most of the volatiles. Know, some species like eucalyptus or walnut might have chemicals in them that are allelopathic, I think is the term. And if you add a lot of that to soil, you could have problems. But as long as we're making it at high temperature, we burn most of that out. [00:15:50] Craig Macmillan: Got it. So we want things that are dry. We want things that are woody, that are relatively high in concentration. Things like grasses are probably not going to work as well or work terribly well. It sounds like you want chunks basically, you know, something about the size of your forearm or a little bit bigger chunk would be a really great, size. [00:16:09] Kelpie Wilson: that's a great way to look at it. I like the physical measurements. You know, I was telling woofers here the other day about how to, make biochar compost. And so we're doing it in layers. And I just said, think about Parmesan cheese. When you add the biochar, if you really like Parmesan on your pizza, just add the biochar like that. So those kinds of physical measurements are really helpful for people when they're learning how to use biochar. [00:16:33] Craig Macmillan: and returning to that topic you recommend putting biochar in your composting windrows at the beginning as part of the whole process. [00:16:41] Kelpie Wilson: Yes. The very beginning when I think about a vineyard, especially one where you're actually making the wine know, you're pressing the grapes and you have the is it called pomace? I think the grape skins that's easily degradable stuff. It's hard to, compost just on its own because it doesn't have much carbon, but if you add biochar to that, you can make a beautiful compost. And then great for reducing on farm inputs. contributing to the circular economy. And that's always how I recommend people use biochar if possible, is find whatever other organic waste streams are there, whether it's grass clippings, grape pomace, leaves, anything else, manure that you might have, mix it right in there. [00:17:27] Craig Macmillan: Makes tons of sense. Okay. Let's get down to the nitty gritty here. We've touched on kilns as a way of getting the highest production. Tell me about the Ring of Fire Kiln system the concept in general. And then what might, what might be a biochar production day like? [00:17:42] Kelpie Wilson: The Ring of Fire kiln is my latest, greatest design. Just bin kilns, but they were heavy. So They were, weighing a lot, and you had to, move them around, and very hard for one person. So I came up with this modular design of panels. And so you can hook them together. They're four feet long and 40 inches tall, and they have a bracket that hooks them all together, and you can make a kiln any size you want. with that. I mean, not too big, but usually we make kilns that are between six feet and 12 feet in diameter. And so that can accommodate the piles you already have, for instance. And then the other innovation with that kiln is it has a heat shield. And that's really important for two reasons. One is it holds more heat in the kiln so you get more production. It's more efficient. But the other one is that it protects the worker. Because when you are around a giant , flaming pile, you know, you can really get fried just from the radiant heat. You know, you're not burning up, but you, the radiant heat, I would come away from some of my sessions with very red skin and very dehydrated. And so we really think a lot about the workers who are doing this. Because it's mostly hand labor, although we can also load the bigger kilns with, machinery. that's the Ring of Fire Kiln. It's also very, very clean, and there's a gap between the heat shield and the inner ring that allows, um, air to come through, and then so you have preheated air that's going in from the top into the kiln. And that also helps a lot with, uh, Reducing the smoke. And I have lots of pictures and videos showing the smoke being sucked into the kiln from the top. It's really cool to see these loops of smoke kind of coming up and then being sucked back down into the kiln. Those are the advantages of the ring of fire kiln in addition to the fact that it's modular. One person can take it apart and move it one panel at a time. The panels only weigh less than 40 pounds and set it up somewhere else. That's, that's the other advantage of the ring of fire kiln. So a typical workday, and I'm going to quote some numbers from my colleague Eric Meyer, who has Napa char, and he's done some incredible work in vineyards in the last couple years. Here's what he says He can make up to 12 cubic yards of biochar per kiln per day, which is two bone dry tons. And that is equivalent to two to three acres of pulled mines. he'll do this usually with one helper. Sometimes he'll have a, a mini excavator that he uses to load it, but a lot of times he's just doing it, you know, as hand labor. And so that's a ;lot of biochar, two tons of biochar in one day. He'll start by arriving at the site, setting up his kiln, and then just hand loading the biochar initially, fill it full, light it on top. There's a little break where you let it burn down till you start seeing glowing coals at the bottom and, some ash on the top. And then you just load it one layer at a time. And the loading rate is really critical. If you overload, you get smoke and you'll end up maybe even with unburned pieces in the bottom because the flame moves up in the kiln as you add more material and the bottom starts cooling off. You don't want to leave any big pieces at the bottom. We load small pieces initially. And if you have bigger pieces, you would load them kind of toward the end or in the middle. And then when it's all full of biochar, or you're just done for the day because you're tired, you get some water out and you spray the kiln down with water just to cool it. Then you open up the panels, and rake it out, and you spray it with water and rake it at the same time. So you end up with a big, big patch of biochar on the ground. [00:21:29] Craig Macmillan: Perfect. Then you take that to your composting spot and away you go. . [00:21:32] Kelpie Wilson: another piece about making biochar from vineyards, especially vineyard removals, is that a lot of times there's wire, trellis wire, in it. And you could have a big pile and you could build a kiln around the pile because you're not untangling that pile, right, with all the wire in it. And then at the end, uh, you know, you pick the wire out of the char. You can use a magnet. [00:21:52] Craig Macmillan: That's cool. What are some things that we should be concerned about not doing? If we are newbies to biochar production. [00:22:00] Kelpie Wilson: Yeah, that's a really good question too. So, you need to know a little bit about your biochar. If you have a lot of ash in it, it can be alkaline. So if you have an alkaline soil, and you have alkaline biochar, you need to think about how you're going to apply it and maybe, usually composting will take care of any pH issue. If you have an acidic soil, you might want to just add it directly. You know, take the most advantage you can get of that liming ability. You also don't want to add too much at one time, especially without composting it first, because it can, , lock up nutrients for a short time. Most likely you're not gonna have too much biochar for a, for a big field. Um, It's great to be able to do it a little bit every year. That's the best way to incorporate it. [00:22:47] Craig Macmillan: Oh, and that's another question. I've seen different strategies here. Some folks believe that it has to be incorporated into the soil. Other folks say, no, that's good, but you can go ahead and spread it at the surface and you'll still get some benefits. Is that true? [00:22:58] Kelpie Wilson: Well, it's going to depend a lot on what you're trying to grow. So the vineyard trials that I've seen using biochar, a lot of times they're putting it in at planting and they're putting it in deep in the root zone. That seems like a good idea to me. One thing I'll say is when I look at the literature, I read a lot of the biochar research literature. There's some really interesting new material out about replant disease. So if you're replanting in a vineyard, you know, in an old vineyard, new vines. The soil can harbor pathogens that the older vines were able to resist, but the new vines have a hard time with. And biochar has a lot of benefits for disease resistance, just because it promotes a lot of microbial diversity, so you don't get the dominance with some of the pathogenic fungi and other organisms. So, you know, adding it, deep You know, when you're doing the replanting, replacing a vineyard is probably the most beneficial way, to add biochar. But if you already have a vineyard and you're using cover cropping, for instance, it'll go really well with a legume cover crop like clover and you don't even need to compost it because clover and legumes fix their own nitrogen and And biochar is especially wonderful with legume crops because it promotes the nitrogen fixing bacteria. If I just had a couple bags of biochar and I wanted to use it right away, and I was, planting a cover crop, I'd just use it in the cover crop. I think vines are like any other plant, where they have roots that come up close to the surface, they can get benefit from surface applied biochar as well. [00:24:39] Craig Macmillan: So if I'm following this idea, so from a cover cropping standpoint, what am I going to do is broadcast it and then plant my cover crop. That'd be one way of building the health of the whole floor, which is a really good idea. What about banding? It's very popular to band compost right into the vine row. If I have compost that's got biochar in it, will I get those benefits as well? [00:24:59] Kelpie Wilson: I would totally think so. The other thing about biochar is that it holds water. So, you know, in, droughty areas that would be helpful to, [00:25:08] Craig Macmillan: If there was one thing, just one piece of advice that you had for folks, Who are interested in starting to produce biochar and use biochar. Let's talk about it one for production and one thing for use. What would that be? What would that two part advice be? [00:25:25] Kelpie Wilson: first of all, uh, get one of my ring of fire biochar kilns. It's a, you know, it's really economic. And second of all, buy my book, the biochar handbook, because I have all kinds of information in there about composting, you know, different ways to culture biochar, build soil. Well, you know, so sorry to be so nakedly promotional there, but [00:25:50] Craig Macmillan: Well, you know, you're directing, you're directing people towards resources, [00:25:53] Kelpie Wilson: right. [00:25:53] Craig Macmillan: Anything else? [00:25:54] Kelpie Wilson: Oh, well, I'll send you some other resources, too, that you don't have to buy the book. Check out the U. S. Biotar Initiative website. There's a Biotar Learning Center there and USBI has collected a lot of resources there. fact sheets, their seminars, webinars. There is a lot of biochar information out there. And I will say I've watched a few YouTube videos that are just. Make me cringe it is so easy to experiment with it yourself, which is great. It's really great that people experiment with it. And I think, feel free, you know, do your own experiments. , there's some not so great information out there that, you might want to just do your own work and look at the more authoritative sources like that the USBI before you take what a YouTuber says as, as gospel about biochar. So I guess my one advice really on both, topics of production and application is just jump in and try it. It's so easy. You know, make it, make a bonfire in your backyard or, any kind of little container. You could dig a little shallow pit in the ground and, just make some biochar, then you've got some. Now do some, greenhouse trials. You know, see how it interacts with your soil because every soil is different. And so, check the pH, add it to, you know, your soil, and, grow a seedling. it's very easy to do some experiments. I actually have, in my book, a whole procedure for how to do a, scientifically valid experiment. Uh, Pot trial in the greenhouse, so you can really, step by step, you can really look and see how it compares with other amendments, try it in your compost pile, use a compost thermometer, it's not straightforward how to use it in compost, because again, compost like soil, it's going to have a lot of different kinds of ingredients, biochar does really interesting things, in compost, so. Just try it. [00:27:46] Craig Macmillan: Just try it. Like that's great advice. Our guest today has been Kelpie Wilson. She's the owner of Wilson Biochar Associates Consulting and Manufacturing. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. This has been some really great practical, actionable information, which is what we like to bring our listeners. As Kelpie mentioned, we're going to have a lot of links to things and resources and whatnot on the show notes. So be sure to travel to that page. I'm finding that this is a growing topic of interest, but I'm finding that there's more and more folks that are trying it, and we're all very excited for what the potential might be. [00:28:17] Beth Vukmanic: Thank you for listening. Today's podcast was brought to you by San agro. WestBridge is now San aggro. When the opportunity came to expand their reach and improve their customer's bottom line, they took it. San Agros commitment to deliver science-based solutions for sustainable crop health and nutrition remains the same. They offer a full line of plant nutrients, bio pesticides, and specialty inputs. Visit San agro.com to learn more. Make sure you check out the show notes for links to Kelpie her new book, the bio char handbook, a practical guide to making and using bioactivated charcoal loads, more links to bio char plus sustainable Winegrowing podcast episodes. 56 conservation burning and bio char. 1 0 6, what? Barry charcoal and the vineyard. 1 67. Used bio char to combat climate change and two 15 bio char production on a commercial scale. If you'd liked the show, do us a big favor by sharing it with a friend. Subscribing and leaving us a review. You can find all of the podcasts on vineyard team.org/podcast. And you can reach us@podcastatvineyardteam.org. Until next time, this is sustainable. Winegrowing with the vineyard team. Nearly perfect transcription by Descript | |||
| 232: Data-Driven Irrigation | Bien Nacido Vineyard's Sustainable Story | Marketing Tip Monday | 10 Jun 2024 | 00:03:14 | |
“Food disconnect” is a term used to describe the average consumer’s lack of knowledge about where their food comes from and how it’s made. When it comes to wine, most consumers only see the finished product in the grocery store or tasting room! Welcome to Marketing Tip Monday with SIP Certified. We know customers are looking for wines labeled as sustainable. While our longer-form episodes help you learn about the latest science and research for the wine industry, these twice-monthly micro podcasts will help you share your dedication to sustainable winegrowing so you can show your customers that you share their values. While everyday agricultural practices may feel ordinary to you, these topics are fascinating to the average consumer, who likely has little to no insight into the block to bottle process behind their glass of wine. Describing specific practices and why they are important helps customers understand the time and care that went into producing their wine. Sharing your unique story welcomes them to take part in the good feelings that come from supporting a business that is doing better for the people and the planet. People care about social and environmental issues, and want to support brands that share their values and do something about it. This week’s Marketing Tip tells the inspiring Sustainable Story of how Bien Nacido Vineyards’ irrigation team demonstrates diligent Water Management through the use of technology and a growth mindset. Data-Driven IrrigationWater is a valuable resource for all forms of life. But it is limited and must be used responsibly. Bien Nacido Vineyards’ team of experienced irrigators, led by Miguel Asuncion, take several steps to ensure efficient water use. To avoid system malfunction and uneven hydration, vineyard stewards must constantly maintain their systems. Bien Nacido’s team performs multiple line flushes each year to keep them clear of dirt and debris, and routinely tests distribution uniformity to ensure consistent hydration across their diverse terrains and elevations. Vines aren’t heavy water users, and Mother Nature provides a portion of what they do need. Bien Nacido’s irrigators track rainfall, weather data, and soil moisture levels, and estimate evapotranspiration. With this data, they tailor their irrigation schedule based on the land’s needs. When their data shows their vines need water, the team of irrigators waits until the sun is down. They irrigate during dark hours because without the sun’s heat, the vines and soil can more efficiently absorb and utilize what is applied. But they believe opportunities for enhancement never end. Bien Nacido partners with experts to help identify even more areas for improvement. They have created a plan to advance their soil and sap flow monitoring technologies, and seek further optimization opportunities with regular analyses of their irrigation system’s design, filtration, and pressure regulation. Tell Your Sustainable StoryWe are here to help you tell your customers how your brand protects natural and human resources with the Sustainable Story program. This simple yet powerful free tool helps you tell your own personal sustainable message. And it just got better with a new online course. Go to the show notes, click the link titled Tell Your Sustainable Story to sign up, and start writing yours today! Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team. Resources: Vineyard Team Programs: | |||
| 143: Can Barrier Sprays Protect Against Smoke Taint in Wine? | 04 Aug 2022 | 00:39:26 | |
“When smoke impact in the vineyard is great enough to impact the fruit and causes inferior wine, then we start calling it smoke taint.” explains Anita Oberholster, Professor Cooperative Extension Enology in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of California, Davis. During a wildfire event, the lignin in vegetation is broken down, releasing volatile phenols. While there are naturally occurring phenols in grapes, this release causes an excess which can impact the final product. Some tainted wines smell like camp fire, smoky, BBQ, and even bacon. New research shows there is an aftertaste, an aroma you perceive in the back of your throat, that creates that ash tray character. Fruity aromas natural to some varieties can mask smoky aromas quite well. While green aromas like green pepper bring out the undesirable smoky traits. Some varieties may stand up to smoke taint better than others but there has not been a definitive research project on this yet due to the complexity of the testing process. Barrier spray research is still in its infancy. Early testing shows that barrier sprays need to be used preventatively. One trial showed a slight impact that could make a positive difference in a light smoke taint situation. The additional challenge with sprays is that they need to be washed off which uses a lot of water. Listen in for Anita’s number one tip for growers. References:
Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. TranscriptCraig Macmillan 0:00 And with me today is Dr. Anita Oberholster . She is Professor of Cooperative Extension, enology in the department of Viticulture and Enology, UC Davis. And today we're gonna talk about smoke taint. Welcome to the show.
Anita Oberholster 0:11 Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Craig Macmillan 0:13 This is a problem that has gotten a lot of attention in the last few years in California, I think a lot of us was surprised to find out it's been a topic of conversation in Australia for much longer than that. And yet, we still have a lot of questions. And we still don't have a lot of answers. But we're making progress. We're learning more about this. So first off, can you define what smoke taint is?
Anita Oberholster 0:35 Sure. So the first thing I would want to say is that, you know, when a vineyard is exposed to smoke, we talk about smoke impact, this potential smoke impact. Smoke taint is actually a sensory term. So that is when you have something that causes a decrease in quality or fault in the wine, then we start calling it taint. So when smoke impact in the vineyard is great enough that it impacts the fruit in such a way that it makes wine that is inferior and has a fault, then it is smoke taint. So smoke impact in grapes causes potentially smoked taint in wine. That clear?
Craig Macmillan 1:16 Absolutely. So there would be smoke impact then, as a standalone, what would be smoke impact?
Anita Oberholster 1:21 Okay, so smoke impact would be that there was fresh enough smoke that the grapevines were exposed to that the grapes absorb some of the volatile phenols coming from the smoke, so that it's more than normal. So smoke impact would be there were some absorption that took place. So grape composition is not totally what it was before smoke exposure, that would be smoke impact.
Craig Macmillan 1:47 And then smoke taint is what happens when you turn it into wine. The aromas that you get from that?
Anita Oberholster 1:51 Yes, and if the smoke impact was enough, because if you only have a little bit of absorption, that may still be a result in a wine that has no problems, right. So the smoke impact has to be at a certain significant level before we see a problem in the wines. So it's very important to know just a little bit of absorption do not always equal a problem in the winery.
Craig Macmillan 2:16 What kinds of aromas in terms of like descriptors and also then what kind of compounds, their aromas are compounds, what kind of compounds are we talking about?
Anita Oberholster 2:27 Okay, so I'm gonna get a little bit scientific.
Craig Macmillan 2:29 Do it please.
Anita Oberholster 2:30 So if you think of smoke, right, if we think a wildfire smoke, you have a lot of vegetation burning . So 15 to 25% of wood is lignin now lignin is what give celery its crunch, okay, so it's what it's the fiber you food. It's what gives wood its structure, its hardiness. When lignin burns, it actually release a lot of compounds. When it breaks down, we call thermal degradation. It releases a lot of compounds that we call volatile phenols. It's a whole range of compounds. And these compounds are naturally present in grapes. So that is something to remember, naturally, in different grape varieties in different regions would have natural, a certain amount. Now you have an excess amount in the air that can absorb onto those grapes because grapes are little little sponges, that absorbs the extra volatile phenols. Now if you have an excessive amount of volatile phenols, then it can result in wines with off flavors. Now what we talk about here is on the nose, you can get very campfire, smoky, BBQ, bacon, medicinal and the list goes on, aromas, but what for me is very distinctive, I call smoke taint, we call it a ritrum nasal character, or people talk about an aftertaste, it's actually an aroma you perceive in the back of your throat because what happens when these volatile phenols absorbed onto grapes, part of their defense mechanism is they attach sugars to it so as soon as you add sugars to it, this moment of fear now there was a really small compounds that's volatile and you can smell becomes non volatile because it is now larger in weight. But when you make wines both the free and without, so both of those with sugars on and those who have no sugars on, gets released into the wine. That rates your changes within the enzamatic activity, the pH of wine. And when you taste a wine, you have enzymes in your saliva that can actually release that bound. And we think it's that action that gives you that ashy character in the back of your throat. So it's a ritual nasal character because the back of your nose is connected to your throat as we all know when you have a cold and basically that release makes you perceive it and it's like an ashtray character if you can imagine an old campfire in the morning but that smells like if you licked that what that would taste like or if you smoking you have the old ashes there. I mean, I used to as a kid, my dad used to smoke a pipe, put the old coal pipe in your mouth and suck on it, that kind of taste. So obviously, that's very awful. So that would not be something that will increase the quality of your wine. So that for me is smoke taint. I have to caution that if you smell like, you know, smoke or something in wine, and only that, that doesn't always mean smoke taint. And there's other things that can happen in the wine that could also give you those characters. And you know, even barrel aging, some barrels can give you smoky character. So I want to caution people not to smell smoke and go oh, this is what tainted. Really focus on is there that aftertaste character that ritrum nasal, ashy character that's really distinctive.
Craig Macmillan 5:48 Are there particular compounds that are kind of hallmarks that either are the most commonly found in wines that are identified as having ssmoke taint from a descriptor standpoint. Or ones that just tend to travel with those descriptors, even if they're not the compound itself? You know, what I'm talking about, like a proxy? What are those? And where did it come from?
Anita Oberholster 6:05 Yeah, so we do have, you know, and we can thank our Australian researchers for that, because they've been working on this for much longer. And they have found about seven key volatile phenols, I can list them guaiacol, 4-methylguaiacol, syringol, 4-methylsyringol, p-cresol, o-cresol and m-cresol. they have identified six individual bound compounds that also correlate with smoke. So they've actually isolated them looked at them showed that they correlate with smoky characters, and the distinctive smoke taint character in wine. However, research continues. Even analyzing all those compounds, does not give you 100% predictive power, it's only about 70%. So we do think that there are more compounds that we need to keep on looking for. And that's something we're actively researching, but also the matrix. So the matrix is everything but what you're talking about. So for wine, it would be everything but the volatile phenols. We know that how much phenolic or color, polysaccharides, proteins, alcohol, sugar is in that wine, all of that influence the perception of smoke. So that can also be why the predictive power isn't that great. It could be everything else, not just the mark compounds. For instance, we know like fruity aromas can mask the smokiness quite well. But green characters like you know, the green pepper character or grassy characters, they actually uplift, smokiness, that's from research coming from South Africa. Very complex, everything in the wine influences something else.
Craig Macmillan 7:41 You know, that actually just remind me of another another question. Do we know? Are there certain varieties that seem to be much more prone to either suffering from smoke impact or if they do suffer from smoke impact, having being identified as having smoke taint later on down the line?
Anita Oberholster 7:57 Yes, you know, it's it's difficult. We really need more data. We we know, a variety like Pinot Noir, for instance, seems to be pretty prone to showing smoke. But is that because they absorb more? Is it something to do with the skin structure? Or is it just because they many times make wines where most simpler matrix is then, for instance, a full bodied Cabernet Sauvignon? And it's really difficult to know, we know that, for instance, Syrah naturally have very high levels of volatile phenols and can handle additional volatile phenols come from smoke quite well. That doesn't mean you can't get smoke impacted Syrahs. I've seen them. But so Syrah seems to be more robust. It seems to ask you know, Pinot Noir definitely more sensitive, say then Cabernet Sauvignon. Cabernet, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot. I think the Petite Verdot perhaps a little bit more sensitive to the Cabernet Sauvignon but this is more based on anecdotal experience, rather than having enough research data to really piece it out. For us to really determine this, we would have to intentionally smoke different varieties so that they actually at the same ripeness point gets exposed to exactly the same volatile phenol compositions and smoke composition, and then evaluate them. As you can imagine, that's not easy to do.
Craig Macmillan 9:20 No, it's not. Maybe I'm misremembering this, but I think I read an article where researchers were tenting rows of vines, and then building fires at one end and then blowing the smoke into the tent. And I was like, that's genius. But then in the, in the conclusions, right, the discussion, limitation, it's like, yes, but did we use the right wood? Is the intensity right? Is this over top, you know, you know, all these other variables and you're like, oh, God, you know, holy crap, what are we going to do? You know. And a lot of it's going to end up being what work that you guys are doing, which is just real in the field research when things happen, you just go study it as best you can. Yeah, you know, so it's gonna be a long time for us to figure a lot of these things out.
Anita Oberholster 10:03 Yeah, we do a combination of it. But it's not easy. We've done some intentional smoking last year. And you know, we built a tank, it was like 36 feet by seven feet by 10 feet to cover for vines in our Vineyard. Just to test barior sprays, right. And then to figure out what to burn, we had some natural ash that we analyze. So Tom Collins in Washington State University, he used to burn natural vegetation and gave up because to keep it consistently the same, to know that everything was exposed to exactly the same smoke. It's difficult. So we've moved to like using pellets, but then not all pellets give up the same depending on what what they're made of, and usually hard work. And what we usually burns here in California is soft wood. So yeah, it's tricky. We had to play around with a lot of different fires to figure out which source material we should be using for for our intentional smoking. And we will keep investigating, we're trying to mimic the real situation as much as possible, but it's not perfect.
Craig Macmillan 11:06 What is the window, or the progression of the windows for smoke impact on grapes when they're most vulnerable?
Anita Oberholster 11:13 Yeah, you know, unfortunately, I have to tell you, basically, from the moment you have a berry,. There was this research in Australia on Merlot vines where they actually intentionally spoke, expost ir to smoke over three seasons at different growth stages. And they did find in that study, the most sensitive was from verasion on onwards. So from sugar accumulation onwards, right, our color change onwards. However, we've had many instances of now our vineyards that were only exposed to smoke before veraion. At pea size even and still ended up making smoke impacted wines. So I want to caution I would say the risk gets higher from verasion onwards. But unfortunately, you're not safe if your smoke exposure was earlier.
Craig Macmillan 12:04 So it's an issue no matter what, basically.
Anita Oberholster 12:07 Yes, unfortunately.
Craig Macmillan 12:08 That's unfortunately, but also, that's good to know, that's really, really good to know, because I think we're thinking, oh, you know, it's a tiny berry and its all waxy and you know, it's not going to be an issue. And then, you know, four months later, three months later, suddenly, it's a problem.
Anita Oberholster 12:20 I also heard this rumor of my grapes are fine, because they were overripe with smoke exposure. Now, unfortunately, that does not work either. It will absorb smoke, even if it's very ripe. The enzyme activity within the berry do decrease somewhat. So there might be a difference in how much they actually attach sugars to it, or, like these volatile phenols. But they're still sensitive, you still have a risk, there's unfortunately no period that you don't have a risk if you have a berry on the vine.
Craig Macmillan 12:50 Got it. Oh, related. This reminds me of something. So the volatile phenols that we're talking about. These are compounds that are out in the air. They're part of smoking in quotes, but they're not ash. Ash is something's completely different, right?
Anita Oberholster 13:05 Yeah. So ash is carbon, mostly right? So what can happen and this is the confusing thing. When you have a fire ,volatile phenols are very small, you can't see them, right. So what you see is the debris or the particulate matter, volatile phenols on their own actually break down very quickly, they phyto oxidize in the air within hours. But now they can absorb on to particulate matter. So they can absorb onto the ash. And when they absorb onto the ash, we do not know how that impacts their degradation. So there's where the issue comes. So and this is why we say only when smoke is fresh, is there any kind of relation between particulate matter and risk of smoke exposure. The older that ash gets, the older that smoke gets, the less it contains volatile phenol, phenols. And the lower your risk of smoke impact, if that makes sense.
Craig Macmillan 14:02 I was just going to ask you about that. You've mentioned freshness in some of your other work. How fresh is fresh and how does it change over time? And is there any way I can sleep at night thinking that this has been out there for three days or whatever?
Anita Oberholster 14:14 Yeah, you know, it's difficult, So basically at the moment, fresh ash is defined as anything less than 24 hours old. Now that's based on anecdotal data. The Australians had a fire, all the smoke moved in a column over the ocean and came back as one big column over McLaren Vale. And it was more than 24 hours later, and McLaren Vale was fine, there was no impact. So that was all anecdotal, but my own observations really do confirm that. I'm not saying you have no risk if the smoke is older than 24 hours, but your risk definitely substantially decrease. The older that smoke gets. Because what happens the volatile phenols starts breaking down, even those absorbed onto particulate matter starts breaking down. So after you know two, three days eyes that smoke is particulate matter. It doesn't contain the compounds that can absorb onto the grapes and into the graves and cause a problem.
Craig Macmillan 15:10 We've talked about time, in fact about windkow. Let's pretend Craig's a grower, I was at once but I am not now. What can I do? What should I do? What should I not? Do I have any kind of agency in this process?
Anita Oberholster 15:21 I wish I could tell grapegrowers what to do. I have some cautionary tales. If I can put it that way. Please, please. So what I would say is currently, we do not recommend anything. We've looked at some berry sprays, things they can spray onto the berry to protect it against the volatile phenols in the air. We've tried kaolin or surround, you know, the claim. Yep, yep. And it has shown some efficacy. So if you want to spray that on, you can try it. But it's not a silver bullet. In laboratory conditions. This is now 100% coverage, I saw about a 30% decrease in the amount of volatile phenols absorbing from smoke. But now remember, in a vineyard setting, you're not going to get 100% coverage, you may get 30 to 40% coverage. But it's a fact where if you only have a little bit of smoke exposure, that every little bit of prevention could actually mean the difference so that you end up with grapes that's not impacted and make good wine. This is always going to be preventative. Growers might have heard of the study that you looked at Praka, and it showed really, really good efficacy. However, after that initial study, there's been two more studies that showed no efficacy, and some that actually showed it resulted in the absorption of more of volatile phenols. So I'm cautioning against using Praka. I've looked at EMP barrier, I've only done one study 100% coverage. So keep that in mind. And one of their compilations, jin3e showed something very similar to surround not better. But in a similar similar realm. Here's the problem with whatever you put on, you need to wash it off. At this stage, it seems the volatile phenols absorbs onto the barrier instead of absorbing onto the berry. However, if that barrier is still there, when you pick the grapes and make the wine, it dissolves from the barrier into your wine, so you're no better off, you still have to wash it off. And that's the problem because removing that clay from the berries, that's very difficult and will need a lot of water, which is my other problem with the solution. We are continually looking at other barrier sprays, if we can find something that potential you don't have to rinse off. Because that would obviously logistically and for many other reasons be a better option. There's something else I would like to say. Some of these studies looked at compounds I just mentioned, like Praka in some of the studies and actually made it worse. We are concerned a lot of applications use the stickers, many times it's oil to get the compact stick to the berry. If there's too much oil in whatever you are applying, it seems like it doesn't dry out. And if you have something wet on the outside of the barrier that increases the volume of the berry, or potentially is a liquid and the outside of which the volatile phenols can absorb and then absorb for concentrate in that liquid and then go into the berry. That may be why in some circumstances, some compounds are making it worse. Some berry sprays are making it worse. We saw people applying fungusicides and things like that that also made absorption worse. So currently, really if there's smoke in the air, and you do not have to apply something to your grapes, don't. We're really worried about applying anything while there's smoke in the air. If you want to apply something as a protection, the only things that showed some efficacy is basically surround or potentially some of these EMP various sprays you have to do it preventative, you need to do it before there's any smoke. So you're going to do this not knowing whether you actually need this protection or not. When the smoke is there, it's too late. Please do not apply anything to you grapes, your vines while there's smoke in the air. Wait until the smoke clears. If you do have to apply fungicides and other things. That's important. The other thing also there's been some studies looking at leaf removal or not leaf removal. Now the thing is the volatile phenols can also absorb onto leaves. And actually when you have a big canopy, that canopy can actually sort of protect your grapes because the volatile phenols is absorbing onto the leaves, not onto your grape bunches.
Craig Macmillan 19:40 We don't believe or we don't know at this point or we don't believe that those things aren't going to be transported from a mature lead back to the berries just like I'm transporting all these other precursors and amino acids and you know excetera?
Anita Oberholster 19:52 Yes, good question. So here's the thing. There's one study that looked at this and showed that translocation from the leaves to the grapevine bunches is possible. Now here's the problem, we think it's very limited, because we still see more advantage from having a canopy there than not having a canopy. So here's the thing. There's a study that looked at a big canopy that looked at leaf removal before smoke, and then looked at leaf removal after smoke. Now, having the big canopy resulted in grapes with the least impact from the smoke than those that had leaf removal before smoke, worst impact as you can think, because the berries were totally exposed. And then the leaf removal off the smoke did help with the smoke impact in the final wines. However, there's other studies that didn't see a great impact by doing leaf removal. And there's a risk with doing leaf removal. Because if you do leaf removal, and there's another fire, or more smoke than you might do just made it worse. And obviously we are in California, you actually sometimes need some shade for your berries. So we are concerned about sunburn and other things like that. So we're not, even in Australia, I've talked to them as well, they're not recommending leaf removal, we think that risk is too high in the benefit too low at this stage. We are I'm just started a study at Oakville experimental station where we can look at translocation between leaf and vines a little bit more and get a better and I should say leafs and grapes and get a better idea about the kinetics of this translocation. When does it happen? Does it only happen when you also have sugar translocation happening? We would no more than a couple of years.
Craig Macmillan 21:32 That's good. And I hope that everything continues apace. I'm very pleased to see how much research has been funded in this area. And also the collaboration. I think that the whole West Coast working together I think is a fantastic thing. And I hope that we can continue that model going forward. This isn't one of those problems where you know, we got a supply side grower, and then we have a consumer, the winery. And often we draw a line between those two. This is an issue that somehow we got to find a way of working together on this, we've got to find a way of finding some balance in terms of what the outcomes are going to be or what's going to happen. At this point qhat do you what do you think about that? What are what are things that you've come across that seemed like they made the community that if you will function or where things just clearly were problems that were going to be really, really bad? In kind of the more like logistical, social, economic realms?
Anita Oberholster 22:20 Yes, I guess communication is key, right. And I do feel that this is a heavy burden that should be carried equally by the grape grower and the winemaker, there's been a little bit of everything. You have the situations where some grape contracts were canceled with no rhyme or reason, it seems like. And then you have the situations where you have winemakers that talk to their grape growers. Made bucket fermentations with their grapes, brought them in, tasted together, looked at the data, had a discussion. And that's really optimal. So what I really would like to see is that before there's a smoke event, before harvest, right, in the offseason, there needs to be clear communication about how this process is going to work. You know, the grape grow needs to know, okay, what stands in my contract? Okay, what does that mean? When are we going to evaluate the grapes? Who's going to pay for the testing? Who needs to take the samples, take it to the lab? Do we do bucket fermentations? Who do the bucket fermentations? Who's going to taste these wines? And all of these things optimally should be about communication and a shared experience right effort between the grape grower and the winemaker, that's really the best situation. So for growers, I would say, talk to the winery and make sure that there are steps in place, don't assume they are there, make sure that they are actually in place and what they are, what's going to be your responsibility. How's that conversation going to go? If there is a smoke event, it's really important. But also for growers, you know, I'm recommending, I know that testing is really expensive. However, if you can, for crop insurance, you need a sample of each block of each variety, which is a lot. But even if you can just take a composite sample, you know, 300 berries in a bag. I mean 100 If you don't have a lot of grapes, in a bag, throw it in your freezer. Every couple of weeks from verasion. I would say our risk for smoke exposure really exponentially goes up from verasion onwards. So I would say from verasion, take a berry sample, throw it in your freezer. If don't need it, you don't need it. But if there's a smoke event, then you can go back to your pre smoke sample. You can have that analyzed with your harvest sample. And you can see what's the difference? Because the problem is we do not have public baseline. And we're at baseline I mean for the main varieties, what is normal for your area, what is the normal amount of volatile phenols. Because this is the problem we're all doing testing, and then say, now we're supposed to know what's elevated. How do you know what's elevated if you don't know what's normal. And then like I just said, you can get smoke impact without wine taint, right? How much elevation do you need before it actually results in a wine that's tainted, and that's what we're also trying to address. But we're only now this season will be our second year for baseline. Trying to determine baseline for the seven main varieties in California to at least as a reference when you get numbers back from the lab so that you can interpret it more easily. And we're also doing threshold studies in wine. That is, how much of these compounds can be in a specific wine matrix before it results in a decrease in quality. That's what we're trying to do. I call it the two bookends. If we have the two bookends, then contracts can be more specific, perhaps they can even have numbers in them. Now numbers is difficult because we just don't have enough data to know whether what is a good number to put in a contract. I mean, there's some numbers out there based on guaiacol and 4-methylguaiacol. That's only two of the seven free vlatine phenols. That doesn't even take the bound into account. So this is something I do want to tell a grower and this is really important. Crop insurance is based on only guaiacol and 4-methylguaiacol, only to marker compounds. Here's the problem, you may have smoke impacting your berries, and that guaiacol and 4-methylguaiacol number is below quantification limits, right? So you think you're good, no problem. The issue is most of these free volatile phenols depending on when grapes are exposed to smoke can be in the bound form. So you don't see it. But now the winemaker takes those grapes, he makes wine during the winemaking process, up to 30% of that bound can be released to free. And now suddenly you have a problem because it made wine that impacted but according to crop insurance, your data did not show smoke impact. And this is why we're really telling people to do small scale fermentations. And I know don't ask a grower to do fermentation is not a small ask. So that would be great if your winery was prepared to do it. But it's not that difficult. I do have a video on my website. I cringe saying this. But it was done overnight. But there you go,
Craig Macmillan 27:31 There will be a link to that particular video, by the way, I think I thought it was great. I thought it was I thought was fantastic. It is a little intimidating, I have to admit, but it was really, really good and a lot of numbers and a lot of things. But but you got it, you got to do it, you got to do it. Right. I mean, there's no other sense.
Anita Oberholster 27:45 I think, you know, I tried to on the fly, in my brain, make it so that somebody in a kitchen can do it, using things that you may have at on hand right to make the wine. So the advantage here is crop insurance meeting us halfway. They said so long as you can show chain of custody, so long as I bucket fermentation actually represents that block for that specific variety, they will take that wine number so that one you can take that bucket fermentation and get that analyzed for guaiacol and 4-methylguaiacol. That may still show safe and then why may still end up being smoke impacted six, nine months later that unfortunately do happen. However, your chances is much greater that it will show you impact if you had impact just because you had that 20 to 30% that can be released during the primary fermentation process. And this is why we recommend that. Now that you know the story gets convoluted because there's some people now saying but grape analysis and wine analysis gives you the same number. There's some researchers out there saying that. And it's true for how they looked at the grapes, the grape number and the wine number was the same. However, most labs will take the grapes, homogenize it spin down the juice and analyze the juice. That's not an extensible amount of skin contact you really to get the same amount that will end up in the wine, you need at least five days of contact.
Craig Macmillan 29:15 Okay, there is the key.
Anita Oberholster 29:16 And so that's why I'm saying just do not do a mini fermentation because you need that skin contact time. Researchers that say that grapes on wine they get the same number by analysis is because for their sample prepping the grapes, they did something like a five day course.
Craig Macmillan 29:31 But also because if you have an active fermentation, you are having some enzymatic activity that's going to break those glucosides and set those phenols the variable freeness free and that's what's happening in reality. So that's that's part of it.
Anita Oberholster 29:45 Good point. So this is what happening. Yes. So especially in the beginning, as soon as you crush your groups, there's enzymes within the cells of the groups and then gets released and they can release the sugars from the volatile phenols. Now during the winemaking process in the beginning until the alcohol formation gets too high, the alcohol do inhibit these enzymes, you get that release. And then after that, you also have the fact that wine has a low pH between three and four. And so you get some acid release as well, because they're acid liable, meaning that they do release the sugars over time. But that type of reuse is slow.
Craig Macmillan 30:24 That's a good question. Is there an unknown effect of pH on this? You know, you talk, you talked about a target pH that many winemakers would like to have. But I know that it was along the central coast, it's not unusual to be three, seven push and three, eight going from there. And in other spots, making white wines with three twos. Do we know what the what the effect is?
Anita Oberholster 30:42 Okay, so here's the thing, I'm not recommending acidifying your wines to a ridiculous low pH and then adjusting it to get to get more to release. The thing is, there is a pH effect, but it's not very strong. So in the range of wine, this is why after wine is made, these bound compounds are actually pretty stable over five, six years, you may get another 10 15% releasing, okay. So that they don't actually release a lot at the wine range pH. So in a short period of time, I don't think it's worth doing that kind of thing. Just to give you some context in the lab, if we're trying to hydrolyze basically to remove all the sugars from the volatile phenols. We adjust the pH with hydrochloric acid or sulfiric acid to pH one.
Craig Macmillan 31:33 Oh my god!
Anita Oberholster 31:34 Then we heat it at 100 degrees Celsius for one hour. And it still does not release that.
Craig Macmillan 31:43 Holy cow.
Anita Oberholster 31:44 So just want to say this is extreme conditions. Because you know, in 2020, somebody contacted me and asked that winemaker wants me to spray to tartaric acid on my grapes to break down the glycosides. Now, obviously, that is a lot of unnecessary labor, because it's gonna do nothing to those bound, volatile phenols.
Craig Macmillan 32:05 That's gonna be an uncontrollable situation, man.
Anita Oberholster 32:07 Yeah, so that kind of thing. You know, I have to say, I want to invite growers. If somebody asked you to do something weird, or something you think is really not needed, you're obviously free to contact me and I will share my knowledge which they may forward to the winemaker.
Craig Macmillan 32:24 Well, it's part of the communication.
Anita Oberholster 32:25 I actually have a cooperative extension specialist for the for the enology side for the wine side, I true believer, all wines, and all good wines are made in the vineyard. Yeah, I you know, I'm a farmer's daughter. So I get it. So I really do want to look out for both sides. Because where would a winery be without grapes?
Craig Macmillan 32:45 And where would a grape poor be without wineries?
Anita Oberholster 32:47 Exactly right. So it's a two way street. And we need to figure this out together. You know, it's a difficult situation. And unfortunately, we don't know that much more than 2020. But I think we know more about how to prepare ourselves. And sometimes not, you know, knowledge is power, even just knowing what we don't know, is power. And just being more informed is power, right? The more you understand about the problem, the smaller the chance that somebody can come and tell you something that's totally wrong, and get you to do something that actually makes matters worse, which wastes your time or waste your money and is not going to help.
Craig Macmillan 33:27 So we only got about another minute here left, we got to wrap up. What, is there one thing that you would recommend to a grape grower on this topic related to this topic?
Anita Oberholster 33:37 I would say please store berry samples. Buy a freezer, and store samples. There's so many people that's now in litigation, and they asked my help. And I can't help them because they don't have a grape sample. And even the sample you sent to the labs that were smoke impacted those samples. Keep reference samples of them too. You never know when you need to go back to them. It breaks my heart when I can't help them prove what they're trying to tell me because they just don't have the samples to analyze. It's really important and and please talk to your winery, make sure that you know what steps to take. Talk to your crop insurance know what steps to take to ensure that you're at least covered if you need it.
Craig Macmillan 34:25 Where can people find out more about you and your work?
Anita Oberholster 34:28 So you know, I'm on the viticulture enology, the Department of Viticulture and Enology website, just look under personnel. I'm there, my contact details are there. There's a link to my bio and some of the work that I do and you know, just send me an email. It's very important to say persistence is key. I do receive more than 100 emails per day. So it's sometimes difficult to get to everybody and sometimes I really miss important emails. That's a shame. So it's really good when people actually send a repeat.
Craig Macmillan 34:59 Okay, Hey, good advice. So our guest today has been Dr. Anita Oberholster Professor Cooperative Extension Enology in the department of Viticulture and Enology, UC Davis,. Thank you so much for being a guest. This is a hugely important topic and obviously isn't going away. And the science on this is developing. Golly, probably by the month. You know, as I watched the literature, there's new publications on this topic globally. Every issue of something so keep up the good work, keep us informed. We'd love to have you back in the future and we'll talk some more about what we learned.
Anita Oberholster 35:29 Absolutely. It was great talking to you
Transcribed by https://otter.ai | |||
| 142: Partner with an Influencer | Marketing Tip Monday | 25 Jul 2022 | 00:05:01 | |
Have you worked with a social media influencer? While the concept of working with influencers may sound intimidating to some, we can assure you that with clear goals and succinct calls to action, the process is super rewarding and for direct to consumer sales can be very lucrative. Welcome to Marketing Tip Monday with SIP Certified. We know customers are looking for wines labeled as sustainable. While our longer-form episodes help you learn about the latest science and research for the wine industry, these twice-monthly micro podcasts will help you share your dedication to sustainable winegrowing so you can show your customers that you share their values. Today we are taking about social media influencers. As we've discussed in previous Marketing Tips, partnering with social media influencers is a great way to reach groups of people who may be unaware of your brand, and specifically, partnering with a "wine influencer" will ensure that your brand is being shared with consumers who are passionate about wine and wine culture. In an effort to broaden brand awareness for SIP Certified, we engaged social media influencers in Q1 and Q2 of 2022. These campaigns were an incredible way to educate consumers about the benefits of purchasing SIP Certified wines and helped distill the messaging of sustainability down to digestible language via influencers. Creating a budget, establishing goals, brand parameters, and tracking engagement are the key elements in an influencer campaign. Any reputable influencer will have a rate sheet complete with their prices for different types of posts as well as their average engagement rates and demographic reach. This is important for your brand as the reach should be successful and align with your existing or aspirational customer. Setting brand parameters is important so the influencer’s messaging is in line with your existing brand guidelines and feel. Now, to really see how these partnerships have played out, I invite you to check out our show notes and use the link to our latest article called, Connecting with a Broader Audience. Here you can see the recipes created by the equally talented and funny Jerry James Stone. This year, Jerry is pairing SIP Certified brands with fresh and simple eats that you are going to want to try for yourself. Check out Seared Polenta with Slow Roasted Tomatoes and Pesto & Ron Rubin's 2019 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir and Blackberry Balsamic & Basil Grilled Cheese & Rava's 2018 Grenache Rosé. This year we just had to work with Isis Daniel, aka the Millennial Somm again. A certified Level 3 with Merit Wine and Spirit Education Trust wine consultant and wine content creator, she produces educational and entertaining wine content across her social media channels. In her fun and casual #TastingThursday Instagram live show, she sits and sips with wine-growers and -makers through a friendly interview, giving her audience insight into the personalities and passions of the people behind the wines. Grab a glass of McIntyre's 2018 Pinot Noir and sit back and enjoy our #TastingThursday with Kristen McIntyre of McIntyre Wines! A lifelong love for travel, a degree in Visual Arts and Art History, and a whimsical purchase of a bottle of Bordeaux were the perfect ingredients to inspire Christy to begin her exploration of California's diverse wine-growing regions. Thus, Christy on the Vine was born. Her wine blog is dedicated to documenting her experiences with the wines and wineries she encounters on her journeys. Join Christy on the Vine as she enjoys SIP Certified Sustainable Wines from the Santa Lucia Highlands in the sand in Monterey Bay. Featured on this blog and Instagram post are the 2019 SLH Chardonnay from McIntyre Family Wines and the 2019 Lucia Pinot Noir from Pisoni Family Vineyards. Dedicated to making wine, food, and travel more fun, Mike Cano leverages his multilingual, communications, and digital marketing skills to invite consumers of all demographics to explore various wines and wine regions. Through his wine blog, LatinxWine, he shares informative brand backstory and wine tasting notes of the wines he enjoys. His sunny, poolside Instagram post documents his experience of two SIP Certified wines: Center of Effort's 2017 Edna Valley Chardonnay, and Cambria Estate Winery's 2020 Julia's Vineyard Pinot Noir. Tag us, and use the SIP Certified GIPHYs!If you are SIP Certified, we love seeing and sharing your content! Tag us @SIPCertified in your upcoming Instagram and Facebook posts. And make sure you use our GIPHYs on your next Instagram story or Snapchat content. Just search for "SIP Certified" in the stickers, or check out the link to this article to save the files so you can use them in your emails or on your website. Check out the show notes for links to this article, more posts filled with the latest social media tips to grow your following, and to sign up for our biweekly Marketing Tips newsletter. Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team. References: | |||
| 141: Financial Aid to Replant Red Blotch Infected Vines | 21 Jul 2022 | 00:25:27 | |
Did you know that the Farm Service Agency offers financial assistance to remove and replant vines infected with Red Blotch? Jeff Sledd, County Executive Director at the San Luis Obispo County Farm Service Agency explains how the Tree Assistance Program (TAP) offers commercial farmers aid with multiple qualifying disasters including natural occurrences like freezing or floods, and diseases including Pierces Disease and Red Blotch. The Farm Service Agency is a national program with county-level agencies for assistance. It is important for farmers to connect with their local agency to remain aware of current relief programs and to request funding for new issues. Make sure to listen to the end. If you received an insurance payment in 2020, 2021, or 2022 for COVID or drought, you may be eligible for the Emergency Relief Program. References:
Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. TranscriptCraig Macmillan 0:00 And with me today is Jeff Sledd, who is the county executive director of the San Luis Obispo County Farm Service Agency, which is part of the United States Department of Agriculture. And today we're going to talk about the tree Assistance Program plus couple of other things. Hey, thanks for being on the podcast, Jeff.
Jeff Sledd 0:14 Hey, I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to join you, Craig. Thank you.
Craig Macmillan 0:18 For those who may not be familiar with the organization, what exactly is the Farm Service Agency?
Jeff Sledd 0:23 Sure, good question. So the Farm Service Agency is a division of the United States Department of Agriculture. We are tasked specifically to administer the Farm Bill, which is a package of legislation that Congress puts out around every five or so years, that has to do with everything ag related in the US. And the Farm Service Agency specifically administers the subsidy and disaster programs that are designed to aid farmers with financial assistance to help them feed America.
Craig Macmillan 0:59 And speaking of disasters, there is a program called the Tree Assistance Program that is to help growers of tree things specifically, in the face of various kinds of losses. Can you tell us a little bit about the program just in general and who's eligible?
Jeff Sledd 1:15 So yes, it's called the Tree Assistance Program. Because we're a federal agency. We abbreviate everything, so if you call in and ask about it, you'll probably hear us call it TAP tree Assistance Program. It's a bit of a misnomer because it is for trees, bushes and vines, anything that is grown, that is part of a commercial farming operation, this program would cover those. Again, like I said, as long as it's for commercial consumption or use. The Tree Assistance Program specifically, is a cost share program that helps farmers and ranchers and orchardists remove and replant dead or diseased trees, bushes, and vines that are dead or diseased because of a qualifying condition for the program. Most of those conditions are natural occurrences weather related disasters but for grape growers, specifically in San Luis Obispo County, the plant disease Red Blotch is sort of how this program is used most. So for orchardists, who have Red Blotch in their vineyards to a point where you know, it's beginning to curtail their production. This program helps cost share the price of removing those vines, prepping the ground, and then replanting new vines.
Craig Macmillan 2:40 Are there other diseases or issues that like maybe statewide that also would be covered for winegrapes by TAP.
Jeff Sledd 2:46 Most other probably parts of the state and the nation really use the tree assistance program more for natural disasters like floods and freezes and things like that. Well, we don't have unfortunately, we don't have very many floods, don't have a lot of rain. But probably it could be used for things like fire if a fire came through and burn up an orchard. But it's typically used more for like freezes and things like that.
Craig Macmillan 3:16 I had a memory that maybe Pierce's Disease was also covered by the program and Leaf Roll virus had been added a couple of years ago is that true?
Jeff Sledd 3:23 Leaf roll virus has been added, a Pierce's Disease, although I don't know how prevalent that is in San Luis Obispo County, I can tell you, we haven't helped any vineyards that have Pierce's Disease, but yes, it would, it could qualify and there are other diseases that may not be approved at this point. But if you one of your listeners is being affected by a disease that we haven't mentioned, they can certainly contact us and we can go through the process of potentially having that specific disease added as a qualifying condition.
Craig Macmillan 4:00 I think this is an important point is that, you know, our listenership is national now. And there may be things that are either happening, like Pierce's Disease, for instance, or something like that, where they're dealing with it, but they're not getting the information that oh, this qualifies. Or, you know, we got to face facts that like we live in a ever changing environment. And there may be things that come down the pike in the future that may be devastating and may may be potentially could qualify, but of course, don't know that they can bring that. Please bring your issues and we'll look into it and we'll see if it qualifies or not. Maybe it doesn't maybe it does, but it's part of the grower community has to say hey, these are things that are that are impacting us. And to come to say, hey, we need, we'd like some help. What do you think?
Jeff Sledd 4:45 Yeah, that's a good point. Craig. So I'm talking specifically about San Luis Obispo County here in California. However, this program is available nationwide, any county in the nation has a Farm Service Agency Office. That county may specifically, have other diseases that are already approved qualifying losses, or conditions that are prevalent in that area. Red Blotch just happens to be very prevalent in our area. So it's kind of our main concern, but other counties across the nation, if your listeners are listening to this, and they're experiencing something that may be more localized to them, they should definitely contact their Farm Service Agency office to see what help is available because it certainly could be out there.
Craig Macmillan 5:34 What is the application process like to to get some assistance to TAP? What kind of documentation is required, and specifically, Red Blotch is what you've been working with, so let's talk about how that would work.
Jeff Sledd 5:46 Well, so we're a federal agency. So as you can imagine, there's a significant amount of paperwork involved, none of it is... None of it's too difficult. And all of it, we are more than willing to help you work, work with you to get to get all that paperwork done. So the first part would be an app, a TAP application, a tree Assistance Program application, which is basically just some general information of what disaster are you experiencing. When did that disaster start? When was it apparent to you, because those two aren't necessarily the same, right?
Craig Macmillan 6:26 That's true.
Jeff Sledd 6:27 When it started when it was apparent to you and you know, how many acres and how many trees, bushes or vines are affected in that acreage. So that's the TAP application or the tree Assistance Program application. Then we also have a number of other eligibility documents, that would be required for anybody applying for any kind of benefit through our agency. And, you know, again, any FSA office in the nation will help you process and complete those documents. Yeah, so you're gonna fill out the tree Assistance Program application, as part of that, if you have never participated with any Farm Service Agency programs, we are going to need to identify your ground. So to do that, we're going to need either the recorded grant deed for the acreage that your grapes are on or if it is, if it does happen to be a rented vineyard, vineyard that you're leasing, then you'd have to provide the signed executed current lease that shows the legal description of the land, so we can find that land in our mapping system. So we're going to need your APN numbers or, you know, section township range, something like that, or an address that shows, kind of gives us legal description of that land, so we can identify your land and attach you to it in our system. Then, as a part of that, where you know, we're gonna have to add you into our system. So there's some just some general forms that get your contact information, who you are, your address, contact, all that kind of stuff. And then any producers that apply for benefits with the USDA or with the Farm Service Agency, there is an eligibility requirement that has to do with income under the current Farm Bill to receive benefits, you have to be able to certify that for the the current year that we are in. So if you're applying for a 2022 program that for the year 2022, you will make equal to or less than $900,000 in your adjusted gross income. No one's filed their 2022 taxes yet, the way we determine that is we send a form to the IRS where you give them permission to take a look back, they're going to skip the immediate last year, and then look at the three years before that. So for 2022, we're going to skip 2021 and look back at 2020, 2019 and 2018. And if you as an individual or an entity, if it's a general partnership, or a corporation that is applying for the benefits, if that partnership or entity or individual can qualify that they made the equal to or less than $900,000 for those three review years, then you would be considered eligible or compliant with that average Adjusted Gross Income certification for the program here that you're applying for. It sounds like a complex form, but it's really a check in a box. It's pretty simple. And most producers if if you're, you know at the cusp, that you're not quite sure if you would exceed or you know, be above that threshold, your CPA or tax attorney certainly would be able to help you with that. But it's a pretty simple form. So there's that. Then there's some other forms that are environmental compliance, you have to promise that you're going to take care arable land in such a way that causes it not to erode away and that sort of thing, a lot of paperwork, but it's all basic, pretty simple paperwork and nothing that we're not going to help you walk through.
Craig Macmillan 10:11 So if we go through this, we have a successful application, how much assistance can a grower receive?
Jeff Sledd 10:16 the program does have a payment limitation, right for the 2018 Farm Bill, the payment does cap at $125,000 as the most benefit you could receive through the Tree Assistance Program.
Craig Macmillan 10:34 And you had indicated earlier when we're talking about Red Blotch assistance, and things that can include the removal of the vines, treatment of the land, or management of the land, in some fashion, the purchase of the new plant stock and the planting of the new plants, is that right?
Jeff Sledd 10:48 It does. And so we call those different practices that can be approved, right, so the first one would be the removal of the dead and dying vines. The program specifically says that the vine has to be dead to receive assistance. However, with plant diseases, that's a little bit different, it might still technically be alive. But for financial purposes because of the disease, it financially isn't worth continuing growing this volume, because it's not producing, it won't pay for itself. And so if that's the case, we consider that vine dead, even though it technically is still alive. We do pay for removal of the dead vines, or pay a portion of the cost of removal of the dead vines, and then what we call site prep, re leveling the land, that kind of thing, anything that would need to be done to prep the ground to receive the new trees. And then the new trees themselves, we pay for vines here in California, specifically for vines we pay it's $4 a vine or 65% of your actual cost of those vines. You turn in the receipts for what you actually paid, but we take a look and compare that to our $4 per vine, maximum limit. And then we're gonna pay you the lesser of the two, right either 65% of your actual costs or the $4 per vine. In some cases, we could also pay if the vines, really doesn't work for Red Blotch, for but for other diseases or other disasters, there might be vines that don't necessarily need to be ripped out and removed, but do need significant intervention or rehabilitation. In those cases we would pay for the rehabilitation or a portion of the rehabilitation of those vines, rather than the removal.
Craig Macmillan 12:49 And are there growers in San Luis Obispo County that are taken up the program and being part of it?
Jeff Sledd 12:54 This program is like I said a national program that any producer of tree, bush or vine producer across the nation can use but statistically San Luis Obispo County has used the program more than any other county in the nation.
Craig Macmillan 13:11 Really?
Jeff Sledd 13:12 Yeah,
Craig Macmillan 13:12 That's interesting.
Jeff Sledd 13:14 Specifically because of the prevalence of of Red Blotch in our area. So that's why we felt like it was important to contact you guys and get the word out for any grape growers that may not be aware this programs out there to help them if they're struggling with the costs and what to do about Red Blotch in their vineyard.
Craig Macmillan 13:36 You know, that's fantastic and really happy to hear that. I'm really happy to hear that people are coming for help. We've been talking specifically about the tree assistance program, but are there other FSA programs that are available or might be benefit to wine grape growers that you'd recommend?
Jeff Sledd 13:48 There are well, and very specifically, if you're a wine grape grower in the nation, it's possible if you have crop insurance, federally subsidized crop insurance and you got a an indemnity payment in program year 2020 or 2021. We right now have a program called ERP which stands for Emergency Relief Program. And it has to do with the COVID-19 disaster and the drought disaster that California has in in other parts of the nation. So if you are a grape grower and you received crop insurance indemnities in either 20 or 21, you should have received in the mail already from the Farm Service Agency, an application for the ERP or Emergency Relief Program. And what we're finding is because a lot of grape growers aren't used to dealing with the Farm Service Agency that are kind of throwing those aside because they don't know what it is. And you're essentially throwing away your free money if you do that. So if you did get one of those applications, you need to contact your farm service agents immediately and we'll help you complete the process for that. Because that program will pay you 75% right now, of the indemnity that you already received, we'll pay you that, again, if the indemnities that you received were for qualifying losses under the ERP program. So if you got one of those applications from the Farm Service Agency and don't know what it is, definitely have your your listeners should contact their FSA office in their county. If you did get an indemnity, you got an insurance payment in program year 2020, or 2021, or 2022, as well and didn't get an application, then you should contact your FSA office because we can print it out for you and get it to you. In case it you know, it went to the wrong address or something along those lines. Definitely, that's one we have, like the Tree Assistance Program. We also have, we have other disaster related programs that kind of come and go depending on what the disasters in a certain county or certain parts of the country are. And so definitely, if you are a grape grower, and you have had some kind of natural disaster, or a fire or a flood or freeze or something along those lines, you should definitely reach out to your Farm Service Agency.
Craig Macmillan 16:25 And when I was reading a little bit about the FSA, and if I understood correctly, the way FSA was was designed is meant to be really an interface between the farmer community and the USDA, a spot where people can connect directly to their government, basically, there's grower direction in this, there's a committee of farmers that are involved.
Jeff Sledd 16:46 Yeah, you've done your you've done your homework Craig, good job. So one of the things about the Farm Service Agency that we really pride ourselves in is we are really the last federal agency at a county level that is still directed or run by an elected Board of farmers in our case. So we do have a we call it the county committee, or again, we abbreviate everything, so we call them the COC. But they're a board of elected farmers that they are tasked with reviewing all of these applications that come in and approving or denying them based on procedures. So as the county executive director, I actually report directly to that board, the county committee, and it's kind of my job to help the committee know what the rules and regulations are to know what they what authority they have and don't have, and that sort of thing. And actually, this year, in our county, we have one of our board positions coming available. And we would love actually to have a grape grower on our board. Right now, we don't have a grape grower. We have other producers, you know, other types of farmers, but we would certainly love to have a grape grower. So if you are interested, you have to live in a certain part of the county because the county is cut into different we call them local administrative areas. And so you have to live in the right area of the county and farm in the right area of the county to run. If any of your listeners in San Luis Obispo County are interested, they certainly should reach out to me and because we definitely for 2023 will be holding an election at the end of this year for a seat on that board that is a three year term. That's certainly a way that a farmer or a vineyardist could get involved in the local government of their community that has a direct impact on ag in our community and has influence you know, statewide and even all the way up to the national level and what kind of programs are implemented for farmers here at the local level.
Craig Macmillan 19:05 Yeah, and that may be true at the time of this recording of this particular podcast. But that's in San Luis Obispo County, but it's also going to be true all the way into the future across the nation,
Jeff Sledd 19:15 Across the nation absolutely.
Craig Macmillan 19:16 If you, you know, feel like you can have an influence and like to help your fellow growers, which is what this is about. Getting involved is always a great idea if you're really passionate about trying to make things better for yourself and for your neighbors. And I think this is a great example of how growers can have an impact beyond the fence line, right and can have a positive influence on their community. So I think it's fantastic, great way of organizing the organization. It sounds like a really great way of getting involved with these various things.
Jeff Sledd 19:45 It's a great way to get involved that doesn't require too much time. You know, we're going to ask a couple hours a month from you, usually one day a month for a couple of hours. So it's a great way to get involved ad to assist, and serve the ag community that doesn't require just, you know, tons and tons of time and input.
Craig Macmillan 20:08 So related to TAP or anything else related to the FSA, what is one thing you would recommend to our listeners?
Jeff Sledd 20:15 Sure. So assuming that I'm talking really mostly to grape growers, right, in California, and really across the state, I would recommend, get to know your Farm Service Agency, at least know where that agency is located, how to contact that agency, because if you're not in need of the Tree Assistance Program, right now, we, all the time have ad hoc programs that just kind of come down from Congress to address specific problems that you may or may not have heard in the news about. We have assistance to give away to farmers to producers, ag producers in the nation. And if you don't know about it, you don't get your piece of the pie. So I would say my one one piece of advice is even if you don't have Red Blotch like like what we're talking about today, find out where your Farm Service Agency is, and get involved or get connected to them so that we're aware of you and you're aware of us. So when you do have some need for us, or we have some program that fits what you do, you're in our data bank so we can reach out to you and you know, have that beneficial relationship with one another.
Craig Macmillan 21:25 And so in this particular case, since Obispo County, how do people find you? Where are you located? How do they reach out to you, Jeff?
Jeff Sledd 21:32 In San Luis Obispo County, our office is in Templeton the heart of wine country right here, right next door to Paso Robles. So you can certainly come to our office, but specifically I would tell your producers to go to farmers.gov, FARMERS, farmers.gov. That's the USDA's public facing page. And in that you can get to know really every program we have but there's also on there very easy to find a find your local FSA office and it'll drill down and it'll get you right to the office in your county. Whichever county that is farmers here in San Luis Obispo County can contact me either through farmers.gov or I can give you my email address. Absolutely, welcome to reach out to us that way as well.
Craig Macmillan 22:25 I want to thank our guest, Jeff Sledd County Executive Director of the San Luis Obispo County Farm Service Agency, part of the United States Department of Agriculture. Jeff, it has really been a pleasure. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.
Jeff Sledd 22:37 Craig, I appreciate the opportunity.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai | |||
| 140: Does social media impact wine sales? | Marketing Tip Monday | 11 Jul 2022 | 00:05:03 | |
Thach and Lease asked the managers of 375 United States wineries, "How much impact do you believe your social media efforts have on wine sales?" 87% of respondents said they believe that their social media presence increases sales. Welcome to Marketing Tip Monday with SIP Certified. We know customers are looking for wines labeled as sustainable. While our longer form episodes help you learn about the latest science and research for the wine industry, these twice monthly micro podcasts will help you share your dedication to sustainable winegrowing so you can show your customers that you share their values. Today we are asking the question, Does social media impact wine sales? Social media has changed the way consumers and businesses interact. It not only provides convenient two-way communication between consumers and the products and services they support, but it has opened the door for consumers to participate in the marketing and messaging of brands by creating their own content about the products they love and sharing it with their friends, family, and communities. A 2018 study looking at the social media adoption and activities of 1173 wineries in Germany, the USA, New Zealand and Australia, suggests that "wineries need to develop a clear purpose for using social media and then adapt to the needs of the consumers in their respective markets." To do so, it is important to understand how consumers interact with wine brands on social media and what kind of content they are looking for. Provide Value by Offering GuidanceWine is complex. Many consumers who are new to drinking wine don't know what they're looking for, and could easily find themselves overwhelmed and intimated by the numerous varieties, tasting notes, and wine brands on the market. Creating educational and informative wine content can help to create trust between consumers and your brand. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Word of mouth is one of the most common ways we hear about new brands and products to try. We are social creatures and feel more secure taking a chance on a product that has been vetted by a friend or colleague. How often have you seen your friends and family post a picture of a meal at their favorite restaurant, a picnic spread with a bottle of wine set up in the yard, or simply posing with a new item they fell in love with? Next time you see one of these, check the caption - a lot of people will tag the brands and companies included in their photos! If you receive a notification that your brand has been tagged in someone's content, take the opportunity to make a connection with a loyal customer by leaving a response in the comments. Social media offers a low-cost way for you to build relationships with consumers and your brand community, and being a brand that engages with its customers sets you up to receive continued support. There is an easy way to catch up on posts you're tagged in on Instagram that you may have missed! Go to your profile, and above the grid displaying your posts to the far right is an icon you can tap on to see posts from other users that you've been tagged in. Check it out, and get to interacting! Collaborate with an InfluencerSocial media "lifestyle influencers" are people who use their social media channels to promote products and services of companies whose products are used by everyday people in their daily lives. They connect their niche audiences to brands that share common values and interests - a phenomenon that is changing the way consumers find and connect with brands. Specifically, "wine influencers" are often educated and even certified in wine education. Teaming up with a social media influencer is a fun way to reach groups of people who may be unaware of your brand. Collaboration with a wine influencer is a way to ensure that your brand is being shared with consumers who are passionate about wine and wine culture. Psst ... we are helping spread the word about sustainability and our members' brands! Keep an eye out for the next Marketing Tip, where we will show our recent social media influencer collaborations that have helped spread the news about our members' good work protecting the people and the planet. Tag us, and use the SIP Certified GIPHYs!If you are SIP Certified, we love seeing and sharing your content! Tag us @SIPCertified in your upcoming Instagram and Facebook posts. And make sure you use our GIPHYs on your next Instagram story or Snapchat content. Just search for "SIP Certified" in the stickers, or check out the link to this article to save the files so you can use them in your emails or on your website. Check out the show notes for links to this article, another post filled with the latest social media tips to grow your following, and to sign up for our biweekly Marketing Tips newsletter. Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team. References: | |||
| 139: Vineyard Irrigation Scheduling | 07 Jul 2022 | 00:35:39 | |
What is the most important factor in vineyard irrigation scheduling? Organization. Having defined company goals and someone in charge of holding the team accountable. Tom Shapland, Co-founder and CEO of Tule Technologies and Lucas Pope, Director of Operations at Coastal Vineyard Services share their top challenges and strategies to apply the right amount of water at the right time. Incorporating tools like soil moisture sensors, plant-based monitoring, weather data, and soil types helps farmers know how much water is reserved in the soil so they can irrigate efficiently without applying more than the soil can handle. References:
Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. TranscriptCraig Macmillan 0:00 Hi, I'm your host Craig Macmillan. And today our guests are Tom Shapland, who is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tule Technologies. And Lucas Pope, who is Director of Operations for Coastal Vineyard Services. Thanks, you guys for being here.
Tom Shapland 0:12 Great to be here. Thank you for having us.
Craig Macmillan 0:16 Today, we're going to talk about irrigation scheduling very important topic, obviously, which will become obvious if it's not already as we move through the interview here. I've had a lot of experience with this. And now I get the pleasure of hearing what other folks say rather than just listening to myself all the time. I've got a question for both of you, Tom, you can go first. Why is irrigation scheduling using a methadone other than just simply calendar approach so important?
Tom Shapland 0:39 We know irrigation scheduling is important, because every year the yield and quality from a vineyard changes. And we can ask ourself, what happened that the yield or quality is different this year in this very same piece of ground compared to last year. And there are a number of factors we can point to the weather is different every year, how you manage the canopy may be different every year, how you manage the fruit load. And finally, another thing that's important is how much water has been stored in the soil profile from winter rainfall and how you irrigate it. And we know that every year the vines get, a vineyard block gets a different amount of water from winter rainfall that sets up every year in a different way. And how we irrigate influences the water status of the plants throughout the year and in turn influences the yield and quality of the vineyard. So we can look at the yield and quality for each particular year. And we can ask ourselves, why is the yielding quality different this year compared to last year. And one of the main factors is how we irrigated. That if we just irrigate, assuming that everything's the same every year that the canopy size is the same, the amount of rainfall stored in the soil profile is the same, we're gonna get a different result. So if you're really trying to aim for a certain yield target, or a certain quality target, or a certain yield and quality target, you can't just leave it up to a calendar, you're not going to reach your production goal, you have to manage according to the water status of the plant, you have to manage irrigation according to the water status and plants. If you expect to reach some target in yielding quality, you can't manage by calendar to achieve your targets for yield and quality you have to manage based on the water status of the plants.
Craig Macmillan 2:21 So this would be similar conceptually to the idea of targeted fertilization, where I'm going to measure how much nitrogen in the soil I'm going to measure what the plant nutrient status is. And I'm going to act accordingly as opposed to just putting on so many units every spring or fall. Lucas, what are your thoughts on this topic?
Lucas Pope 2:37 I think Tom hit it on the head. Ultimately, each season is different. So we are trying to actively manage different things at different times of the year. So going from a calendar type, more of an old school thought process of just irrigating on a calendar doesn't really work. Now, in an environment where quality and quantity kind of drive what we do as a farmer. I definitely second all the thoughts that Tom had. And I think that being active in your irrigation management allows you to drive the boat. I've learned a lot over the years from Tom about how early season growth and canopy growth is really important for quality. And you can drive that and being able to limit the water and stress the vines later in the season drives quality. If you're trying to hit top top quality grapes, it's extremely important. One of the most important factors in how we're able to farm actively with our environment to try and achieve the quality that our clients are expecting.
Craig Macmillan 3:37 In your career. Lucas, what are some of the technologies and techniques that you've used over the years to achieve that, because there's lots of different ways to do it. I'm guessing you probably have used a number of different ways.
Lucas Pope 3:47 You've used a number ways. And I've also seen a lot of presentations on different technologies. There are I remember seeing Tom when he was a graduate student give a presentation at Templeton. I fully bought on to the idea, it's gonna be really interesting to see if he was able to actually implement and he made his product commercial, it was phenomenal to see the ability to actually measure your Et coming off the field.
Craig Macmillan 4:10 What does Et stand for?
Lucas Pope 4:12 Evapotransporation. So the actual vines breathing per se, it's exhaling of humidity, and you can measure that very accurately. We've also looked at SAP flow technology where you get SAP and track its movement over a trunk and then a lot of pressure bombs, a whole lot of pressure bombs. Looking at also soil probes to see what's going on underground. That's also a really critical part of the irrigation puzzles, knowing what's going on underground. And if you know your dirt really well then really aids in your decision making process for how much water to put on for your goal of that irrigation. So there are a lot of things out there to help you monitor. At some point there's so much data that it becomes hard to sift through and get good information but I utilize now only the... We have a few soil moisture sensors, but primarily the whole actual Et tracking, because what I've found works the best for me.
Craig Macmillan 5:07 I think one of the keys here is that you've got soil based methods. So you get so much monitored, you've got your plant based methods, whether it's measuring water potential in the plant with a pressure bomb, or whether it's a SAP flow meter measurement. And then you have weather based, whether it be Et, or just trying to work from some kind of weather information. And some of the people that I've talked to seem to feel that relying just on one maybe isn't all it's cracked up to be, but having the ability to look at a couple of different variables. So they Lucas in your case, having some soil and having some weather so that you can kind of correlate and make decisions based on the bigger, bigger picture, I think is great.
Lucas Pope 5:48 For sure, one of the big factors to all this is having a really good forecast, a really good forecast for seeing what's coming up. Because irrigation timing and management has to be something you actively take care of. And you're always thinking about forecasting is also a huge part of it.
Craig Macmillan 6:04 There's there's forecasting, and there's also looking backward. And this is something that continually confuses me. And I've tried to figure this out. And I think I'm still confused. So we measured the water applied in terms of acre feet per acre. That's kind of like really important metric on an annual basis, to say, hey, how are we doing? Did we put on more did we put on less? Did we put on enough? How did the different blocks fare? And they could fit based on the acre inch anchor inch to the idea of rain falling, covering an acre of land, one inch deep, thats so many gallons, but that's not how the water goes on to the actual vineyard. Tom, can you maybe address the difference between those two concepts? Because I haven't really gotten it straight.
Tom Shapland 6:45 We get this question from our customers. And whenever this comes up, I have to pause and think about it for a little bit, because it's complicated. In fact, I normally review some notes that I have to make sure that I'm getting it right. I'm really reviewing those notes now, in the podcast as I talk through this. So let's start with the idea of what is an acre inch. An acre inch is enough water to fill a pool that is one acre in size to a depth of one inch. So imagine a pool that's the size of an acre and you put enough water in there, that when you step in that pool, it goes up to just below your ankle, and it takes about 27,000 gallons of water to do that. So an acre inch is a volume of water and it's 27,000 gallons. When we apply water and vineyards we're not spreading that water evenly out over the acre. Instead we're applying it through drip emitters. It brings up the question how much water is getting applied right under the vine in that drip emitter space in the in the wet area under the drip emitter. And that's what I'm going to talk through now. So let's first talk about a typical vineyard in San Luis Obispo County. Typical vineyard in San Luis Obispo County has nine by five foot, vine and row spacing. So the vines are spaced nine feet apart between rows and five feet apart within rows. And with the typical emitter rates that we see in San Luis Obispo County, if you turn on your pump and let it run for 20 hours, you will have applied 27,000 gallons per acre. The first concept I want to tell the listeners is when you're asking yourself how do I know when I've applied an acre inch to my entire vineyard. You can think of the number 20 hours. In San Luis Obispo County typically 20 hours is how long it takes to run an irrigation system to apply an acre inch of water. That's because most vineyards in San Luis Obispo County are a nine by five spacing. And when you look at the emitter rates and how many emitters there are per vine works out to about 20 hours.
Craig Macmillan 8:53 And it's easy enough to do the conversion to other spacings once we know that based on like an apply to mine.
Tom Shapland 8:58 So here's the trickier part. Now that we've established one acre inches, and we've established how long it takes to run an irrigation system to apply an acre inch or 27,000 gallons of water. Now let's talk about how much water gets applied under the drip zone. When we turn on the pump, and I'm going to walk you through that calculation. Let's assume that's the water when you turn it on the pump is spread out under the drip zone in about a foot and a half square area. So picture a square foot but make it a little bit bigger. So it's about a foot and a half square foot. And again, we're going to assume this vineyard is on nine by five spacing. And when you turn on the water for 20 hours and you apply 27,000 gallons of water through the drip system. You're not putting on that water across that entire area of the vineyard. Instead you're putting it on a more limited area of the vineyard just that foot and a half under the drip zone. Foot maps, square foot under the drip zone. So when you apply 27,000 gallons under that foot and a half under the drip zone, you're actually applying 8.3 inches of water to that wetted area. And the reason that's true is because you're applying the water, not across the entire vineyard, but a much smaller area of the vineyard, just the wet zone, you're not spreading that water equally across the entire vineyard. Instead, it's just the wetted zone. So why does that 8.3 inches number important? Well, it's, it's interesting to think about in terms of what's the average water holding capacity in San Luis Obispo County. For six feet of rooting depth, let's just say six feet is a good starting point for assuming how how deep the vines, vine roots go actually think they tend to go deeper. I know they go deeper if the soil is deeper, but let's just assume six feet. Well, the water holding capacity in San Luis Obispo County is 5.3 inches on average. So if you're turning on your pump for 20 hours, let's bring it all together. Now all back to one idea. If you turn on your pump for 20 hours, you're gonna apply an inch of water, but you're not putting that water out across the entire vineyard, you're putting it just in the wetted zone. And if your vineyard has the average water holding capacity in the county, you're putting on more water than that soil can hold under the drip zone. You're putting on 8.3 inches of water. But the soil can only hold 5.3 inches of water.
Craig Macmillan 11:27 So if I put on 5.3 inches of water only? Am I going to capture all of that? Or is there still going to be some drainage?
Tom Shapland 11:34 That's a interesting question, Craig.
Craig Macmillan 11:36 Depend on the soil probably?
Tom Shapland 11:38 Yeah, let's say that we're going back to this hypothetical vineyard that we've been talking about here, it has 5.3 inches of water holding capacity. If that soil is at the permanent wilting point, so it's very dry already, and you put on 5.3 inches of water in that drip zone, then that water should be there, that water is not going to go anywhere, you're actually going to lose some to evaporation. That's why I hesitated there. But let's assume there's no evaporation either. If you put on 5.3 inches of water, just under that drip zone, it's in your soils dry to start with, it'll hold it. But if you have any water already in there, you're gonna saturate that soil. And you're gonna get some drainage out the bottom, or you'll start to see some runoff off the top. It gets a little tricky in this hypothetical situation we're talking about, I think maybe we shouldn't avoid that for the moment.
Craig Macmillan 12:30 But this that, because of variation along the coast, this means I'm going to have to have an idea of what my particular water available water only capacity is. Lucas, what how do you go about guesstimating or measuring or getting a handle on that because in your area, you've got everything from really heavy clays to sand.
Lucas Pope 12:47 Yeah, so the only way to really do it is soil samples. And Tom has helped me dissect some soil pits to figure out different layers, different depths, water holding capacities, actually sending out soils to labs, to find out your entire profile five to six feet deep, how much water you can actually hold or, like in the case of places we have soil moisture sensors, we can just watch the water, and then watch how fast it drains. It's pretty interesting to see. And that's typically why we irrigate not such long sets, the only time we really irrigate really long sets is to leech salt, because like Tom saying, if you're going to do a long set, you're going to carry the water beyond the rooting zone. And therefore you're able to leach those salts farther down. But that's only in overwinter watering. We're not we never really do that during the summertime or even to drive some growth this time of the year. Most of our irrigation sets are between four and eight hours to give the vines enough water that they're in the soil for them to grow, but not be excessive. I think that's been one of the more critical parts are pieces to the puzzle when you're trying to be as water conscious as possible.
Craig Macmillan 14:00 So Lucas, how do you know what's excessive?
Lucas Pope 14:03 What's excessive would be I mean, if you have the ability to watch this, the soil sensors, soil moisture probes, you can tell when you hit the depth at the bottom and tell where how deep that is. And if you're being excessive. Otherwise, if you overwinter when we're trying to leach salts, we want to be excessive when waters you know, typically we do that while there's rain coming and a rain event coming or rain event just past. So your soils are going to be somewhere near saturation already. And we're just trying to push salt deeper. Otherwise, it's a really good question. We don't try and be excessive and that's why we keep our irrigations shorter.
Craig Macmillan 14:37 Then my question I guess is, like how do you know?
Tom Shapland 14:40 Let me jump in, One way I sometimes see this with some of our new customers who have not been measuring Et in the past. We tell them with our sensor here's how much water your vineyard used over the last week. And if you're applying more water than what the vines used, then that's one way of knowing that I'm applying too much water. So if my vines use 20 gallons per vine last week, but you put on 30, you know that those vines didn't use all of the water that you put on.
Craig Macmillan 15:14 I want to ask you guys about the flip side of this, how do I know if I'm not putting on enough water? Especially when we're in a drought, we're not getting rain, we may not be getting that soil profile filled up going into budbreak. We may, we're having some heat events. Weather information in the Paso Robles area that I looked at last year showed that the highs were higher and the length of the heat waves were longer. And it's not a linear relationship by any means. I'm not suggesting that. But we had some, you know, 105 for four days in a row situations. How do I know whether I'm putting on enough?
Tom Shapland 15:45 It depends on what time of year, you'd have different goals for different times of year. So this time of year, we're talking now in the spring, it's May, the goal is to develop a large enough canopy that you can ripen your crop and protect your crop from sun damage. So this time of year, growers are watching their shoot tips and monitoring the growth of their shoot tips or monitoring the growth of their vines making sure that their vines are not slowing down. Once the vines slow down and stop growing, it's hard to restart that growth. And some of our growers are using our computer vision tool called Tule Vision that tells the grower whether or not the vines are less than 10 bars in midday leaf water potential or 10 bars or above 10 bars in midday leaf water potential. And right around 10 bars is where the vines start to slow down. So are, some of our growers are using this tool to monitor their canopies and make sure they're not slowing down if they begin to see signs that they're slowing down like they're seeing midday leaf water potential readings of 10 bars, then they know it's time to take some sort of action. Generally that action is water. I think it's water because I have a hammer, and everything's a nail everything's a water problem for me. But you know if you know the nutritional status of your vineyard, how it's been managed, you think it hasn't been getting enough nitrogen might be time for a shot of nitrogen too. So to summarize, in the beginning of the season, you're trying to manage canopy growth and growers are watching their canopies. If they're canopies are slowing down, they need to apply water and nitrogen. Then once the canopy has reached its full size around pea size, for the fruit stage, it typically happens late May to get the most vigorous sites it can be all the way you know, mid July, and in some areas of San Luis Obispo County, then growers are managing the stress level their plants they're seeing how stressed their plants are. And the best growers have a plan going into the season for here's how much water stress I want at different stages of the crop development. And I'm going to monitor my water stress compared to that target and irrigate when I go below that target. I may hold off from irrigating while I'm above that target. And we started this conversation talking about the importance of irrigating not on the calendar, so that you can achieve the yield and quality goals that you have every year. Wine business is very competitive. You have to achieve your targets for staying alive. Thus, growers are setting up targets for what water stress they want, at different times of the year. And then monitoring that water stress and irrigating accordingly. And so they can get to that yield and quality target that they set out for.
Craig Macmillan 18:22 And the key key here is that those targets are numerical, they are measured. They are quantitative. I want to touch on the Tule Vision technology for a second because I think it's an interesting hybrid, where the way I understand is that you have a camera, you take a picture of a vine, it then goes to the cloud, there's a artificial intelligence machine learning thing to understand. That takes that image compares it to this huge catalog that was ground truth against pressure bomb readings for leaf water potential or stem water potentials. That's right, that accurate?
Lucas Pope 18:57 Tom, did you use pressure bombs? Or do you use the Tule measurements?
Tom Shapland 19:02 We use the Tule measurements, that's what I was about to say. The Tule measurements and Tule measurements are correlated to the pressure bomb. So we use some of the academic research that showed the relationship between water stress measured using the Et method and water stress measured using the pressure bond method. We use that relationship to create our ground truth data set.
Craig Macmillan 19:24 Okay, so there was actually there's some kind of steps something's correlated that something's correlated something else. The reason I bring this up is I did a study with Vineyard Team few years ago, and we would interview growers about irrigation scheduling and the number one thing that came out of it was visual. So people might have these other technologies but the number one thing they revised the relied upon was visual. I thought that was really made a lot of sense. I get it. But also the other thing was like even with visual information, you can quantify it. You can count active shoot tips, you can again take pictures for yourself, you can you know look at the Tule Vision information. I went to one of your are demonstrations, I was walking around with a couple of growers, and we were identifying just visually ourselves what we thought the stress level of the vines were. And we were pretty good. We were pretty good. But again, there wasn't a number tied to it. And I think that that's important when you're especially when you're working with 10s of millions of dollars with a crop, winging it. Yeah, you know, your comfort level. And so I think that there's, again, this idea that there's multiple ways of bringing this all together, and you can walk your vineyard and look and early, hey, I'm seeing what I think is the right amount of stress or not. But if you can put a number with it from another measure and go, Hey, now I know exactly how much water I do want to put on I don't want to put on and again, getting to how many inches it actually is how many gallons it actually is, I think is really important. Because otherwise, like you said, we're losing water that otherwise we could be using later. And if it's draining out of the out of the flow profile, then we're losing it. In your guys's minds, what are the biggest challenges? Just overall, we've talked about all kinds of tools and methods? What are some of the biggest challenges overall to scheduling irrigation efficiently? I'm gonna start with you, Lucas.
Lucas Pope 20:59 I mean, it's a constantly moving target. Looking at a forecast right now that you know, we're in the 60s right now. But it's possible to hit 100 on Sunday, and possibly 98 on Monday. Trying to make sure because we're building canopy right now, trying to make sure that we have enough water. So the vines don't stress too early in the season, next week will be really an interesting equation to navigate through because we have so many different vineyards all over the place. Those that have different water holding capacities in the soils, if you have a lower water holding capacity, it's going to be one of my priorities to try and get a little bit of water on this week. Where other sites that are less hillsides or have a drought tolerant rootstock that I know has been established for a few years I'm not so worried about but the constantly moving target is the hardest part about irrigation scheduling, for sure. Like Tom said, we set up targets. I set them up last week for where I want to see my stress levels later in the season. At this point, we're building canopy that's the the focus for right now because I want to have enough canopy to ripen the fruit that is being expected to be grown to a quality level that we want to see into that equation comes how many leaves are going to pull or not based upon sight and location and sunburn exposure or shade cloth use. That all comes into the equation. But because Mother Nature, we're trying to do our best to guide these vines through to the end of the season and deliver a product, a grape itself, that's the highest quality through a maze of what Mother Nature is throwing at us. Like you said, I mean, I can't believe last year's heat waves. It didn't seem that hot. But it was for an extended period of time. The heat spikes I think are what gives us the most, a few years ago when we hit 115 for multiple days straight that that really hurts, we have to be so far in advance thinking about what happens when that situation comes up, we really need to be proactive on those types of situations.
Craig Macmillan 22:57 And that brings me to the next point, which I think is a tricky one. And Tom, I want you to address this. Weather based irrigation scheduling methods like EtAor EtO, they they are backward looking. They're saying hey, this is how much was lost? How can I use this concept of this technology or these ideas to get ahead of it? The grower has got to be in front right or vines are going to collapse. And then you try to put water back on and it's too late. It's got to be wet going into that, right? Those roots need to be wet and cool going into that. What can I do? I mean, there's not a direct relationship necessarily between hey, it's gonna be 105 on Sunday, and that means it's gonna be an EtA of, et cetera. What help can you give us what? What can you tell us?
Tom Shapland 23:41 I can tell you what I see in our data. We have data throughout the state and vineyards all along the coast and inland. And it all boils down to one concept. And this is something that we intuitively know as people who love plants and manage plants. And so they stare at plants all day. And that's that if the plants are in a good water status, before heatwave, they'll do fine. A lot of your vineyards right now out there, it's it's early May when we're talking right now, if we got a heat wave tomorrow, are you are on deep soil and those shoot tips are growing actively and the plants are bright green, they'll do just fine. There's no need to panic and put on 20 hours of water. But if your plants are beginning to dry out, if your water status is more stressed, it's on the brink of being more stressed than you want. And you get a heatwave, that's when you reach these situations where the plants crash and it's hard to get them to recover. And I see this in our data, you know, we get heat waves and as long as the fields that are water stress reading is high, the plants do fine. You know there's not a big drop in fields stat it's when the plants are already kind of at 60% fields stat they're already stressed and we get as heat wave and they don't put on water, then we see fields stats just plummet and it's hard to get them back up. And then the growers are putting on a ton of water. And I think most of that's going to evaporation the plants aren't even able to take it it. Does that match what you've seen Lucas?
Lucas Pope 25:12 Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. The vines as long as they're so happy, going into a heatwave, we're pretty good. And I think that's why we strategize the way we do for our irrigations pre heat waves. And it's always 100%. That's where the forecast comes in. The weather forecast itself comes in having a good weather forecast is very difficult sometimes. So I don't know, Craig, I look at three or four. I don't know how many you look at. But I have my little bits and pieces I pick from each one that I trust. And then I try and put them all together and.
Craig Macmillan 25:46 Hope for the best. It's fun to compare notes with people on what whether they trust, what forecasts they trust. Tommy mentioned a thing called field stat. Can you briefly explain what that is, because it's a technical term?
Tom Shapland 25:58 There are a lot of ways to measure water status of plants, they have been developed in the academic literature for years and years. One way is something that we're all familiar with, and, and that's called pressure chamber, water potential measured with the pressure chamber. Another method is to look at how much water the plants are using and compare that to how much they could use, given the weather in the size of the plant. So imagine a plant, if it's 80 degrees out and sunny, and your size of your plant is a six foot long cordon with a nice full canopy, that plant can use so much water, let's say that plant can use five gallons that day. If that plant is not water stressed, it's gonna use all five gallons. But if that plant is encountering water deficits in the soil, it's going to regulate its water use and its going to use less water, it's gonna use three gallons of water, for example. So if plants are using less water than they potentially could use their water stressed. And in academia, this comparison of how much water plants are using compared to what they potentially could use is called the stress coefficient in the Et equation, but the stress coefficient doesn't sound very snappy. We call it field stat, because it sounds cooler.
Craig Macmillan 27:21 That makes sense. We're running out of time here. But I wanted to ask you guys, what is the one thing that you would advise a fellow grower as far as irrigation scheduling? What would be the one bit of advice you might give somebody? Tom why don't you go first?
Tom Shapland 27:36 Yeah, I was thinking about this when he said, What's the hardest part of irrigation scheduling. And when I started Tule, I thought the hardest part was getting good information that you could act upon. And now after nine years of running this business, I think that the hardest part is organizational. Like customers that do the best at farming, they're the most profitable, that grow the best fruit, are the best organized. Our best customers have somebody that is in charge of figuring out the priorities of what's important agronomically. And then once they've identified the priorities, agronomically, they have a process for evaluating which tool they're gonna use to help them achieve their agronomic goals. And then they have a process for implementing it and holding people accountable. Farming is chaos. It's a great Mike Tyson, quote, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. You know, every farmer goes into the growing season with a great plan. But then the farming season happens, you lose a well and whatnot. And it all goes to heck. And the best companies we work with, have systems in place where they have goals, and they have somebody holding everyone on their team accountable to those goals. And I'm gonna say the opposite of that now. And when I think of those customers, I have a rosy and optimistic outlook for California agriculture. Unfortunately, they're the minority. Majority of farming operations they have, I mean, it sounds really harsh to say this, I wonder if I should say it on record. But I think it's true. From my experiences working in ag, the majority of farming operations, they have too many ad hoc processes. You know, too many things, too many responsibilities, that should be corporate initiatives pushed down on their individual ranch manager. And the ranch manager is too busy trying to run the pumps and game the fertilizer out and getting the sprays done to actually be able to implement these things that are really important and much more bigger picture. And we have to stay ahead of these. Otherwise LA's gonna take all our water.
Craig Macmillan 29:34 So just to kind of summarize, having systems in place and having people that are responsible for executing those systems. So it's great to have a plan but unless you have some structure that's going to withstand the panic, right, that ensues during the growing season, then you're going to struggle.
Tom Shapland 29:53 Yes, and I'm sorry, I'm gonna keep soapboxing for a little bit here. That means that you can't put your ranch managers in charge of evaluating technology and what technologies are getting us which practices they're getting us because they're too busy. You gotta have somebody more senior, somebody at Lucas Pope's level in the organization to say, water is important at this company, pest management is important at this company. Here's how we're going to do it. And I'm going to hold you accountable all season long that you're getting this done.
Craig Macmillan 30:20 Yeah, I think the comparison to pest management is a good one. If you got field scouts that are quantifying and reporting back to maybe a head PCA or to a manager, that's very different than relying upon your tractor drivers to report when things look bad. And unfortunately, a lot of us don't have time or money or to organizationally address that. But if you can, that's going to be your best route for irrigation. And for other things. Lucas, what's the one thing you'd advise a grower regarding this irrigation scheduling?
Lucas Pope 30:47 Super interesting. Listen to Tom, on one thing, it's hard, paying attention to details is going to be your biggest asset. Spending the time I was struggling with the whole idea of something I want to do ages ago was make work orders like in a winery for irrigation, sprays, so that you hand someone a piece of paper, they have to sign off on the work being done. and report back to you see how to record of it.
Craig Macmillan 31:13 It's hard to do in farming, though, because it's a day to day morning of, you know, kind of thing. But yeah, I hear what you're saying. Yeah,
Lucas Pope 31:20 I mean, ultimately, we're always looking to the future instead of the past with the forecast and how hot it's going to be and how our well health is and how much water we have available to us in a reservoir or trying to look forward. And then also having really good people. And it's extremely difficult to find really good people. But when you build a team, and everybody's working towards the same goal, so from the top to the bottom, we all know the same goal, it becomes much easier to implement a plan of action.
Craig Macmillan 31:51 Well, this is interesting. We we're out of time, the one comment I want to make to kind of bring this all together is we started with technology, we ended up with people. And I think that that's a key bit of this business is the people part and how we apply things. I want to thank you both for being here. I guess it's been Tom Shapland, founder, Co-Founder and CEO of Tule Technologies and Lucas Pope, Director of Operations for Coastal Vineyard Services here in the central coast. Really fascinating conversation. I really appreciate you guys taking the time. Please visit our website for other podcasts and information and we hope that you will come back and take another listen to Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team. Thank you.
Tom Shapland 32:28 Thank you for having us. This was really fun.
Lucas Pope 32:30 I really enjoyed it.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai | |||
| 138: 5 Tips for Your Wine Brand's Social Media | Marketing Tip Monday | 27 Jun 2022 | 00:04:39 | |
| 137: The Pierce's Disease and Glassy-winged Sharpshooter Board | 16 Jun 2022 | 00:22:58 | |
Invasive pests and diseases are a challenge for all grape growers. Research is vital to develop new strategies and solutions. The Pierce’s Disease/Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Board was established nearly two decades ago to allocate funding to the most promising research projects. Kristin Lowe, Research Coordinator at the Pierce's Disease and Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Board and President of Vine Balance Consulting shares how projects are funded through a rigorous scientific review and screening panel. Also, learn about some of the most exciting projects including “pathogen confusion” to control Pierce’s Disease from Dr. Steve Lindow and a gene editing technology for grapevines using plant protoplasts Dr David Tricoli. References:
Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. TranscriptCraig Macmillan 0:00 I'm your host Craig Mcmillan. And with me today is Kristin Lowe, president of Vine Balance Consulting, and research coordinator for the Pierce's Disease Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Board. Welcome, Kristin.
Kristin Lowe 0:12 Thank you so much for having me.
Craig Macmillan 0:13 First off, can you tell us what is the Pierce's Disease and Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Board or the PDGWSS? As I want to call it from now on?
Kristin Lowe 0:21 Absolutely. So the PDGWSS Board is a group of California growers or grower producers. There's 14 board members and also one public member. And their primary goal is to make sure that all of the assessment funds that are received to the board go to the most promising research for our most challenging pests and diseases today. Those that are designated as important problems.
Craig Macmillan 0:48 And so the funding comes from an assessment.
Kristin Lowe 0:50 That is correct. So the assessment, I believe, on average is about $1.50 per $1,000 of grapes in terms of value .The most, the cap is at $3 per 1000 grapes in value. But yes, that's collected every year and has been so since the board started back in 2001.
Craig Macmillan 1:13 What led to the creation of the board?
Kristin Lowe 1:15 Pierce's Disease. So. Well, I think anyone who's looked into the history of Pierce's Disease, so this is a bacterial disease, endemic to California, not not necessarily new to California, right. But what was new to California was not only the establishment, but the fact that the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter started thriving down in Southern California. That is the vector for Pierce's Disease. That insect exists in parts of Mexico and also parts of Florida and the Southeast US. But it got to California, and it started doing really well to the point that Pierce's disease started taking off. This led to a lot of sad looking pictures of dead vines, lots of concern over lost acreage, and this would be during the late 1990s or so. And in response to this, industry leaders from all different groups came together. A combination of industry USDA, UC California researchers, CDFA, to create the Pierce's Disease Control Program. And that's got many facets, but one of it is the PDGWSS Board, which whose mission is to fund the most important research to combat Pierce's Disease, Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter and all the other pests that they've designated in their RFP.
Craig Macmillan 2:31 Yeah. And so the the mission is expanded now beyond just Glassy-Wing to a number of other invasive pests that correct?
Kristin Lowe 2:37 Yeah, it has it has. And there's, there's a clear path for that. And I think what really blew that open was the European Grapevine Moth. So another invasive pest species that showed up, oh, gosh, and I think that was somewhere around 2011 or so maybe a little bit before, but agriculture always has a new bad guy. And so we needed a way for the for the PDGWSS board to, you know, expand what it was going to fund in terms of research to deal with new problems and, and continuing ones that keep coming back.
Craig Macmillan 3:08 So what exactly is your role with the board?
Kristin Lowe 3:11 Sure. So, they put out a call for proposals for a research coordinator last year, and I got the job, very excited. And so my goal is to kind of basically help guide the program to make sure that what we're funding is really on point to, to our goal, on point to making sure that the research is heading in the right direction, it's we get continual progress, and is also able to collaborate with, you know, get foster collaboration with other agencies, we have this general sense that we've been going since 2001. And there's been a lot of really great research going on for Pierce's Disease. These days, our problems might be different. And so the RFP expanded, also to include grapevine viruses. And those seem to be a real multi headed monster, for the industry for many levels. So I think that while my overall goal is just to make sure that the research funding program is focused and relevant, we're starting to look a lot more closely at visruses.
Craig Macmillan 4:20 And RFPs is Request for Proposals?
Kristin Lowe 4:22 Correct RFP is the request for proposals.
Craig Macmillan 4:25 Okay, so academics, scientists, will write up a proposal of what they want to do research wise, and they bring it to the board, and the board, evaluates them and decides, hey, would give some money to this, we'll give some money to that.
Kristin Lowe 4:39 Yes, absolutely. So we coordinate with other funding agencies and for the wine industry and actually for the whole wine and grape industry, not just in California, but in Oregon as well. And we all put out a request for proposals on the same date, December 1. And that after a couple months that closes and we look atthe proposals and they go through the PDGWSS Board, they go through scientific review, pretty stringent scientific review, and then also our research screening panel process. And ultimately, the Board makes the final decision on what gets funded within that year.
Craig Macmillan 5:14 Cool. So tell us about some of these projects. I mean, it's been 20 years. What's happened? What are some of the ones that you are excited about? Or remember are really proud of?
Kristin Lowe 5:23 Yeah, oh, there's so many. And I am I am so nervous about like glossing over things or missing details that I'm going to take this opportunity to tell everybody that there's some great resources on our website that you can, that you can look at to get more details. And that is cdfa.ca.gov/PDCP/research. And on there you can look at, there's a document that says projects at a glance, just great layman's layman person summaries of all of the research has been going on. There's our entire research symposium proceedings, and some recordings as well of
Craig Macmillan 6:05 Yes,
Kristin Lowe 6:06 ... recent one. So, you know, because this is public assessment money, this information should be available to everyone in the industry. So we work really hard to keep that website updated.
Craig Macmillan 6:16 And we will have links to all of those on the page.
Kristin Lowe 6:19 Okay, cool. Cool. Cool. Okay, so some science.
Craig Macmillan 6:23 Yes!
Kristin Lowe 6:23 Have you heard Dr. Steve Lindow talk about his work on Paraburkholderia?
Craig Macmillan 6:29 No, I haven't.
Kristin Lowe 6:31 You haven't? I thought he I thought he presented at this Sustainable Ag Expo a few years ago, but maybe I'm mistaken.
Craig Macmillan 6:37 No, he may have been I may not have been there.
Kristin Lowe 6:40 Yeah, yeah. So Dr. Steve Lindow, is at UC Davis. And he made a crazy exciting discovery, there is a endophytic bacteria called Paraburkholderia phytofirmans, I'll just call it like, Paraburkholderia. That's enough of a mouthful.
Craig Macmillan 6:57 That's enough, yeah.
Kristin Lowe 6:58 And it inhibits the movement of xylella fastidiosa. So of the Pierce's Disease controlling or the organism responsible for Pierce's Disease, within the vine. So this endophytic bacteria, if you put it in the vine, at the same time, that's Xylella, in there, it not only moves throughout the vine, so it becomes systemic, but it inhibits the movement of the pathogen. So this is kind of huge. This species has been looked at before for for other reasons. But what this basically is, we're hoping that it leads to, is an infield treatment with an endophytic bacteria. So his work has involved figuring out, first of all the mechanism. But second of all, the practical aspect of this, which is what I love about it. It seems to work best when the two organisms are there together. So there's a timing of you know, do we pre inoculate with endophytic bacteria, and then it gets Xylella. That works. Or if a vine has been infected with Xylella, and then you are able to treat it with a Paraburkholderia. It also helps to not only the reduce the Xylella count, but reduce symptoms.
Craig Macmillan 8:14 How do you introduce it this thing into the vine?
Kristin Lowe 8:18 Oh, right. Yeah, first of all, with a pinprick basically. So an inoculation, I don't think everyone out there is going to want to go through and inoculate every vine. So they are working on a sprayable formulation. And to be able to actually get that into the vine, as well. And it seems to work with certain types of surfactants. So that's kind of where that technology is at is, you know, how do we create, you know, how do we create a usable product with it? What's going to work the best in the field? What's, what's the most practical in terms of rate, and timing? And in getting the endophytic bacteria into the vines?
Craig Macmillan 8:54 That's, that's amazing. That's definitely amazing. Endophytic bacteria is something that lives inside the plant.
Kristin Lowe 9:00 Yes, it is naturally there, there are 1000s of them and 1000s have been tried to see if they first of all actually move throughout the plant rather than in just the place that you found them. And second, if they are going to work against any sort of pathogens. Yeah, an amazing discovery and work that's been going on for for years and is I believe, is finally in the stages of getting to field trials and seeing how it would work. But imagine if you could go out to your block that you know is going to get pressure every year and think that you could decrease that pressure with with a spray. Never, I mean PD kills vines, that's huge. And in areas with constant pressure, it kills just more and more every year. So to have that sort of infield treatment is pretty exciting.
Craig Macmillan 9:45 Is this the kind of project that would receive funding over many years or multiple years from the board?
Kristin Lowe 9:49 Absolutely. And I don't remember when it first started. Definitely preceded my time there, but I think I've been following it since at least 2016.
Craig Macmillan 9:52 Oh, wow. Okay.
Kristin Lowe 9:52 No, it takes time from you know, discovery not only to making sure it's going to work, and then and then there's all this stuff after to get it actually implemented. But most of these projects that are going to result in a long term sustainable solution, or long term projects, you need years of data to make sure that they're gonna work.
Craig Macmillan 10:17 Science takes time.
Kristin Lowe 10:19 It takes time. I know, we're always impatient about that. But it does definitely take time.
Craig Macmillan 10:25 And support.
Kristin Lowe 10:26 Yeah, yeah.
Craig Macmillan 10:27 What's, what's something else that you're excited about?
Kristin Lowe 10:30 Okay, another one that's pretty exciting and groundbreaking is work by Dr. David Tricoli. And he's at the UC Davis Plant Transformation Facility. Have you heard of him at all?
Craig Macmillan 10:42 No, no.
Kristin Lowe 10:43 Okay. So he's doing has done something that might sound simple, but it opens up a wealth of options for future research. He's developed a cell culture method for regenerating a grapevine from a cell Protoplast. So you might remember back from biology, major differences between animals and plants. Plants are surrounded by a cell wall, animal cells, plant cells. Animal cells are not. When some of the like gene editing technology is coming out that's happening in animal cells, it's a lot easier to do, because they don't have the cell wall. Previous to this work, no one's been able to regenerate a grapevine from just a Protoplast. Without a cell wall. What this work has done is enabled there to be a platform of getting a group of grape cells together, just their protoplasts without the cell wall, onto which you could potentially do CRISPR Cas9, or some of the other fast developing gene editing techniques that are out there.
Craig Macmillan 11:45 This this is a technology I've heard repeatedly, and I'm I have no idea what the acronym stands for. And I'm not really sure I understand what it does. So what is CRISPR? Yeah,
Kristin Lowe 11:55 and I'm not going to tell you exactly what the acronym stands for either. To me, but so Cas9 is is a gene editing technology that allows for very, very precise small changes in a gene or in a genome. Ultimately, when done for plants by multiple steps later, it can result in a plant that's retained this small edit, but has absolutely no foreign DNA. And unlike a traditional GMO, that would have external DNA from a plasmid or from some other plant, this one is I can kind of think of it as like a lucky or benevolent mutation occurred. And you can't tell but it was purposeful. And and the result is a different phenotype that, that you can see. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing is it's been out there for a number of years now. But it's taken time for everyone to develop different platforms for which it could work. For plants, especially for plants that are always regenerated by cuttings. So we don't do crosses to get new grapes, we take cuttings, we need a platform to possibly be able to do this. What this work has done is developed that platform. Where it could go it completely depends you need to you need to know which you know which genes to edit, which ones are going to reduce, are going to result in a phenotype. Obviously, what's fascinating, or what's most interesting to me is disease resistance that's usually complex multigenic. So we're still a ways down there from coming up with a with a solution. But the fact that the platform was developed, was actually a major breakthrough.
Craig Macmillan 13:35 That's phenomenal. So that's research that was done. It's gonna open the door for new research?
Kristin Lowe 13:40 Potentially, exactly. I mean, you can hear about CRISPR-Cas9 and the news happening to everything else, but but not the crop you're interested in until someone figures out that they're all different. Right?
Craig Macmillan 13:52 Right, right. What, is their other pests that have come into the catalogue that you think are interesting in that people are doing interesting work on?
Kristin Lowe 13:59 Our most recent designated past is the Spotted Lantern Fly, we do not have that one yet. Depending on who you ask it seems inevitable that's making its way steadily west from Pennsylvania. And so that's one that the Board and has its eye on for for sure. But we don't have it yet, but we're accepting proposals for it. Because we're trying to be ready. It's actually pretty rare that you can eradicate a, an invasive pest. The fact that California did it with a European Grapevine Moth is it is an amazing example. What's next right? Yeah, so Spotted Lantern Fly is probably next on our horizon is being something that would certainly be problematic if it got here, and you know, trying to stay ahead about research to understand how it would and could be controlled.
Craig Macmillan 14:52 Does the does the board fund research in states other than Oregon and California?
Kristin Lowe 14:56 The board funds researchers. So we do have PIs from from out of state and from not from the West Coast. Absolutely. The Board funds projects, obviously, they have to have some applicability to what we're, what our problems are and what we're concerned with. But yeah, there's no real state, state by state guideline.
Craig Macmillan 15:16 Right. Right. Right. Well, you know, you mentioned the review process. I just want to shift gears to that. What are the boxes that need to be checked or the hurdles that need to be cleared to get a project funded? What are the what are the criteria that the board and the written in the reviewers are looking for?
Kristin Lowe 15:31 Oh, sure. Well, I believe it's even just out there when we send up the call for proposals. But it just basically has to be really good science. It needs to be well, you know, well justified that there's either preliminary data or an excellent premise from a different crop. Or another reason why this idea would work. There have to be sound and detailed materials and methods that are laid out there has to be good experimental design, especially when you get to the field level, right, proper controls, proper replication, the stats will have to work, right, all of those things, the budget needs to be reasonable, all those sorts of things for sure.
Craig Macmillan 16:09 Which reminds me how much money is available each year?
Kristin Lowe 16:12 It varies. So it will it will depend on on the assessment. And I'm not the numbers person, I'm more the idea person. But I yeah, I have something that could find a figure for you for later. But I think over the 20 years, I believe I read that we have had up to somewhere between 60 and 70 million. But that's not all straight for research. It also goes to the Person's Disease control program treatments for battling Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter outbreaks and some of those control.
Craig Macmillan 16:44 So what is the one thing related to this that you would recommend to our listeners? How can we how can we help?
Kristin Lowe 16:51 Oh, that's a great question. How can you help. Well, stay stay engaged. Make sure that everyone all the way up the chain knows what your problems are. And and what, you know what what you really need. This is grower money, that for this particular funding program, there are other agencies out there that are simply donation only, not for profit. But I would say, so this is assessment money so it's a little bit unique. But I would say in general, your problems are not unique. And, I mean, we all we're all dealing with some of the same problems. And we have to come together as an industry to, you know, industry to help solve them. A, stay informed, work with researchers. One of the hardest things is for researchers to find field trials or fields that will let them come do some experimentation. They're always looking for industry partners, as sources of sick vines, helping to track patterns, helping to try new technology, just to collect data. Collaborators like that are always needed.
Craig Macmillan 17:57 I think that's some great encouragement. I think that's a great message. Don't be afraid to be a collaborator.
Kristin Lowe 18:01 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It gives you kind of a seat at the table. And researchers aren't growers. And so we need to have this kind of constant communication for there to be good outreach of what they found, to make sure it's applicable and that everyone understands it and and will adopt it too. The most frustrating thing is if something comes out, and people are slow to adopt it, even though it works. So staying informed about what's current, and what are what are new, good ideas.
Craig Macmillan 18:27 I think that's important. So pay attention.
Kristin Lowe 18:30 Yeah, get out there to grow our meetings and and industry meetings. And, yeah, a lot of these researchers do try very hard to do outreach. They hear you if you're if you're there and are showing up for the conversation.
Craig Macmillan 18:43 If I wanted to be a collaborator, how can I make myself available?
Kristin Lowe 18:46 Oh, gosh, that's a good question. Well, first of all, you would need to know what was going on. So you would need to need to, you know, go to meetings, listen to these people talk, you know, decide if you have similar problems. Almost all of them pass up their email and say, Look, yeah, I've got a place where I've got this, this issue going on. I've you know, been dealing with virus or I've been near dealing with Pierce's Disease. And do you need a field? You know, do you need data set? Some sort of field data or collaboration or a field site? Yeah.
Craig Macmillan 19:16 Well, that's fantastic. That's great advice. Where can people find out more about you?
Kristin Lowe 19:21 Oh, me personally? Okay, well, sure. I've been I started a consulting company almost 10 years ago, and my website is vinebalancedconsulting.com. I am largely based out of the Napa-Sonoma area, and keep in my toe in the research world because it's exciting. And viticulture is a science. That's one reason why I love it.
Craig Macmillan 19:44 It's nice to talk somebody loves science. Yeah. I love talking about science. It's so much fun. Well, I think it's time today I want to thank Kristin Lowe, who is the Research Coordinator for the Pierces Disease/Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Board and President of Vine Balance Consulting. Check out the website we'll have links and notes of where to go and we look forward to talking to you again.
Kristin Lowe 20:08 You're most welcome. Thank you for the opportunity. Have a great growing season.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai | |||
| 136: The Modern Subscription Model | Marketing Tip Monday | 13 Jun 2022 | 00:04:19 | |
| 135: Cold Hardiness of Grapevines | 02 Jun 2022 | 00:35:18 | |
There are three levels of cold hardiness in grapes and understanding these can help growers select and manage the best varieties for their region. Imed Dami, Professor of Viticulture in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science at The Ohio State University, explains cold tolerance and new information about the role of abscisic acid in ripening. First an overview of cold hardiness. The first level is very cold tender. A lot of these varieties are grown in California and they are not native to North America. Second, are cold hardy, or tolerant grapes. These are the native species to North America. And third are hybrid crosses. The majority of grapes being farmed fall into this category. New research is being done on abscisic acid, a plant hormone that induces dormancy. When sprayed around version, it can help send the plants into dormancy earlier and maintain a deeper dormancy which makes the grapevines more cold tolerant. References:
Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. TranscriptCraig Macmillan 0:00 Our guest today is Imed Dami. He's Professor of Viticulture in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science at The Ohio State University. Thanks for being on the show, Imed. So you're doing some pretty interesting work there in the Midwest or East, depending on who you ask. So you work in Ohio, and you work in cold hardiness of grapes, grape vines, which is the work you've been doing for quite a fair amount of time. Now, you did that as well, in your graduate work. What can you tell us about what the climatic conditions are like in Ohio, especially in regards to cold weather, that may not be seen another grape growing region to the US. So other listeners may not be familiar with kind of the challenges there are.
Imed Dami 0:35 So in terms of the growing season in Ohio, it could be similar to many other grape growing regions in the country. However, during the dormant season, in the winter, it is different, it is much colder in Ohio. So the way we determine you know, how cold it is, in Ohio, is there is this maps, it's called the plant called hardness map developed by USDA. And these maps are based on lowest temperature for 30 years during the coldest month of the year. So they put that information together, you know, and they come up with averages, and then they divide, you know, each state into different zones based on those minimum temperature. Okay. So for example, in Ohio, we have three zone. The minimum temperature range between zero and minus 15 fahrenheit. So that is cold. And then they designate you know, these zones, like a number and the letter. So, for example, in Ohio, we have the three zones, you know, designated as six B, six A and five B. However, the majority of the state falls in the what we call six A's zone, where temps range between minus five to minus 15. So that is very cold. So, how do we relate this to the grapes? Grape vines, typically, they start to see cold damage at temperature of zero fahrenheit, or lower. So you could see, you know, like grown grapes in the majority of the location in Ohio is challenging, you know, just because of how cold it gets during the winter. Just to give you like a point of reference, these numbers, you know, of the zones, the higher the number, the milder the winter is. So, for example, in California, the majority of the grape growing region, they fall in the region of 9, 10, and 11 zones. And in those zones, the minimum temperature doesn't fall below freezing. So that's why in California, you don't hear any, you know, problems about cold damage during the winter.
Craig Macmillan 2:44 That's in that brings up an interesting point. So, you know, you say damage happening at zero degrees fahrenheit, why is it the vine damaged and cell walls breaking and whatnot, when we get below freezing? If that vine is full of, you know, water, that it's taken up in the fall and things like that? Why is it why does it need to get so cold before we see damage?
Imed Dami 3:03 That's a good question. So the, the plants in general, they have a different mechanism of survival, you know, to cold. So when it comes to grape vines, the most sensitive part of the vine are the buds. And these buds, the way they survive winter is with the mechanism that we call a super cooling. So what super cooling is, is basically, the water or the solution, and the plant remains liquid, even below freezing temperatures. So that's how the grapevines you know, buds survive those minimum temperatures. So that is the mechanism by which grape vines survive. Of course, when you have a super cooling up to a point, in general, plants could super cool down to like minus 40 Fahrenheit, which is very cold. But it ranges you know, from let's say, like I said, you know, just below freezing all the way down to that. And the difference is the type of grape variety or species which I will be talking about later on.
Craig Macmillan 4:08 What is severe cold damage on grapes look like? Again, a lot of folks outside of the Midwest or the northern United States may not have ever seen anything like it before. And what kind of economic impacts are there?
Imed Dami 4:19 Sure, the vines you know, they have this parts that are above ground, and any part above the ground that is exposed to those minimum temperature could sustain cold damage. And then because there are different parts, the one that is the most sensitive are the buds, like I mentioned earlier, the way you identify a cold damage is by cutting through the bud. And then the typically, the buds are alive, they look green, and then when they are damaged, they look brown, so it's very easy to tell, you know, by visual observation. And then within grapevines, we have what we call the combpound buds, they call them compound because there is a primary, secondary, and tertiary bud. Primary bud actually is where the fruit comes from. Unfortunately, that is the most sensitive to cold. So what that means is every time you have cold damage, the primary bud is damaged, that means that's going to become like a loss, you know, in crops. And then the other tissue that is important that could also sustain damage is what we call the vascular tissues. These are basically the pipeline's you know, in the grapevine, primarily what we call the phloem, and the cambium. And those two actually, same thing, when you will cut through the cane, you know, or the corridor or the trunk, you'll see the color change to brown, which indicates cold damage. Though the worst case scenario is not only you have the canes damaged the cordon, the trunk, but also the whole vine, and basically, cold actually could cause complete vine death. So in terms of economic impact, it depends on the severity of the plant part that is damaged. So if you have only buds damaged, that's typically becomes you know, like a more like a crop loss. Same thing with more severe damage with the vascular tissue, let's say in cane, cordon, or trunk, you lose, you know, those parts of the vine like a cane, you may lose it or the cordon, or the trunk. The most severe damage is vine death, basically, the whole vine dies. In terms of economic impact for the vine damage. Actually, there is a study done in New York, where they estimated the loss, you know, from a dead vine due to cold. And their estimate is a loss of $155 per vine, and this is for vinifera. So if you extrapolate that to per acre is equivalent to $125,000 per acre in terms of losses. And the main reason is not only you have to buy new vines, you have to replace you know, remove the vines, do the replanting, and then also, the main thing is you have a loss of production for four years. And then basically, when we talk about wine grapes, you're not only losing the grapes, you are also losing the product, which is why for four years, and that's why the number is so high and significant.
Craig Macmillan 7:20 That's a good question. So if you have a bad winter, and you go in and you evaluate buds, and they're dead, and you then go into the cordon and look and say oh, that's not good. And then you work your way down into the trunk, and look at that, is it ever the case that you will hit a spot where there's still some vinifera that's alive towards where the rootstock graft union is that you could graft on to or that you might get some latent buds to come out.
Imed Dami 7:45 So, actually, I will talk about this later on in terms of the practices, you know, in the vineyard when we talk about grafted vines, which is, you know, common for vinifera. The reason why I mentioned this, because typically here we also grow hybrids, they're not grafte. With the grafted vines, you typically hear in the east, we mound soil around the graft union. So at the base of the trunk, you know, you see this what we call mounting or healing up around the vine. And the main reason is to protect you know, that graph tune because it's very sensitive. And then also the base of that trunk to avoid any damage in case of the worst case scenario, like you said. When do you have damaged, you know, all the way of the cordon and then the trunks. If you have that situation, then you save the base of that trunk. And then you have regrowth, you know, of the vine. So that's typically how it is done, it is not common here to graft over, you know, the vines when they are damaged. But that is typically the practice, you know,
Craig Macmillan 8:48 Which reminds you something else. So is this a temperature over time kind of a curve? Or is it a threshold? Once we hit this temperature it's done or is it need to be at a temperature for a period of time before the damage really shows up?
Imed Dami 9:03 Typically, when you reach like the temperature outside, you basically have the temperature outside and then the temperature of the tissue. When we talk about the small tissue like gray buds, they reach an equilibrium between the two. So as soon as it gets cold, you know, let's say two minus 10 in the outside it will be minus 10 in the buds as well. So in that case, you know, the the freezing of the water is instantaneous. It's like immediately. When you have tissues that are bigger, like the cordon or the trunks because they're thicker you know, just like you take a piece of wood you know and then the temperature usually outside is colder colder than the temperature in the trunk. So it takes more time for trunk to get damaged. You know it may be like hours before it really, yeah. So typically here in our situation, you know, when we have some these big events like the polar vortex back in 2014 Not only it got cold, but it's stayed cold for a long time. And those are the worst scenarios, you know, because not only a damaging or the bad, but also, it damaged the trunks as well, because it's so cold, you know, for a long time.
Craig Macmillan 10:11 When we see this kind of an event, are we looking at a 100% loss across the vineyard?
Imed Dami 10:16 No, not typically. So, again, you know, I'd be mentioning this later on. The vines, you know, they tolerate cold based on their genetic makeup. So there are some varieties like the vinifera, they are very cold tender, they may sustained some damage, or more damaged than more cold tolerant or resistant varieties, like, you know, Concord, or some of the native grapes, you know, here grown in the east. So there are differences, you know, that you see, in terms of cold damage.
Craig Macmillan 10:49 Tell me more, you mentioned hybrids before and we're talking about different varieties, what can you tell us about the cold tolerance to cold hardiness of different varieties and what the genetic background might be on those and how plant breeding has addressed this problem maybe.
Imed Dami 11:03 So as I mentioned earlier, the cold hardens is actually a genetic trait. So what that means is the genetic makeup of each variety determines the cold hardens level of that variety. So it is in the genes, you know, of the viru. Based on that we have, like mainly three groups of grape types, if you want to call them The first group, what we call very cold, tender or cold sensitive, these are the group of the species vitis vinifera, these are basically the varieties grown in California. And the main reason why they're so tender, because they're not native to North America, they are used to more what we call a Mediterranean climate, you know, which is characterized by mild winters. So when we imported them here, and we grow them like in climates, like here in Ohio, it is very challenging because they're so tender. The other group, kind of the other extreme is what we call the cold hardy group, you know, or cold tolerant. These are native grapes. These are native species to North America, and we find them a lot here in eastern US, like vitis labrusca, an example of variety, like very popular varieties Concord. We also have other species like vitis riparia. So these are all native to this region. And those species are very cold, hard, you know, because they're used to the type of climate, you know, they are grown in. And then the third group is what we call the hybrid. So the hybrids are crosses between the vinifera and the native grapes. And the main reason why they develop these crosses is the vinifera basically provide the quality of the fruit, and eventually the wine. And then the native grapes provide the cold hardiness. In our industry, and generally, in the east, most of the grapes we grow actually are hybrids, because they tolerate a more cold, you know, than the vinifera. And there are several examples of varieties, old varieties like Vidal. Seyval, example of Chambourcin. And, and then we have now like a lot of new hybrids, like Traminette, Chardonel, are varieties are developed from New York program. And then we also have other very cold hardy do they call it super hardy varieties from the University of Minnesota like Frontenac, Marquette. These are very hardy varieties. And they are hybrids.
Craig Macmillan 13:28 Yeah, they were developed in Minnesota that have to be pretty darn hardy. You can see the challenge there. Tell us about your work around abscisic acid, I know that that's related to cold hardiness, that's related to sugar and other things. First of all, tell us what what is abscisic acid, ABA, what is abscisic acid.
Imed Dami 13:48 So abscisic acid acid actually is a plant hormone, it is naturally produced by the plan. And typically it is, it is associated with a lot of like physiological response by the plant. And one of them actually induces dormancy. Our idea when we use the abscisic acid is we try to kind of enhance dormancy by applying abscisic acid, you know. So we are adding more abscisic acid to the plant that produces its ow. And by doing that we could, our hypothesis at the time is can we change the dormancy like in terms of occurrence, you know, can we make it happen earlier because the earlier the vines enter into dormancy, the more prepared they are for the winter. And then number two, yeah, and then number two is the level of dormancy, the more dormant the vines, the better they do in the winter. And so when we applied abscisic acid actually did both. So while we are pleased with the responses. And then eventually vines, you know, not only they enter into dormancy earlier in the season, they also have a deeper dormancy. But then that actually was reflected later on in more cold hardy response by the vines that are treated with abscisic acid. So it was really a very positive response, you know, by applying that product. It was the first time this product was used in grapevines. And we're very excited to know by the response.
Craig Macmillan 15:21 How is it applied?
Imed Dami 15:22 We looked at the timing, you know, when is the best time to apply it. And what we found is actually, right after verasion during fruit ripening, when the leaves are still on the vines, you know, actually, the fruit is still maturing, we found that is the best time to apply abacisic acid. So this is basically sprayed, you know, it's a liquid, that you spray it on the canopy. And then that's it, then basically, we look at the response, you know, later in the fall, and then during the winter, so.
Craig Macmillan 15:56 You also mentioned a deeper dormancy. What does that mean? When is deeper dormancy?
Imed Dami 16:03 A deeper dormancy, that means the vines, you know, basically, during the fall, they began to enter into what we call dormant, you know, basically, they go into a state of like, asleep. When they do that, sometimes they don't go like into what I call, like a deep sleep, you know, and then that has to do with the climate, the conditions, you know, that they were exposed to every year depends also on the vine health, etc. When the vines enter into deeper dormancy, that means it takes more time and more effort to wake them up. And then when they are more dormant, they actually gain a more cold hardiness as compared to when they're not as as dominant. So, so that's what we mean by deeper dormancy.
Craig Macmillan 16:55 And that can be achieved by applying abscisic acid into the canopy, right around verasion?
Imed Dami 17:02 Yeah, we weren't able to do that. Exactly. So again, you know, like anything else. When you apply a product, you know, it works in some varieties, it doesn't work in others. It works in some climates, you know, not under others. So, we see sometimes this kind of inconsistency. But when we have a controlled environment, let's say in a greenhouse, we consistently see the response to abscisic acid by the plants. So basically, absciscic acid you could think of it as it mimics the environmental cues that typically the vines, you know, get from the environment because the vine, for the vines that go dormant and begin acclimating it has to have two clues from the. It's short days, as soon as the days become shorter, the vines you know, start to get dormant. And then the second clue or cue is the temperature. When he started to get colder, the virus begin to become more dominant and become more cold tolerant. So those are the two. And then we could replace those two cues, actually, by applying ABA.
Craig Macmillan 18:10 You know, actually, this brings up something that often or continually be been kind of confused about. How does the vine sense photoperiod? If the leaves are falling off or becoming cut off from the rest of the vine, is there another organ or way that the vine can sense what's going on with the light?
Imed Dami 18:30 Well, actually, they do that sensing when the leaves are still on.
Craig Macmillan 18:33 They do. Okay.
Imed Dami 18:34 Yeah, so the receptors really actually are by the leafs you know, and I think that's why probably even when we applied the ABA was more effective, you know, when the vines still have their leaves on. So that I mean when you think about like short days, you know, during the growing season that starts back in June. So it's such like a way early see and then actually, by that time the vines begin already sensing you know, this short days, they begin the process actually of cold acclimation. So cold acclamation, or we call the hardening off of the vines. Actually, it begins right when the fruit begins to ripen during verasion. So it happened like way early, you know, like in the summer, basically, you talking about July, you know, and you start to see the tissue, as they, as the fruit is ripening the vines actually at the same time is preparing for the winter at the same time. And then it will continue after the leaves are dropped. And then the vines become more sensitive to the temperature rather than the full period. So it becomes the second step is based mainly on the temperature.
Craig Macmillan 19:38 Interesting, interesting.
Imed Dami 19:39 And that's why during the winter because that is the coldest month, the vines you know, they sense these cold temperatures, and they reach actually their maximum cold hardens during the winter because they need it.
Craig Macmillan 19:51 And then it's the response to the warming temperatures that brings them out of dormancy.
Imed Dami 19:54 Exactly. And that basically happened like late winter like right now or early spring and that's why basically, the winds, you know, begin to wake up. And that phenomenon is typically driven exclusively by temperature. As it starts warming up, you know, in the spring, the vines, you know, begin to do, what we call deacclimate. So that means they lose their cold hardness, and then they start growing again.
Craig Macmillan 20:18 What can growers do, are specific practical things that growers can do to prepare for, or manage, or prevent damage to vines in these really cold areas.
Imed Dami 20:30 Sure, yes. In terms of like things that the growers could do, there are three main category, if you want to call them. The first one is what we call a preventative. So how do you prepare for the cold before even it happens. One of the main ways to do that actually is site selection. You have to have a very good site to grow the grapes, and avoid, you know, this minimum temperatures. So that is very critical. You know, especially for us here in the east. The other thing is selecting the proper variety. So like I mentioned, we have variety that are very sensitive dive right at a more cold hardy. So it's very important to match the cold hardness of that variety with the site where you're going to grow them. You cannot grow for example, vinifera in a site where it gets to minus 10, you know, every year, that is not possible. The other thing in terms of practices. And again, this is more unique, you know, to eastern US, is we train vines with multiple trunks. If you look at the vines, you know, in California, they all have a single trunk. For us here we have multiple trunks. So you could see a vine with two trunks, you know, they look like they are two vines, but they're not like one vine with two or more trunks. And the main reason is when we have a cold event, that cold event doesn't kill both of those trunks kills one and not the other, so they don't die simultaneously. So that is kind of like a kind of an insurance, you know, practice. And typically we see this in almost all grapevines. When we have injuries, you see one trying to get damaged and not the other. The other thing that I mentioned earlier, is we heal up the vines to protect the grafting union. So this practice actually is done every year, it is done in the fall, and then the vines have to be dehilled, or removing those mounds in the spring. So this is a common practice that we use for vinifera here in the east. And then the third one is what we call cultural practices. In terms of fertilization, crop management, anything basically improves fruit quality also is favorable for improving cold hardiness. In terms of during the cold event, the main thing that our growers, you know, some of them they use is what we call the wind machines. So when machines I know for example, in California, they're very common not to use for spring crops, but here we could use them for spring frost events as well as cold events in the winter, they are an effective tool. So finally, what I call practices by the grower after you do, you have like a cold event. So even though you do everything by the book, you don't have a good site, you have good varieties, you know, a suitable variety then you do the multiple trunks and cultural management, you still it gets cold enough, you know that you have damage. In that case, vines are trained or adjusted, you know, depends on severity of the damage. So for example, when we have only bud injury, we adjust pruning to compensate for those losses. And by doing that you could have a normal crop even though you lost some of the buds. So for example, if you lose 30% of the bugs, you could compensate pruning by adding you know 30% more buds you know, then how you typically prune those vines. And by doing so, you could have normal crop up to a point of course. Another more severe damage when we have trunk damage and basically die back you know of the vines. In that situation, we have to retrain the shoots. And typically the way we retain thse you know is kind of unique in the east. Like I said, we do multiple shoots or multiple trunks, it's very important to do that. And then the size of those shoots are important. We have to select shoots or canes that are pencil size. The main reason is big shoots or large canes we call them bullcanes are not favorable because they are more damaged by the cold. So selection of these shoots and canes, and how many shoots you trained are typical practices, you know, for retraining, winter damage vines.
Craig Macmillan 24:35 Well, is it better to cane prune or spur prune? Does that make a difference?
Imed Dami 24:40 Yeah, it doesn't. If your vines you know are typically prune spur or cane you know, it doesn't make difference. However, when you have injury after the fact and your vines let's say they are cane prune. What we found is it is best if you convert those vines into spur prune. And this is only when you have a severe damage of the buds. We found that when you do spur pruning, you had a better recovery, better crop than cane pruned vines. Again, this situation is only true when the vines sustained damage and like more severe damage of the buds. Then you could convert the virus into spur pruning. And then of course, you know, you could always go back to your original in our pruning later on to cane pruning, again, after like year one of the winter injury.
Craig Macmillan 25:31 All right, what, what's the best timing for pruning in a cold situation?
Imed Dami 25:36 In our situation here, timing, you know, is not critical. However, when you have large large vineyards, you know, you have to prune like over many months, we typically recommend that you prune the cold hardy varieties first, and the main reason is, you know, if you get like a cold damage, you haven't pruned you know, the code sensitive yet. So you could still leave, you know, more buds or more canes, like I mentioned, with the pruning adjustment. You leave the sense of variety last in terms of pruning, so we prune those last. That is kind of typical recommendation for our growers.
Craig Macmillan 26:09 Tell me a little bit about the role of ABA and sugar.
Imed Dami 26:15 One of our research focus, I mentioned, you know, ABA, but before that, actually, we looked at sugars. And what we found is like sugar production by the vines go hand in hand with the cold hardness of the vines as well. So what I mean by that is during the fall, when cold hardness keeps increasing during the fall, the sugar concentration also increases in the vine, in the bud and the vascular tissues. And then when it reaches the cold hardens its maximum during the winter, the level of sugar is also reached maximum at the time. And then in the spring, when the vine lose hardness, the level of sugars goes down again. So there's a very close relationship between cold hardiness and sugar accumulation. And one of the explanation is the sugars that are produced more by the vines, you know, is because they they provide what we call protection to the tissues, you know, they call them cryoprotectant. What we found in our research also is there is a specific group of sugars that we call raffinose family oligosaccharides, RFO. And these are like larger sugars, they have even closer relationship with cold hardiness and cold acclimation as well as dormancy. So in our recent research, what we found is when we apply abscisic acid to the plant, actually, that acts as a signal to produce sugars in the vine. So basically, ABA and induces sugar production. And we have demonstrated that in our recent research, and this is why we have this close relationship, you know, between the ABA role, and sugar production in the vines.
Craig Macmillan 27:50 Does that affect the sugar accumulation in the cluster? And the berries?
Imed Dami 27:53 No.
Craig Macmillan 27:54 Interesting.
Imed Dami 27:56 Because, you know, the time when the sugars are accumulating, let's say in the winter, the clusters are already gone, you know. So the vines actually, they don't only not only they accumulate sugars in the clusters, at the same time, they are accumulating sugars in the dormant tissues. They do it faster. Of course, once the vines are harvested, they do it at the bigger, faster rate, you know, so they call that actually kind of becomes like a major pool of sugar accumulations, you know. And that's how the vines you know, they have to have this reserves to overwinter, you know, properly.
Craig Macmillan 28:27 We've talked about a lot of different things. But is there one, one thing that you'd recommend to our listeners that are facing cold hardiness issues? What's the top? What's the top thing?
Imed Dami 28:38 The top thing? Wow, you know, like I mentioned earlier, it is very simple. I mean, really, in our industry, even though we've been around for a long time, one of the major issue and challenge, you know, in the east is selecting, you know, the proper variety in a given site. And that is really, it's work in progress. It's you know, like, in Europe, you know, they found this matching that we call terroir, over hundreds of years, you know. Even in California, you know, it's still a young industry. So imagine here in the east, we are still really learning about the best varieties, you know, in the best sites, and especially a lot of these hybrids are new to our industry. So we're trying to find you know, that match because really, and for me, that's I always find that the most challenging, you know, to our grower to find out, so.
Craig Macmillan 29:28 Where can people find out more about you and your work?
Imed Dami 29:30 One of the ways is, obviously my email address I could give it to you could contact me directly. It's dami.1.@osu.edu. And then there's more information in our website. You could Google grape wherever you know, Ohio and it will show up you know, it is called Buckeye Appalachian. There's a lot of information there about what I talked about. And then also it talks about our extension work you know, working with our industry as well. So I would say those are two good ways or resources, you know, to find out. In terms of information called harness. I mean, I know this is a long title. But we published you know, years ago, a book on cold hardiness of grapevines, it is available through Michigan State Extension. It is called Winter Injury to Grapevines and Methods of Protection. Everything I talked about, with a lot of details, and with more technical stuff, you know. It's like a over 100 pages book. And it is really an excellent resource, you know, for any growers, especially dealing with cold damage.
Craig Macmillan 30:51 That's fantastic. We're out of time for today, I want to think a guest, Imed Dami, Professor of Viticulture in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science at The Ohio State University. This has been a fascinating conversation, for me. It's not an area that I really knew very much about, and I feel much more educated than I did. That's a book I might need to get from my bookshelf.
Imed Dami 31:12 Sure.
Craig Macmillan 31:13 So I want to thank you. I want to thank you again Imed. Check out our website for more podcasts. We've got many different topics and many different speakers at the Vineyard Team website. And thank you all again for listening to Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai | |||
| 134: Seasons of Sustainability: Summer | Marketing Tip Monday | 23 May 2022 | 00:01:36 | |
We know customers are looking for wines labeled as sustainable. To help you communicate your sustainable practices with customers we are bringing you Marketing Tip Mondays from SIP Certified. Let’s listen in to our latest tip so you can show your customers that you share their values. Seasons of Sustainability: Summer While many industries slowdown in the summer, the warmer, longer days bring a boost of activity in the world of wine. We can always expect to see an increase in tourists and locals looking to explore the wineries and vineyards in the coming summer months, all while the excitement of harvest brews behind the scenes. Here are some tips to help prepare you for the busy season ahead! Teach your team about your practices so they can make your customers experience special. Bring your farmer or winemaker into your next team meeting to talk about what’s going on right now from conserving water by monitoring soil and plant moisture status to conserving energy in the cellar with night fans. These timely practices are also perfect for social media. We also have two great PDF downloads you can share with your staff to help them answer the most frequently asked questions in the tasting room like “What is an example of sustainable farming?” and “How often do you water the vines?”. On your podcast player, scroll down to the show notes to get all the resources. You can also subscribe to our Marketing Tips eNewsletter to get the latest consumer trends, branding methods, and sales tactics delivered right to your inbox. Thanks for listening to Marketing Tips Monday from SIP Certified. Let us know what you think of these micro podcasts by sending an email to podcast@vineyardteam.org. References: | |||
| 231: Stacking Regenerative Practices to Create a Healthy Vineyard | 06 Jun 2024 | 00:34:56 | |
Lange Twins has implemented individual regenerative practices but now they are asking, what would happen if they stacked them? Kendra Altnow, Sustainability Manager at Lange Twins Family Winery & Vineyards and a 5th generation Lange shares Project Terra. The goals are to increase biodiversity, build and enrich the soil and improve watershed through shifting farming practices, restoration and conservation. They are accomplishing this through grazing livestock, establishing permeant ground cover, reducing tillage, improving native habitat, and reducing reliance on herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. Resources:
Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. TranscriptCraig Macmillan 0:00 Our guest today is Kendra Altnow she is sustainability manager at Lange Twins family winery and vineyards and she's a fifth generation. Lange. Welcome to the program.
Kendra Altnow 0:09 Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.
Craig Macmillan 0:11 We want to have you on because you folks there at length twins have been doing some really innovative things around regenerative agriculture. And through a project you're calling project Tara, what is project Tara? What's that all about?
Kendra Altnow 0:25 Well, we kind of have two different definitions, I would say a project Terra one is the concise purpose of project Terra is to increase biodiversity building, enrich the soil and improve our watershed through shifting our farming principles and practices, restoration and conservation, all while building the next generation of land stewards. That's what I like to say is the on paper definition of project Terra. But project Terra means something a little bit different to me, it's our vision coming to life. Like many of us, the health of the planet is a top of mind. And a few years ago, I really wanted to see what we could do as a family to contribute to being part of the very complex solution equally as important passing our land to the next generation healthier than it was passed to us. So I really just started reading and I learned that there are lots of changes that we can make. But we have a unique access to something that a lot of other people don't have. And that's our land. And really, I see that our land gives us the greatest opportunity for change. So we started just digging into what those practices look like. And regenerative farming really was something interesting and something very obtainable for us to do.
Craig Macmillan 1:41 What are some of those practices? Because from what I understand from doing research with what you're up to you, you did certain things 10 years ago, and then you brought in some other elements, and then you tried some other elements. Now you're kind of trying to bring them all together, if I understand correctly, what are some of those elements?
Kendra Altnow 1:55 Yeah, that's exactly what it is. I like to say when people come out and come to the farm for tour, that we've been practicing everything in different vineyards, but not necessarily taking those practicing and what regenerative agriculture calls stacking them. So the components of those are reduction of off farm inputs, livestock integration, maintaining permanent ground cover, conservation or reduction in tillage, creation of habitat, which is one of my favorites, and reducing our reliance on herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. So those were all practices that we have been doing. But we said, hey, can we take those and put them together in one pilot vineyard. And that's really the core of what Project Terra is. And for us, it's not just about doing it on that pilot vineyard, but is building the framework to be able to scale it to the other vineyards within our families holdings.
Craig Macmillan 2:56 You mentioned you were excited about this particular area. And I think it's an interesting one, too. And that's habitat.
Kendra Altnow 3:00 Yes, that's my wheelhouse. I love it.
Craig Macmillan 3:02 Yeah. So tell me about that. How does that play into this project?
Kendra Altnow 3:05 Gosh, it's a huge portion. Biodiversity is really a big element of what we need to do here as farmers in general. When my grandfather was farming, he did edge to edge farming. And that really is you didn't see anything green in those vineyards whatsoever. When my dad and uncle came back in 1974, the ranch that they grew up on really looked different the wildlife that they had enjoyed seen. It wasn't there anymore. But the reason why it wasn't there was because the habitat was gone. Without that biodiversity, there was a shift in the ecosystem. And so with that, is this new recognition that we're approaching ag at that system's level, where we're seeing the farm, not just between the rows or from edge to edge, but everything inclusive.
Craig Macmillan 3:52 So how do you do that? If you like, did you take landlords in production? And then set it aside for habitat? Or did you identify areas that could be habitat and then restored them in some fashion? How did you how did you approach that?
Kendra Altnow 4:05 Yeah, and that's, you know, something we've been doing for a long time is habitat restoration, primarily riparian restoration, our family is here on the Mokelumne river. So that's our watershed, and we have unfarmable areas. But we also have areas that were planted that we have taken out of production just because the quality coming off the vineyard wasn't meeting the standards of the winery. So we we kind of have a multiple approach. Over the years, it was just what we could get done. Recently, we worked with point blue conservation science and we have a conservation plan. And that conservation plan takes a look at all of our land that we farm as a whole and has helped us identify areas where we can make improvements that's not only within the vineyards itself by creating maybe filter strips or wildlife corridors, but also where We have maybe a vernal pool area, and what we can do there. So really enhance what is already happening. So it's a little bit of everything I guess is we've, we've had help. But we also just noticed, oh, that area over there isn't great. Let's put a pollinator habitat in.
Craig Macmillan 5:16 And you've been doing as long as you believe that there is some improvements and some stability from increasing the biodiversity on the land.
Kendra Altnow 5:24 Let me take a step back. Biodiversity has definitely increased here on our farm, just the other day, we saw two Bob Cats hanging out on the bridge by our house, that is nothing I saw in my childhood. So I can definitely tell you that there has been a shift because there are animals and birds that we haven't seen that are coming back to our area, those animals and birds are what we see. And so can you imagine what we can't see? So what we're making the impact on? Who knows, right? I don't I'm not out there every day with a microscope looking. But by these bigger animals being here, I have to say that the other ones are here, too.
Craig Macmillan 6:04 And do you think that leads to a more stable? agro ecosystem?
Kendra Altnow 6:08 Absolutely. 100%
Craig Macmillan 6:10 100%, you had mentioned also things around fungicide, insecticide herbicide reduction. How does that play into what kind of practices and how does that play into the stability of the project overall?
Kendra Altnow 6:20 we just finished reading a book. And there's a lot to be said about soil health, right. And that's a big topic, especially in ag these days, I think that we're a lot better than we have been. That's what sustainability is all about, right? Is continuous improvement, really digging into the health of the soil makes us recognize that maybe there's more we can do. From my perspective, having biodiversity above ground and below ground is only going to help us not just in our vineyard and the production of the wine grapes, but also as a whole for everything around it. I'm not sure if that answered your question. Sometimes my brain goes off in tangents.
Craig Macmillan 6:57 No, I think I think it's the right idea, I think what you're getting at is by looking at things as being integrated, looking at from a system standpoint, where everything affects everything else changes that make over here, make changes over here. And those can be beneficial changes, they don't have to be negative changes, necessarily.
Kendra Altnow 7:12 And I think also, it's such a long term result, right. So it takes a very long time, for us to see the true benefits of what we're doing today. I always say, Gosh, I wish we would have started this, you know, 10 years ago, because then I would feel better about what we're doing. Now you have to have patience. And I think that's been the biggest learning for us or for myself in particular, is that you're not going to change your soil structure or your soil health or anything that has to do with the environment, it takes time. And it takes that dedication. And it's not always the easiest path forward either. So you really have to sit back and realize following that vineyard, for a certain period of time might seem against what we would typically do. But in the long run, it's going to benefit what we're doing, if you understand what I'm saying,
Craig Macmillan 8:09 Yeah, I do I do I change this to soil health improvements. And so structured water holding capacity and things like that. Those do take a long, long, long, long time. But you have to do it if you're gonna get there, you know, and I think what a lot of folks are finding out from the interviews that I'm doing, you know, you may go like, Oh, my God, you know, it's gonna take 10 years, well, 10 years can fly by in terms of like a region, you know, just do it stick to it part of that cover cropping. So you folks have been doing cover cropping for a long time. And I'm guessing that the decisions that you've made in terms of what to plant, where to plant it, maybe even how to plant it, how to terminate it, and probably evolved over time. Can you tell me a little bit about your cover cropping, philosophy management, how that's changed over time?
Kendra Altnow 8:51 So my very simple philosophy is the soil is better served covered period, I believe that not only in our own homes, at home, in our backyards, and our front yards, but also within the vineyard. So that's an aside from how we make our decisions on what cover crops we plant. When it comes to cover crops. I'm sure you know this, they're super complex, there's so many different species out there. And they all are very specific on what you're trying to do for typically the health of your of your land or your soil. So what we always look at first, is the vigor of the vine because we want to ensure that we're not taking away from the growth of the vine and then regional erosion. So those would be like the two starting points for us. And then from there, we combined with the soil type, if we're going to be grazing or not grazing and then the ecological benefits so it's kind of a stacking just in decision making. And then the way we choose what vineyards it goes into, we we across the board, try to get it out. Timing is a big thing for us in all of our Lange Twins family vineyards, except in the vineyards that the mower can't fit down the rows. So it's a very operational decision on that, that side.
Craig Macmillan 10:10 What are some of the variables that you've been trying to manipulate? And what were some of the plant choices that you made to achieve those goals?
Kendra Altnow 10:19 Erosion control is probably our biggest number one cover crop choice that we do or a multiplex this species type, that's something that I would have to ask Chris and Charlie, or even Maria, on our team, they handled the decisions of that. But I'm involved in more of why. So I'm sitting here looking out my window at one of our vineyards, and we have a runoff issue. And so we made, you know, a very spot decision to plant a an erosion control mix, just because it's not planted right now. And we saw two years ago, or, actually, it wasn't two years ago was last winter, it was just gosh, the amount of soil going into the soil was absurd. So what can we do about it? So a lot of it is knowing your land as well, and making the decisions that way?
Craig Macmillan 11:07 So you're using different things in different places. So for some areas, it's all about erosion. Other places, it's about probably water management,
Kendra Altnow 11:14 Or, you know, your nitrogen fixing is a big decision making as well, depending on the vineyards.
Craig Macmillan 11:22 Oh,that reminds me, so I hadn't thought of before, have you been doing any, like pre post testing or control treatment kind of testing, as you do these things
Kendra Altnow 11:30 For cover crops?
Craig Macmillan 11:32 For cover crops or anything else.
Kendra Altnow 11:34 We do a lot. I mean, we do a lot of soil testing, is what we've started doing. And we do that not only just from a short term reason of seeing what's happening right now. But in these areas where we are doing no sustainable ag versus regenerative AG, we have started long term analysis so we can see what really is going to be happening in the vineyard long term with the decisions that we're making today. And does it make sense. So does it make sense for us to do it? Well, maybe it's not making a huge impact on that level, but it will be financially. So there are a lot of tracking that we are doing, because we need to make sure that it makes sense from a sustainability point of view.
Craig Macmillan 12:21 What do you been finding out?
Kendra Altnow 12:22 That's a great question. I It depends. I mean, it really depends on where, and it also depends on what and that's what's so tricky about farming. There isn't a playbook. Right. So what is working on one vineyard isn't necessarily working on another, for example, we have a vermicompost trial going on right now. And it's interesting, we've set it up. And we've done all of the analysis. And what we found is that different phases of the growth of the vineyard, the vermicompost, made a difference. But at the end of the growing season, everything caught up. So it's going to be interesting to see this year, what happens because is there going to be a true difference year after year. And then we'll add in do we add vermicompost again, so what we're trialing right now, which is really fun, is taking our pumice from the winery and feeding it to red worms to see if we can then reapply it out in the vineyards. What we don't know about that is if what is in the vermicompost by the worms, eating our promise is something that is going to benefit the vineyard. So benefit is in the sense of we're closing the loop on our promise, but it may not actually have any value to the soil in the vines themselves over a traditional form of compost feeding. Worms are really fun.
Craig Macmillan 13:45 I'm just gonna ask about that. So you're making worm compost on site?
Kendra Altnow 13:48 No, we're not. So there's a neighbor of ours, my cousin in law found I went out to visit him and I asked him if he would be interested in trial doing a trial with us. And he said, Sure, so we're taking pumice over to him from the winery during crush, and then he is running the trial for us. If it is something that becomes viable for us to do then we would transition it and start it on our own.
Craig Macmillan 14:15 Which reminds me of something else. You are working with a number of collaborators, you're not doing this in a vacuum and we'll transition into grazing was part of that but like what are some of the collaborators here you have your your neighbor, you're obviously working with probably other agencies or other other companies or their specialists who was part of the team here outside of Lange Twins.
Kendra Altnow 14:36 Oh, so many when I started in this role, going back a little bit is I you know, I didn't go to school for farming or winemaking and or sustainability for that matter. And so I took a lot of learning, calling and asking questions. Honestly, some of the organizations I reached out to first I was Point blue conservation science I hopped on, you know, the internet and I started just Googling people and seeing who would be interested in coming out and giving me a hand, they have been awesome because they really have introduced me not only to a whole host of other individuals within the that side of the world. So I would say the habitat side of the world, they did our holistic conservation plan for us. That really is what I would say is my strategic plan on that side of my role. From there, I work with the Center for land based learning their SLEWS program, in particular, the kids from that program come out, and they actually implement some of our projects for us. And that's great, because that really is helping that next generation of land stewards in my mind, hopefully, some of them will come back and want to do this and do it in a fashion that is smart for both themselves and for the environment. NRCS Of course, Xerces, East Bay Mud, calf Valley grazing, hedgerow farms, Megan Phillips, Kelly Melville, you name it, I have like talked to all of them. And really, they have all been instrumental in us putting this together and moving it forward.
Craig Macmillan 16:22 I think it's an excellent transition into grazing.
Kendra Altnow 16:26 Yes, that's fine. I love graze
Craig Macmillan 16:28 you love it. Okay, cool. Well, here we go. If I understood correctly, from some things that I read, you folks are looking at moving into year round grazing. Can you tell me a little bit about the evolution, how it started, how you kind of got into it and how you got to where you're at now and kind of where you see yourself going in the future? Because it sounds like you actually are moving you're not done yet is what it kind of sounds like to me if I understood.
Kendra Altnow 16:51 We're just getting started. Grazing came to us through Charlie's sStar, there were sheep grazing and alfalfa field next to his home vineyard. And he offered the grazer to come into his vineyard for feed. And he said, guys, they did a great job. What do you think? And so we trialed it on 100 acres, and it was great. They came in, they did their job, it was the winter pass, and good to go. We loved what they did. We learned a little bit. And then the following year, it was ramped up big time. So we had a contract raiser come in. And we had probably 2000 to 3000 sheep everywhere, literally everywhere. And that winter was really raining. So it was difficult to get them into the vineyard. Some of them were flooded out. And it was just a challenge all around. And then when the rubber hit the road in the springtime, they got a better contract and left. So we didn't necessarily truth be told, have the best experience the second year. And it was logistically the main reason why. So the third year, we wanted to approach it a little differently. And I was at a young farmers and ranchers dinner and was approached and said, Hey, I had know someone that would love to do vineyard grazing. So great. So we sat down and talked. And what we realized is that what was going to work best for us is for them to be a true extension of our team. So not someone that's just going to come in and then move on to someone else, but someone that is going to be dedicated to working with us, because that is what we found was most important is that we're working together. So I see Valley grazing and Ross Mulrooney as not a separate from length twins, but he is part of length twins in the sense of being our sheep herder, right. So he's the guy, the boots on the ground, moving the sheep, the health of the sheep. And we're just helping direct them in that. And that honestly, if I could give anyone advice, and I know this can't happen for everyone based on size, or lots of other complexities, that has been a saving grace for us, because it's just, he, he knows what we're working towards. And we know what his needs are as well.
Craig Macmillan 19:14 You're working collaboratively. He has needs the sheep have needs you have needs can we find a way to have those things meet that makes a better outcome leads to a better outcome. Without question, yes, it sounds like you started with kind of the traditional, hey, let's get some animals, let's turn them loose. They're gonna go run around and do their thing. Oh, they're done. Now they leave. My experience with grazing is that it can get much more complex than that, and can lead to some even better outcomes when the management becomes a little bit more intensive, which it sounds like you're kind of moving towards is that right?
Kendra Altnow 19:52 Right. I mean for us, our goal is to have four passes a year with the sheep so it's It's a tool for sure. That's how we see this. It's a practice that we're going to implement within the vineyard. That's no different than mowing or herbicide spray, for example. So for us, the number one reason why we started it, there's lots of factors but was for that biodiversity in the soil and the soil microbiome, we know that animals do make a difference. So that was a really big factor. The second factor is back to the herbicides, if we can cut down on that, that's also going to help that soil microbiome third is the fossil fuels. Right. So by employing the sheep in the vineyards and integrating them in, we are cutting on fossil fuel use by all of the tractor passes that we're not doing anymore, etc. Sure, at first, it was like, Yay, winter weed control. This is awesome. But then you start scratching your head and peeling back the layers, you recognize that there's lots of other benefits of having animal integration. I mean, I sometimes they were just going back before my grandfather, right? They had animal integration, they actually had dual crops within their vineyards. And so it's like, we're going back to what we knew our ancestors. And we're applying it today, but in a modern way, with changes, of course, because we're not homesteaders.
Craig Macmillan 21:27 So we're talking, you said four passes. So what, what's the timing? What's the timing of the other grazing passes.
Kendra Altnow 21:34 So the first grazing pass for us starts post harvest. So three weeks after the vineyard has been harvested, we can move in the sheep. And really, this is to clean up weeds, vegetative debris, and the leaves. The second pass is the cover crop and weed management on our rotation. Typically, what ends up happening is why when they're done with the first pass, they're going to go start kind of all over again, right. And so now they're going to the cover crop and weed management. And that is what really this time of the year is. So they're out there mowing the cover crop, or they're really happy sheep, because they have tons of feed and getting the berms, we always focus on the berms. That's really important for us, especially if we're if we're not using any herbicides, it's really important for us to pay attention to the berms. The third pass is cover crop and weed management again, and this is kind of when we have the blind canopy management happening suckering chute hygiene and leaf removal. So it's in that spring where springtime, where there they can get in, they're not going to do a lot of damage, and they're still going to do good. And then the last pass is summer, so forth passes time or weed control. We are using these only and our trellis systems that are high wire. And so the Sheep can't really do that damage, because they can't reach up into the canopy and make a huge impact.
Craig Macmillan 22:57 And that was something that I mean, you you folks may have some experience with this. Maybe too early still, you know, the trend has been towards shorter and shorter, lower, lower trellising for a long time. And it's always been Oh, wine quality is better when the trellis is lower. And then we have these systems here where you will Yeah, but if I train a little bit higher, a little these other benefits that I can get is your winemaking staff getting feedback at this point. Are you seeing anything in terms of the cultural differences between the more traditional trellis and a higher wire trellis.
Kendra Altnow 23:26 I can give you a very specific example. We have single vineyard wines. And on our single vineyard wines, they keep all the lots separate. And we have an older cab vineyard. And then we have a high wire cab vineyard that is a little bit younger. The older one is California sprawl, it was planted in Gosh 1980s. It's our winemakers favorite vineyard. And along comes our River Ranch vineyard. And it's high wire and it is mechanically pruned and it is grazed and very different than what they 38 is. And I'll tell you what, they love that River Ranch cap and made it as a single vineyard wine. And so that to me goes to show that it can work both ways.
Craig Macmillan 24:09 It can work both ways. This is so fascinating. We could just go on forever. But is there one thing regarding kind of your experiences with all of this, all of this integrative stuff, is there one thing that you tell our listeners that you would recommend to them? As far as this goes this area?
Kendra Altnow 24:25 Oh man, I have so many recommendations. That could be like a whole thing on its own.
Craig Macmillan 24:32 You're gonna write a book?
Kendra Altnow 24:34 Probably. So my one recommendation is every little bit helps. And I truly believe that and that is something that you can do not only within your vineyard or your business, but you can do that at home. So my passion came from my family, because we have been farming sustainably in a really big way. However, my practices at home for example, I really got ignited because I saw a picture of all the plastic in the ocean and I had a heart attack. And I knew at that point, I couldn't use plastic bags anymore, for example. And that's a true story. I think that even though everyone around me might not have changed that practice, I know that that little bit does help. Right. So I think that is really important. I think the other important thing, when you're talking about farming, is the mindset shift. Farmers have been farming and doing things the same way for years and years and years. And it really takes forward thinking or openness to be able to change the way you're doing something. Because it's harder, it's harder, not only to train your team, that it's going to be done differently. But now you're using another tool, or introducing something different that hasn't been done before. So there's a learning curve. And when you have 100 million things going on, that one new thing feels like 100 billion pounds. And I think that it's really important that you have a cheerleader, which that's what I am, is the cheerleader to say, Hey, I think that this is really interesting. Do you think that we can implement not all of it at once, but do you think we can handle parts of it. And even that one small step is going to get us to where we want to go. And I would come in very different from, say, Erin and Phillip, my brother and cousin, they've been entrenched in farming for years, I kind of have this outsider's perspective where I don't necessarily know all of the logistical nightmare that might happen. Or I don't know all of the little idiosyncrasies that happen. All I see is this awesome opportunity. And then they bring me back to reality. And then we meet in the middle, and then we implement something. But I think if it was someone that didn't have that, like, I think we could do this, it wouldn't come to the forefront, because we're just so tasked on what we're already doing, and making sure that we're getting it done, that doesn't really give us time to do anything different. And I think that to me, has been the biggest learning. And maybe that the tidbit that I could give others is that be be that cheerleader or somehow find yourself to be that cheerleader for yourself, because it really will make a difference.
Craig Macmillan 27:41 I think that's great. I mean, every every little bit counts and being a cheerleader. Yeah. Sharing your excitement and your successes. I think it's huge.
Kendra Altnow 27:50 Yeah, I mean, it's, it's funny, Craig, between you and I, or if you want to put this out there I you know, I don't have a science background. I don't have a farming background. I don't have anything like that type of background. My background is sociology. And for for me, I just know that we can do better. And we have an opportunity to make positive change. And so I come in with they always call me rainbows and sunshine. Because that's that's like, really, for me, that's what it's about right is, is how can we make a difference, and I dried down I5. And I'm like holy smokes, we are the size of a gnat when it comes to farming in this world. And how to like I sit there and think, wow, I am I'm working hard to make change on my tiny little farm. Just think if we could get this farmer who has 30,000 acres to also make that change. And I think that's where it's at is it's got to start. I see. I mean, we're not small in the sense of tiny, tiny. We're midsize but gosh, there's some big farmers out there. And so sometimes it's like, Am I really making a difference? Like this is on 450 acres right now we could expand it. We're planning on scaling it up. Yeah. Okay, let's forget about those 30,000 acre farmers and that we're only a tiny bit to this very complex issue or complexity that's happening out there. Sure. Yes, let's do this. Because ultimately, it's going to be better for the next generation because they're going to be out there hopefully farming too.
Craig Macmillan 29:25 Yeah. And technology and innovation has its ways of being transmitted. Yes. And being adopted. More broadly. It takes time. And it also takes different systems. It takes different systems and that's one of the things that's intriguing is we've seen things that like you said that we tried things in the past and then we moved away for various reasons. And then you say hey, wait, there's benefits. Let's go back and try this again. Or people say Well, that isn't gonna work on my system because my system is so different. Within time goes by and there's proof of concept and then it well maybe this would work and we see changes all the time being out there as a leader Kendra, I think is part of the part of the solution and you're doing that.
Kendra Altnow 29:59 And I think honestly like what we can do for our farm, and this is what makes regenerative and we could go into that as a whole nother one podcast. But I look at sustainability and regenerative, which is so great about sustainability in my mind is it's not one size fits all, you're making the decisions for your farm based on what you can do in the best possible way. So someone might still fully believe in full tilling and that's all good and great. I'm not judging you, but they might be excellent in water conservation. And we have a lot of room to grow in that right so I like that's what I think is so awesome about farming is that there is no one single way of doing things and there is no right or wrong, but I always believe that there is room for improvement.
Craig Macmillan 30:52 Exactly. Where can people find out more about you?
Kendra Altnow 30:56 Well, Langetwins.com will have information about the family winery and the vineyards and laying twins on Instagram has tidbits about sustainability and if you really want to see all of my lovely day to day posts you can follow me at Kendra underscore Jean nine you get a little bit of sustainability and a lot of benefit family animals.
Craig Macmillan 31:22 That's fantastic. So our guest today has been Kendra Altnow she is sustainability manager at length twins family winery and vineyards and she's a fifth generation Lang. Thanks for being on the podcast has been a really fun conversation. Thanks Kendra.
Kendra Altnow 31:35 Gosh, I hope so you're welcome.
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| 133: A Quest for Virus Negative Plant Material | 19 May 2022 | 00:27:25 | |
All winegrowers are on the same quest to find virus negative plant material. James Stamp, President at Stamp Associates Viticulture, Inc, works with his clients to find the highest quality grapevine plants to establish new vineyards. This thorough process to find virus negative material includes partnering with nurseries that previously delivered good product. There is oversight through all stages of production from testing material to harvesting and grafting, from production to delivery, and the final selection of plants for the vineyard site. The number one tip to get quality grapevines is to pay attention to where the plant material is coming from, have great communication with the nursery, and sample the finished product for Red Blotch and Leaf Roll Three. References: 06-03-2022 | Roller Crimper Demo Tailgate, King City, CA (Event registration) 20: Dr. Mark Fuchs | Red Blotch Virus in Grapevines (podcast) 49: Stopping the Spread of Red Leaf Viruses (podcast) 71: New Techniques to Detect Grapevine Leafroll Disease (podcast) 131: Virus Detection in Grapevines Grape Program at Foundation Plant Services Leafroll 3 Virus (GLRaV3) AKA Grapevine Leafroll Disease in Washington Sourcing Grapevines for a New Vineyard Stamp Associates Viticulture, Inc. Sustainable Ag Expo November 14-16, 2022 Get MoreSubscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. TranscriptCraig Macmillan 0:00 My name is Craig Macmillan and I am your host, as always. Today we have with us James Stamp, who is president of Stamp Associates Viticulture, Incorporated. And thanks for being on the show, James. I'm really looking forward to this.
James Stamp 0:13 Yes, thanks for having me, Craig, I'm looking forward to it as well.
Craig Macmillan 0:15 So James, you have a interesting company. And you've had an interesting career over the years. But right now, your company does a number of very interesting kind of things in three different areas. And what I was hoping to do is talk about each of those individually in a little bit of detail and have you explain kind of how those things work. First of all, you folks do independent analysis and quality control for grapevine nursery stock production. Tell me more about that.
James Stamp 0:39 Our clients hire us to find the highest quality grapevine plants for establishing new vineyards. And what we do is to select nurseries that we have previous experience with in terms of delivering good product. And nurseries, where we have previously inspected and tested their increased box and the increase box, as you know, are the rootstock and science sources of materials for propagation. So we, we put together a proposal for our clients to provide the best quality of plant materials that we can. And then we get involved with discussing with nurseries, which materials are best to use. We oversee the testing of those materials, we oversee the harvesting and grafting of those materials. We oversee the production of those materials, that particular nurseries, and we oversee the delivery and final selection of those plants to the vineyard sites. And as part of our, our understanding with our growers, we are available to look at those plants during the course of the vineyard development. We'd like to be there to see how our plants grow. Once they're planted,
Craig Macmillan 1:54 A grower will come to you and say I'm planting a vineyard, I want to make sure that it's virus free, or disease disease free, I would imagine. And you folks start at the very beginning, you go out and look at the blocks where the first cuttings are going to come from the good gonna go into those plants. Is that right?
James Stamp 2:12 Yes. When I first started doing this, in 1999, I was asked to look at finished product. In other words, vines that had already been grafted, already been grown in the field, already been growing the greenhouse. And at that point, it's very difficult to have any real control over the quality of the finished product. So it seemed to me like a good idea to start with the source materials that we use to graph the vines and to make sure the source materials, the root stock on the scion, are of high quality and disease, pathogen test negative and that's exactly how we start by finding the source materials for the production of grape vine plants ultimately to be planted in the vineyards.
Craig Macmillan 2:53 Obviously, if someone's going to plant, let's say hundreds of 1000s of vines, we're talking about hundreds of 1000s of cuttings. Is that right?
James Stamp 3:03 Hundreds of 1000s of vines. Well, yeah, we're talking a lot of cuttings and in generally speaking from an increased block or rootstock increase block, you might expect to get say 100 cuttings from every mother vine or every increased block vine 100 cuttings for the rootstock. And for the scion material, the Cabernet, the Viognier whatever it might be, you're probably going to get somewhere from 50 buds or 50 cuttings per vine up to maybe 500 cuttings per vine for some very vigorous clones such as maybe Pinot Noir or Cabernet, Sauvignon Blanc we sometimes see 500 cuttings per vine.
Craig Macmillan 3:40 How many samples are you taking how many pieces of wood are you taking in? What are you testing them for and how?
James Stamp 3:47 We with the advent or the discovery of Red Blotch, it became clear that the only way to produce vines that are free of Red Blotch disease is to test every plant that is used as a source of materials for that for that finished product. So if you do the math, nurseries will graft anywhere from 1.5 times, one and a half times to two times the amount of vines per finished product. So if you have an order for 10,000 vines, they might refer 20,000 vines. So we have to test enough mother vines or increase block vines which is the correct term, to provide us with 20,000 rootstock cuttings and 20,000, say Cabernet Sauvignon buds. Let's say you've got just for example, a Cab Sauvignon plant that's giving you 500 buds per vine and you want 20,000, you want 20,000 bugs, then you've got to test 40 plants to get 20,000 buds. 40 times 500 is 20,000. Depending on the size of the plant, if its is a large established plant, we want to take more cuttings per vine than if it's a smaller plant, because viruses are not evenly distributed within the mother vine or the increase block vine. So if it's a larger vine, we might take four pieces per vine. If it's a smaller vine we might take two pieces per vine. So that's roughly sort of math that's involved in deciding how many samples we take. We are taking 1000s of pieces of cutting and putting them together into samples that we then test for a range of pathogens. And generally speaking, there are roughly 15 or so, 16 pathogens that fall on our testing list. And they include all the common viruses, the leaf roll viruses, the vitiviruses, A, B, D, Red Blotch virus, Fan Leaf virus, we also test the Pierce's Disease, we also test for Agrobacterium Vits, which is the causative agent of crown gall disease, which is a bacterium. And our pathogen panel depends on really the program that we're involved with. If we're, if we're working with materials where we have a good history of testing, we might adjust the panel slightly. It also depends on the budget, if a client has a limited budget, then we will focus on viruses that we think we'll find or viruses that we have found in the past. So but generally speaking, we have a pathogen panel of roughly 15 to 16 organisms that we look for routinely.
Craig Macmillan 6:27 And in so it sounds like you're using a composite sample, like you may do a composite sample of rootstock and the comparison sample of scion.
James Stamp 6:34 Exactly, yes.
Craig Macmillan 6:36 Does that composite sample comprise a sample from every one of the vines involved?
James Stamp 6:43 Yes.
Craig Macmillan 6:44 So when I get a result back, I can be confident that all the plants that provided the rootstock or the scion are clean.
James Stamp 6:52 Well, clean is, you know, clean is a word that you will not get anybody, you know, real scientists to use. Okay, these are all virus test negative. It's, you know, it's hard to prove a negative, but the sampling that we do shows that the vines, or the pieces of tissue that we've tested are negative for the virus. And they know and we were sampling for a wide range of pathogens, but it's to say it's clean, to say it's 100% guaranteed not to have viruses. It's something that people don't do because you're it's really, it's really hard to prove a negative. But we've we're sampling, we're sampling every plant and every plant is testing negative. And therefore, we can assume that those plants do not contain the viruses that we're testing for or the pathogens that we're testing for.
Craig Macmillan 7:35 Excellent. I think that's a really important distinction to make various negative versus cleaning in quotes. So that's the so the points along the way, we've got the rootstock, we've got the scion, is there inspection, testing, investigation as we go through the grafting process and the callusing process and the greenhouse process?
James Stamp 7:53 Well, really the first, the first step in the process to produce high quality plants is to visually evaluate the scion increase blocks before you test them. So there's no point in spending a lot of money on testing plant materials that don't look good. So we go to the nurseries that we have orders with for the following year, or the year after that. We go to those nurseries and look at their scion increased blocks in October. So we look in October 2021. At the Cab 47, or the Cab 30 or the Sauvignon Blanc 01 or the Pinot Noir, you know 777, and we find contiguous rows and contiguous sets of vines that look healthy. If they look good. In other words, they don't look like the disease, they don't look like they're struggling to grow. Because if a plant is looking diseased, or looking like it's having a hard time growing, that would not be the sort of material you want to select for high quality vine production. So if we see any issues with the vines during our October walkthrough, then we do a couple of things. One, well the nursery is usually with us so the nursery will then want to check those vines and test them or remove them, test them and remove them if necessary, to see if they are virus or there's something else wrong with them. And then once we find clean vines, then we will test them. So the first thing to do is find the clean plants, and this is done in October. Test them. We tag the plants so that we make sure we put our labels on plant materials that we want to graft. And then we see those materials getting harvested and then moved into cold storage and then we're at the nursery when those materials are grafted. So that we can see that the materials we tested and viewed in October and November are now actually on the grafting bench at the nursery February and March of the following year.
Craig Macmillan 9:47 That's impressive. That is very impressive. Yeah, and I'm assuming you've had good luck with it as it sounds like you couldn't be any more fastidious.
James Stamp 9:55 You know, it was really an eye opening moment, I think for me, when Red Blotch became a problem, as you know, it was in late 2012. And we have a lot of plant materials that we were to test for Red Blotch because the new PCR test was made available at that point in time. And it was clear that sampling increased block vines, on a sort of a random basis, sampling the plants in the nursery, the nursery vineyard that gives you the cuttings, not sampling every plant, but sampling say, even I'd say 95% level of confidence with a 5% confidence interval, you're still only sampling a very small amount of plants that are going to be used to give you the cuttings that you need. So the only way to detect the virus, which might only be present in a few plants, but if you're getting 400 cuttings from those one or two plants are infected, you're actually you know, producing a lot of virus that can be contaminated. So the only way to do it is to test every plant.
Craig Macmillan 10:53 Right. And then is there some additional quality control once they come out of the nursery for you?
James Stamp 10:59 I mean, nursery production is a very primitive craft, if you will. It's still very, very basic. It's basically putting rootstock and science together and allowing them to graft and providing good conditions for that. And what they want is they want to first of all the cuttings should be have high carbohydrate reserves. So they're strong cuttings. They actually have a good wood to pith ratio. So a small amount of pith, a good amount of wood, which represents good carbohydrate reserves. They should be grown in a way that produces cuttings that are good for grafting rather than growing these cuttings in a way that is good for fruit production. And so we want to see what's going on right from the very beginning. So I actually just gave a presentation the other day. And my first slide on the presentation says that what does every grower want? Every grower wants, or what they really want is no surprises. And that is high quality vines being available, in the right amount, on time and of good quality. Because the last thing a grower wants is to hear from a nursery when they call up and say, you know what, my 10,000 grafted vines delivered in a couple of weeks time and they say, well, we've only got 1000. So what we do, and it's really it's really it really sort of comes with the territory that if you're going to be involved in trying to produce high quality, disease test negative vines, then really in a way, it's I feel like it's on us to make sure the plants exist as well. If you will.
Craig Macmillan 12:22 So yeah, absolutely.
James Stamp 12:24 And on the one hand, we you know, we always have this provision that if we do a lot of testing and the plants are diseased at the end of the process, well, then we're not going to plant them. But we do want to make sure that the plants are available for all we can. So we keep we keep very close track on the way these vines are growing after grafting. And so we'd like to see how many plants of the 10,000, that grafted, get grafted, how many get planted up. So maybe in order for 5000 vines 10,000 get grafted, but only 7500 get grafted up. Well, that's actually a good number. But if you graft 10,000 vines, and the only plant 1000 vines up, you know, within four or five weeks of grafting that you've got a problem. And so it's part of our program is to how to solve that problem. So we need to be in touch with the nurseries right, all the time so that if there's a problem, we have time to fix it so that our clients have no surprises. And maybe they have to spend more money perhaps on testing more materials because we found virus, or it may be that the nursery had a bad take, in which case we have to graft more materials. But ultimately, we want to make sure that our clients plant the vines they want on time, and that those vines are of good quality. So what we do is work to solve problems as they develop. And you know, over the years, we haven't had very many problems. But again, I think we paid close attention to what's going on.
Craig Macmillan 13:41 And suddenly, it just occurred to me, so how many tests per 1000 or 10,000 plants when we're when we're talking about the finished product, how many samples went into, how many tests went into per per 1000, or per 10,000, or whatever?
James Stamp 13:55 You know, it's very variable. Let's say if you're, we're testing for 15 to 15, or 16 different pathogens, and we may be testing, one set of testing at least two plants for every 100 finished product. So if you've got say 1000 vines then, we're probably testing protesting 20 upfront vines, for every 1000 vines of finished, but actually 20 times, multiply that by two. So 20 rootstock and 20 scion approximately. So we're testing roughly 40 plants for every 1000 finished plants. Those 40 plants are being tested for, say 16 pathogens. So it's 40 times 60. If you do that multiple it's you know, 3200 or something like that, or whatever it is. That's a rough idea.
Craig Macmillan 14:44 Of actual individual samples, test. I'm gonna pay so much per test, it's going to be 1000s of tests?
James Stamp 14:52 Yeah, I mean, we test 1000s of samples.
Craig Macmillan 14:55 I guess. Wow.
James Stamp 14:56 We have a pretty large business. I think we were probably the The largest business of its kind that does this type of work, I think. Probably anywhere in the world, I guess. And, you know, it involves a lot, it's a lot, it's a lot of work, especially when you're dealing with a biological system like this, which is open to all sorts of climates and you know, biological impact. You know, drought one year can have a, some sort of weird impact the next year. So just like, you know, getting your fruit every year when you're growing your grapevines is difficult, convoluted, it's based on many different parameters. It's the same thing with producing grafted vines. A lot of different parameters affect the look of the finished product. In fact, this year, we looked at a bunch of dormant routings, and they were really super high quality this year did very, very nice, dormant routings this year with just very good internal approach. So not only is the virus testing and the pathogen testing, we've talked about, the other side of what we do is physical quality. We're involved in selecting the best plants that come through the propagation cycle. So for example, if you grafted 10,000 vines, you have an order for 5000 vines, you have 7500 vines that make it through to the finished product line. Well, we want to select the best 5000 of those 7500. And that involves having a good understanding of the parameters that are involved with a grapevine finished product, which include things like does it have a good root system? Does it have a properly healed graft union? Are the wounds on the rootstock shaft properly healed? Do you have good caliper? Do you have good lignification of the shoot spur? And all those, those different facets of the finished product are related to the pathogenic load of the vine when you start off. So if you if you're starting from materials that have high levels of fungal pathogens, and fungal pathogens are everywhere, in the nursery production cycle. And so the way to ensure you have best product is just is to select pathogens that have very good, that have demonstrated very, very good wound healing. Because those vines won't heal their wounds properly, they won't have good graft wounds, they won't have good root systems. They will have rootstock shaft disbudding sites that are not calloused over, they will have lesions running down from the graft union and running up from the base of the plant if they'd been developed or propagated from poor quality plant material. So the physical quality of the vine and vine and the pathogen status of the virus sort of closely interwoven.
Craig Macmillan 17:28 So this involves looking at every single vine?
James Stamp 17:31 No, actually it involves, what we do is we we sample every increase block vine that is used to produce the vine. And then we look at the finished product by sampling the finished product in terms of its physical evaluation. And I've been doing this, I mean, I started doing this in 1999. And in 1999, I looked at 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of finished product. And you know, you look at finished product, and you just like anything else, you really get to know what finished product looks like looks like. You get to know, you know what a batch of plants looks like. You know, you get to know how many vines you need to look at, to know in other words, to feel comfortable that you're looking, that what you're looking at is representative of the rest of it. And so you use that information, that experience to help you to determine how to evaluate finished product.
Craig Macmillan 18:19 And so regarding, actually regarding methodology, it sounds to me like you have a fairly set methodology that you have tested over using years and years. And there's a quantification component to this as well. So you can say we found this percentage of this as opposed to that, as opposed to that.
James Stamp 18:36 That's exactly right. Yeah. So I think if you would, I mean, you know, things have changed. And we today, we don't get to look at much finished product that we haven't been involved with, right from the very beginning. But sometimes we do and it's always interesting to do that. Because I mean, obviously there's different types of finished product, the potted plants, and then there are dormant bareroot, finish plants. Any any batch of vines that get delivered are going to have some type of defect. The question is, what are those defects and what proportion of the finished product has those defects. So for example, if it's if it's a if it's a severe problem, we'll cancel the order. If it's if it's a severe problem, but in a very small amount of plants, and we know how to identify that problem, then we can have the nursery go back and grade out the bad vines, or we can grade out the bad vines ourselves and take the good vines and get rid of the bad vines. Or we can advise our clients who maybe are buying vines from a nursery I will tell them well this is how you identify the problem in these vines by doing this type of physical manipulation of the plant. It'll tell you what's right or what's wrong with it. But generally speaking, our plants when they've been through our program are very high physical quality with a very small amount of defects or zero defects. Obviously, there's always gonna be some defects. And you really are the final line of defense is the guy who's planting the vine. But our goal is to to sell to our clients vines, the pathogen test negative or very high quality, where there will be no rejects or planting time.
Craig Macmillan 20:07 So let's move into the field. So you also conducted valuations of newly planted and established vineyards for their performance, presumably in the face of pathogen load. How do you conduct these kinds of evaluations? What kind of methodology do you use?
James Stamp 20:22 I have to say, I don't do we don't do this, as much as we used to do this was a much bigger part of our portfolio maybe 10, 15 years ago than it is now. And we used to get called out to look at vines, vineyards that have been recently planted. And say, you know, it's a two year old vineyard, and a three year old vineyard. What do we try to do is to, you know, it's important to look at the venue and at the right time of the year. If it's potentially a virus problem, then you want to look at that vineyard in October, when you can see symptoms of virus, they may be well apparent. But the first thing to do is to try and if there's a problem in a vineyard, maybe it's just performing improperly. Is to try and link any visual performance issues with any particular physical attributes that the plant might have, or they may be associated with the site. Simply put, if you've got vines that are growing properly, than those vines that aren't grown properly, have bad graft unions, or have they been planted improperly. And they've got a J rooted root system. I tried to look at the vineyard and say split into say, three into three categories: good vine performance, bad pine vine performance, and say intermediate vine performance. And trying to correlate those different types of wind performance with either a site issue which might be a soil, irrigation, utilization, fungal pathogens, weeds. And then also compare that with just the vine itself. And this oftentimes involves sacrificing vines, but taking, digging that vine up and looking at the root system, looking at the grafting. And it's actually very easy to tell by looking at vines, whether or not the issue that you're seeing is a result of the vine being imperfect at the time of planting, or whether it's more like you know, whether it's related to the way it was planted or where it was planted.
Craig Macmillan 22:09 That is really, really fascinating. We've kind of run out of our time here, I want to thank you again, James Stamp, Stamp Associates, Viticulture Inc,. There's obviously a lot of work to continue to do. And the work that you folks are doing is wonderful. And I hope that more people will start thinking along the same lines, at the very least I hope the philosophy spreads. Is there one thing you would recommend to our listeners?
James Stamp 22:32 Yeah, I think what's it's a, it's a big one thing with with sub parts. It really is to pay attention to where your plant materials coming from. To have a really good communication with the nursery. If nothing else, sample the finished finished product for Red Blotch and Leaf Roll Three, which are the two viruses that have the biggest impact on vine performance. And the two viruses that are very easily vectored in the industry.
Craig Macmillan 22:59 That's great. Where can we find out more about you?
James Stamp 23:02 We have a website, the website is JamesStamp.net. There's all our, that we have. We've written a bunch of articles about what we do. We give presentations fairly frequently. And so some of that information is on there. And we have a website and of course, phone number, email, of course all that's there.
Craig Macmillan 23:20 Perfect. Fantastic. Well, I want to thank you again, James, and I want to thank our listeners for listening to Sustainable Winegrowing with the new team. Again, my name is Craig Mcmillan, your host and we look forward to having you download us again.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai | |||
| 132: Are you Talking About your Sustainability Efforts? | Marketing Tip Monday | 09 May 2022 | 00:02:20 | |
Since 2016 we’ve brought you the latest science and research for the wine industry. These bi-monthly podcasts help you care for the people and planet but we wanted to address that third P of sustainability: prosperity. We know customers are looking for wines labeled as sustainable. In a recent systematic review of 30 studies, consumers reported a higher preference for ecolabel and social responsibility labels compared to nutrition labels. To help you communicate your sustainable practices with customers were going to add Marketing Tip Mondays from SIP Certified to our lineup. These will be short, with no intro music, no-frills episodes. Just a quick overview of our latest marketing tip so you can show your customers that you share their values. On to today’s tip: Are you talking about your sustainability efforts?More Americans than ever are making environmentally conscious decisions when it comes to the products they buy and the businesses they support. Consumers want to support brands that share their values and take action to preserve the health of the planet. It's important to let them know that your brand protects the people and the planet! Kyle Coots of Ancient Peaks finds that his customers love hearing about how they utilize, benefit, and protect various animal species: Many sustainable practices involve our animal friends! So, you can talk about:
You can also communicate these practices by making an informational pamphlet to include in your wine club shipments or keep at the tasting room for your members to enjoy. Another great way to showcase your sustainability is with a dedicated page on your website. On your podcast player, scroll down to the show notes to read the full article and see some great website pages dedicated to sustainability from our members. You can also subscribe to our Marketing Tips eNewsletter to get the latest consumer trends, branding methods, and sales tactics delivered right to your inbox. Thanks for listening to our first Marketing Tips Monday from SIP Certified. Let us know what you think of these micro podcasts by sending an email to podcast@vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 131: Virus Detection in Grapevines | 05 May 2022 | 00:28:06 | |
With the prevalence of Leaf Roll Three, Red Blotch, and other viruses, accurate and timely detection of viruses in grapevines has never been more imperative. Alan Wei, Owner and Lab Manager at Agri-Analysis LLC in Davis California explains how his lab is using state-of-the-art technologies to find new viruses. Dr. We will explain sampling strategies to help growers screen and test larger number of grapevines with a fixed testing budget. He will also explain exciting emerging technologies such as next generation sequencing (NGS). Currently, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the widely accepted method for testing for viruses. This process tests for one gene at time. Next generation sequencing allows labs to test multiple genes at a time and potentially discover unknown viruses from a single test. References:
Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. TranscriptCraig Macmillan 0:00 My guest today is Alan Wei, who's owner and lab manager of Agri Analysis LLC in Davis, California. Alan, thanks for being on the show. Alan Wei 0:10 Thank you very much, Craig, for hosting me. And I'm very delighted to be here. And I want to use this opportunity to say hello to listeners as well. Craig Macmillan 0:19 So Alan, I want to have you on the show, because I want to talk about anything that's new and exciting in the world of grapevine virology, and a lot of research and a lot of development in industry with labs like your own. So, what's what's what's happening out there, what's going on with detection of viruses these days? Alan Wei 0:36 There is a International conference on grapevine viruses that's held every three years. So last time was 2018, in Chile. And the second, the following time was supposed to be 2021 in Greece, and unfortunately, that was canceled due to the obvious reasons, and then was supposed to be happening this year. And by the way, is not happening, and it's postponed until next year. So as a result, we have not, the researchers in this field have not been able to meet to report the latest grapevine viruses. Just to mention something that in the literature, for example, there are two or three new DNA viruses being discovered and reported. In fact, in grapevines, but their practical consequences are known. So we probably don't want to get in too much into them. Craig Macmillan 1:33 Maybe not, but I think this is an interesting thing because for instance, red blotch, caught everybody by surprise. And so how are these new...how are these these new viruses, how are they found, if you are looking forward, you're looking for other things, what kind of technology they're using to find this new stuff? Alan Wei 1:49 Typically, they're found by deep sequencing, also known as NGS Next Generation Sequencing. Researchers are always trying to look for the frontiers of why viruses virology by applying these methods and find this new viruses, but their practical impact needs to be validated, study to further be before we alarm growers. And red blotch was found a similar way. With the exception that the red blotch phenomena, and the disease was known to growers for years without the assay and the way the branch was first reported, or discovered through NGS that was, you know, the "wow" moment to growers. Yeah, we do now know what is causing this read leaf in my vineyard. Craig Macmillan 2:43 Tell me a little bit more about NGS, it sounds like this is gonna be an important technology for us, this deep sequencing. Alan Wei 2:48 Yeah, definitely. Deep sequencing is very widely used in the research community. And, when was that, in December meeting hosted by FFPS, they reported that NGS is going to be accepted by regulators like APHIS as a alternative way of testing materials coming from overseas. Which means shortened time and rapid, faster deployment of foreign important materials in in this country, or practically to growers hands. Yeah, the technology is definitely upcoming, and we're looking to possibly deploy it for routine use. We need to hear more feedback before we really do it. Craig Macmillan 3:41 This is obviously a very complicated technology, but like in a sense, can you explain what it is? Alan Wei 3:48 PCR is the way that accepted method in testing viruses or microbial in general. Compared to PCR, which tests one gene at a time, NGS would allow you to test multiple genes at a time. Because through the use of small, small redundant primers, which amplify many sometimes millions of hundreds of millions of fragments of the gene, which can parallelize sequenced with that data, and coupled with information, analysis, informatics, you can extract new new information from your sample, including new viruses, new bacteria. Craig Macmillan 4:38 So essentially, I've got a sample of plant material. And I run it through this NGS process, and it comes back and says, hey, there's genetic material in here that doesn't belong here. This is not grapevine, or hey, visit genetic material that's associated with some virus or something like that. And that's the flag that I get. And I get it from the whole picture. I'm not doing it like like you say gene by looking at for specific genes, I'm getting a kickback, I'm saying hey, there's there's a variety of things or whatever genes we weren't, wouldn't even thought to look for. Alan Wei 5:10 Exactly, exactly. You're right. And then that gene can be not not only you find genes and not belong to the grapevine, which we considered as, you know, the background gene, by further analysis of that, that special gene, you can assign them to, to pathogens, basically, different types of pathogens. Craig Macmillan 5:30 Gotcha. Yeah, that definitely speeds up the process a lot and makes it possible to catch things in finer net than we ever would have been able to do before. So that's pretty exciting. Alan Wei 5:38 Yes, def definitely. Craig Macmillan 5:40 Coming to red blotch, this is continues to be, you know, a very hot topic, obviously, it continues to be an issue in the field and continues to be an issue in other places. Is there anything new that we've learned regarding the Red Blotch Virus in any realm, anything about how it moves, its symptomology, new means of detection, anything like that? Alan Wei 6:08 I have a list of articles that just simply published during the past a couple of years, and researchers from you know, several major universities have really dived deep into the physiology, the virology, their impact on wine quality, in aspect of, of a rather large virus. They're really fascinating. From a practical standpoint, though, the progress has been less because what was reported to us few years ago remain the same, which which you know, very well. Which means rogueing, you know, rogueing your infected vines as aggressively as possible. Sourcing for clean materials as diligently as possible to prevent any viruses infecting material being planted. And once they do present in your vineyard take them out as quickly as possible. And also, although we know the Threecornered Alfalfa Hopper is the vector for red blotch. And folks don't recommend you spray against this particular insect because it is not a very efficient transmitter of the virus. Grapevine is not its preferred host. So those information were already known through talks by various speakers in the past. Craig Macmillan 7:33 We were talking about spread. And this is something that is absolutely puzzling to me, in years of field checking, I had never once seen this Threecornered Alfalfa Hopper. But I have talked to people who have. And they apparently are very reclusive, they will move away from you, the signs of the damage and very subtle, they do this little kind of girdling thing in the leaves. I just feel like there's just kind of be another vector. I mean, just I just feel to kind of be another vector. I mean, is there is there anything new in that world? I mean, we've identified the one but it seems kind of mysterious. And I'm thinking about the spread at the Russell Ranch, that finish and plant services ranch where we've not only identified it, but they were able to see that was spreading, attributed to the Threecornered Alfalfa Hopper, correct me? Alan Wei 8:19 I completely agree with you. Yeah, we don't see too many of our tree hoppers in the field. Yet spread in Russell Ranch has been phenomenal. It's more like, more exponential increase year after year, since 2018. So it is a mystery. If some of you, listeners, went to the seminar by UC Davis in early December, particularly the presentation by Professor Kent Daane, then the entomologists have been looking at a number of potential hosts. But unfortunately, they either have not been proven yet or, most of them were disproven to be a potential host. So we're still in that regard., virtually in the context of Russell Ranch, it is a complete mystery. You would think through the very aggressive management by FPS, you know, any presence over vectors were eliminated. And any source of vectors were eliminated. We have but yet they see this exponential growth in terms of infected vines, which, which stopped Russell Ranch from operation, basically. Craig Macmillan 9:40 Yeah, exactly. And I was actually looking at a table for one of your publications earlier today, and it looks like it went from zero to exponential like there was no nothing was detected for a couple of years or two. Then blammo! And I've been thinking about the same thing happening in other vineyards, I'm familiar with. And obviously just underlines how big of a threat red blotch is because we don't understand, you know, a lot, there's a lot we don't understand about it. So that means you got to sample. That you should rogue vines when you see them. But also you got to be sampling. Are there any is there anything new in the way of sampling protocols? Because I know that the distribution of the virus varies quite a bit between different parts of the plant different times of year and whatnot. So it's easy to miss it. What's the what's the best recommendation these days, if I wanted to test some lines, asymptomatic vines for red watch? Alan Wei 10:31 Yeah, we still recommend growers to sample cane materials, because in our analysis, you know, relative concentration in different parts of the vine, the cane materials has highest concentration of virus tighter level. And we also suggest growers to consider combine cuttings from different vines to make a what's called a composite sample. Therefore, they can you know, cost, testing costs can be reduced, and their testing budget can be maximized. And of course, you know, the testing objectives dictate how high your sample. Sometimes growers want to test the individual vines to really zoom in to which vine is exactly is infected, that you can only do that by testing individual vines. But the composite testing gave you the first level of screening. To see if you composite ten vines into one sample, and the entire sample would be positive. But if you want to zoom in which vine, but you're gonna want to use positive so that you can take it out, then you will do individual testing after the first round over the course screen, if you will. Craig Macmillan 11:44 Yeah, so the strategy would be basically like test the vineyard. And then if you find that something, then you drill down, and you can get it down to decide kind of what area where the individual vines are. That's a very, very smart technique. It's a really great idea. How sensitive are the detection techniques these days? So like, if I've got a if I have 10 vines out of 1000, and I sample and I sampled 10 vines, and I hit one of them, one of the infected ones, is that enough to show up in in the in the analysis? Alan Wei 12:15 Yeah, definitely. So if there's only one out of 10 cuttings is positive, and that means practically you're diluting the by 10 times, it is very much detectable. Craig Macmillan 12:27 Is there a lower detection limit? Alan Wei 12:28 Yeah, when there's a theoretical detection limit, and then there's a practical detection limit. If we do a back of the envelope calculation, a PCR method would allow you to detect one copy without the problem. But then of course, practically, there are other considerations such as whether you know, the one copy, you can sample that one copy into your PCR tube to begin with, because you know, if there's a one copy per microliter, and the way you want to use a two microliter in a PCR mix, you may or may not be able to transfer that one copy from a sample to the PCR tube to begin with. And even if you do, there may be potential inhibitors that present in grapevine material that could potentially influence your sensitivity as well. So there's a practical detection limit, and there's their theoretical detection limit issues. But overall, you know, we have found the red blotch detection to be not a problem, because typically the virus titer is high enough to be detected, even if you compounded multiple vines or cuttings into one sample. Craig Macmillan 13:33 That's good. That's very, very useful, very, very useful. I would love to move on to kind of other viruses because it's red blotch is not the only game in town these days. Leaf Roll complexes and Leaf Roll viruses, there's still a problem correct? Alan Wei 13:44 Especially Leaf Roll Three is very much that the top of our problems still and because you know the vaccine is very well known. It's very prevalent. Inoculum widespread to the percentage of vines tested positive for Leaf Roll Three that are coming through our lab is roughly about 15 percent. So Leaf Roll Three is very much prevalent. There have been some really nice talks, organized before the pandemic was by the Lodi growers group. There are some talks from including from South Africa. Recently from Red Blotch symposium where there's some presentations on Leaf Roll Three as well. So Leaf Roll Three is very much a serious problem. And growers need to be very vigilant against the Leaf Roll Three from from new planting materials to management of existing vineyards. Craig Macmillan 14:37 So let's say I've got a vineyard and I'm seeing some symptoms. I'm seeing some red leaves or I'm seeing some bronzing or I'm seeing something, and I've looked at the nutritional situation, I've ruled out either toxicity or deficiency. So I'm not thinking hey, you know, maybe this is a virus issue. Can you take samples of vines and just bring them to a lab and say, please help me? Can you tell me what this might be? I know we just talked about the deep sequencing. Is that, I'm not gonna say that technology. But like if I brought you some material and I said this has got a problem, how would you go about diagnosing it? Alan Wei 15:14 Oh, definitely. That's what we do every day. Most of our work is focused on helping growers find out what is possible cause of a programmatic vine in their vineyard. They will send in the samples, either individual vines or composite samples. We have a panel, what's called a combo panel that covers the 11 viruses, 11 major viruses. Leaf Roll Roll 1, 2, 3, 4, and two or three viruses, and of course, Red Blotch, and Fan Leaf, Pierce's. And then also Pinot Gris virus. That is the most frequently requested a panel. And by doing that panel, we typically find out if it's a virus issue. Craig Macmillan 15:58 That's very useful. It's very, very good to know. In relation to grapevine viruses, or just diseases overall, what is the one thing you would recommend to the listeners that they should keep in mind? Alan Wei 16:08 I think that you already touched on this earlier. You know, one thing is, if they see problems in the vineyard, they should consider the sample and test to validate whether they're viruses or not. And if they're considering to plant new materials, they should be very vigilant to to ask questions of the nurseries, and also do their own independent homework. And the you will be interviewing Dr. James Samp in another session. He can tell you more about how he go about sourcing for cleaning materials for his clients, which are very quality conscious. Craig Macmillan 16:47 Yeah, we're really looking forward to that conversation, Much like I was looking forward to this one. You know, this reminds me of something. You hear the word tighter a lot. And I don't think I fully understand what it means. I know that it's important and seems to be coming up a lot. Can you explain the concept and why it's important and what it means for us practically? Alan Wei 17:09 Yeah, I'm so glad you brought this topic up. You know, you and I have been serving on AVF committee, Grant Review Committee for a number of years. And last week, we had our review meeting for this year, and the subject came up. You know, we can talk about different aspects of Red Blotch impact in wine quality, wine physiology, you know, readily and so on and so forth. If we want to contribute one single factor of all of this different symptomology, it would be the virus tighter level. The virus tighter means the number of particles in the vine. If the vine is only infected with a smaller number of particles, its response to the virus is going to be different than the vines that are infected with larger or large number of particles. In our experience, the virus level in different vines can be very much different. I'm not talking about different by you know, 50 percent, or two or three fold. I'm talking about several orders of magnitude. There is a poster right behind me, which you cannot see. But we did a measurement of three infected vines. One, with clean, non effective. Another one is chosen for medium Red Leaf symptom. Another one, it's very heavily Red Leaf symptom. And virus level, the obviously the non infected vine was zero. And then the mediumly infected vine was about one or 200. And then heavily infected vine, was one hundred thousand in relative copy numbers. So this tells you that you know, this virus kinda level concentration level in the vine, really affect symptomology as well as the vine performance and the barrel quality and obviously, eventually, wine quality. If we read the scientific literature, lots of studies report Red Blotch positive, Red Blotch negative, they did not talk about the virus tighter level. That's why we were so glad to see last week one of the research proposes to study the virus tighter level on different aspects of vine physiology and berry quality. I just think it was so so so important because the virus tighter will make it make a huge difference. Craig Macmillan 19:39 So we may be moving from a world of infected or not, to not, to more sick, less sick. Alan Wei 19:47 Yes, absolutely right. That is actually how we protect ourselves against the human viruses as well. You know, our vaccine does not completely protect us from infection. But it does protect us from viruses being propagated in high numbers in our body. Therefore, our symptoms of the infection in the individual is much less. And the ability for that individual to infect others are much less. Simply because of the lower virus tighter level in an infected person and similarly is true in grapevines. Craig Macmillan 20:24 So plants and animals are obviously very different organisms and where an animal has an immune system plants do not, they do not have an immune defense system. Is that correct? Alan Wei 20:35 Yes, you're right, correct. But they do have basic defense system against foreign organisms. One of them is the RNAi system. So speaking of that, you know, the simple symptomology in response to Red Blotch, and most of it is a total response, as a result of virus infection. The RNAi defense system gets activated. For example, the accumulation of the sugar of the raisin should be gradually, in a normal process, will be gradually moving towards the berries. But in Red Blotch, in fact, in vines, they are accumulated in leaves. Not moving toward the sugars. And the same for anthocyanins. That's why we see this red leaf. And those red color should be you know, in the berries, but they're not. They get stuck together, accumulating in leaves. It's fascinating. Unfortunately, we are still at the beginning of understanding all of this. Some reports are gradually coming out. Craig Macmillan 21:40 And so I want to make sure that I understand kind of how this works. So there's a grapevine that becomes infected. However way. The virus is very, very tiny bits of genetic material. Unlike, unlike a bacteria, which has a cell wall. Viruses don't have that they're just genetic material. The plant recognizes that somehow. And then RNA is the material that is produced from genes, the genes or have a have a sequence and then when that is reproduced that goes out into the world as RNA. Is that right? Alan Wei 22:17 Yes, the RNA is inside the host. And in response to a virus infection. And the defense mechanism get activated, which involves what is called enzymes. These RNA into smaller pieces, typically 20 nucleotide long. And they are, they are the what's called the interference RNA, or RNAi which inhibit the host from propagation inside the plant. Craig Macmillan 22:48 This is just, we need to wrap up for time, but I just have been thinking about this for years. And that is, where do these viruses come from? Where, how do they, how do they show up? What are these plant viruses? What? Are they jumping from other plants as a mutation of one into another? Or...do we know? Do I have any idea where these things come from? Because it seems like it's not just a question of finding it. Seems it's got to come from someplace. Alan Wei 23:14 Yeah, that's that's a really good question. I you know, you have biology, you have a load viruses, and obviously, RNA. Some viruses are readier to evolve, to change, to mutate. And that's why we see so many different mutants in the COVID virus family. And this is Red Blotch, is a DNA base virus, which have shown less mutation. And so far, we only seen two mutants, two clay types. And they practically they don't have much difference. As far as the, you know, the origin and the evolution. We need to have folks like Mark Fuchs to answer that. Craig Macmillan 23:55 At Cornell. Well, that's fantastic. That's that's our future. That's where, that's where we're going. Well, I think we've covered everything. Where can people find out more about you? Alan Wei 24:03 We have a website, agri-analysis.com. And then they could call us or email us anytime. We're here to help growers to build a better and clean vineyard so that they can make the best wine possible for the for their clients. Yes, sorry, Craig for the background noise. I think folks who are preparing samples as we speak. Craig Macmillan 24:26 I want to thank you Alan, our guest today has been Alan Wei, Owner and Lab Manager at Agri-analysis, David California. Thanks so much. This is really fascinating conversation. Alan Wei 24:35 Thank you very much Craig for hosting me. Continue to the great job. I'm so glad you're back at the Vineyard Team. You guys. You guys are wonderful team and doing great job. I'm very pleased to be here. Craig Macmillan 24:44 Thank you. I appreciate that.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai | |||
| 130: The biological Control of Vine Mealybug Using Mealybug Destroyers and Anagyrus Wasps | 21 Apr 2022 | 00:30:20 | |
Vine Mealybug (VMB) is a challenging pest in many vineyards. Growers are increasingly incorporating biological control into their Integrated Pest Management programs by releasing Mealybug Destroyers and Anagyrus Wasps. Brett Chandler, President and General Manager at Associates Insectary explains how these two beneficials help manage VMB populations. The Mealybug Destroyer (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri) is a predator beetle. It feeds on eggs and small stages of VMB. The Anagyrus Wasp is a parasite. It lays eggs inside the Mealybug. The challenge with the wasp is that they are very susceptible to many chemicals and require more specialized conditions to be effective. Brett describes how to monitor for both Mealybug and beneficials, when and how often to release the insects, the best release methods, and how to pair beneficials with chemical control.
Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. TranscriptCraig Macmillan 0:00 And with us today is Brett Chandler, president and general manager of associates and secretary in Santa Paula, California. And thanks for being here.
Brett Chandler 0:07 Thank you for having us Craig.
Craig Macmillan 0:10 You have been in the world of biological control for a long time. And you have seen a lot of trends and a lot of different approaches and a lot of different paths. And the pest that I want to talk about today is vine mealybug on winegrapes, specifically, and I'm very interested in the bio control strategies that people are employing and how they're doing it and how successful they're turning out to be. And some of the advantages of taking a biocontrol approach.
Brett Chandler 0:35 Well, it's actually an integrated approach, where you integrate your chemicals, as a last resort, your cultural practices as a first mainline, and then most importantly, monitoring the insects, both the good and the bad, and keeping a good track on what's happening in the vineyard. And it's much easier than most people think,
Craig Macmillan 0:57 You know, I want to shift to that one point there right away as as one of the challenges is you have to measure to manage, right, that's a common saying. And with beneficial insects, one of the challenges that I always found was how to monitor beneficial insects. I was a field checker for a long time, and I'd find lots of pests, but I couldn't find the beneficials. But we had reason to believe that they were part of the ecosystem, you know, populations would go up and down. And, you know, what recommendations do you have for any particular organism, maybe Cryptolaemus ? For monitoring what the populations are like?
Brett Chandler 1:30 Cryptolaemus, the organism itself is pretty standout, it's pretty obvious. But when it's feeding among the mealybugs, it's very easy to mistake because it's a mimic, it looks just like the mealybugs, and it can be working among there in numbers that you don't notice, unless you really take the time to look at it. What you're going to find with, say Cryptolaemus feeding is you'll find empty egg masses, where you'll see the white fluffy egg mass where the mealybug normally produces it young, but they're actually empty. And that you come to find is easier to recognize, the more often you see it. It's not that technical, but it is something you need to recognize. And through repetition, it's very doable for most most farm employees.
Craig Macmillan 2:14 And again, that's a combination of recognizing the insect itself and also recognizing the evidence that the insect has been there. Because oftentimes, that's what we're looking at is we're looking at the indirect evidence, you know, I should mention, I just dived right in. So the Cryptolaemus montrouzieri is the mealybug destroyer, and is a predator, is that correct?
Brett Chandler 2:34 Correct. It's a predator as opposed to the Wasp, which are parasites, which lay their eggs inside the mealybug. The Cryptolaemus beetle actually feeds on the eggs and consumes mass quantities of the eggs and smaller stages of the mealybugs. It's a it's a predator like any other that is not attached to any one stage, but feeds at all stages available to consume.
Craig Macmillan 2:58 Tell me a little bit about predators. I mean about parasites next.
Brett Chandler 3:01 The parasites, they're a very unique creature. They're highly specialized, they will only feed on one or two species where they can find and lay their eggs. Only the females do the feeding, the males do no feeding, they simply breed and provide no control. They are also very susceptible to many chemicals that the beetles or other predators may be less susceptible to. They also are very host specific. In other words, if there's not enough of the pest around, they won't find it and they may starve. If there's too many, they may be repelled, or they don't like them at that high density. So they're a very, very specific tool for a very specific circumstance. But broadly, the need to be used in only specific locations and times of year because they're they're quite delicate.
Craig Macmillan 3:55 You mentioned feeding. I thought the parasitoid wasps just lay their egg in the adult. And then it was the larva yes that had hatched out that does the damage. Is that right?
Brett Chandler 4:08 Well, actually, it does both. It's called Host feeding. And host feeding occurs in some cases where they're not getting enough protein. And they may feed on one because they'll find a mealybug and if it's too small or too large, they won't lay their eggs on it. But they may kill it by feeding on it or merely annoying it. Actually the Asian citrus psyllid parasitoid tamarixia, it kills twice as many by feeding than it does actually laying eggs.
Craig Macmillan 4:34 There you go, that it's fantastically interesting. If I'm trying to monitor for the wasps. How do I go about doing that? Because they're tiny.
Unknown Speaker 4:42 Very, very difficult. But again, early season, they're going to be laying their eggs inside the smaller mealybug and it's very difficult to find but once the first generation has passed, and the adult Wasp has emerged from what we call the mummy, where the egg has crawled out and become an adult fed on the mealybug. And emerged by chewing a hole just like a chick, choose a hole in a chicken egg, you see that characteristic round hole in the mealybug pupa. And that tells you that an Anagyrus adult emerge from that pupa.
Craig Macmillan 5:16 When we think of pest monitoring, and we think of densities, and we count or we quantify somehow, and then we come up with changes over time. Maybe we do our timings or pesticide timings, maybe based on that or decisions, whether we use pesticides at all based on that. What are the ways of measuring density? And what kinds of density measures do we use and thresholds to use for deciding Yes, this is really working well. Or maybe I need to do an augmentative release.
Brett Chandler 5:44 Well, for both of these, this is not an established what classic biological control where you release once and allow it to come on. The insect and the Wasp with the mealybug have what's called a dynamic equilibrium where it takes them time to bring the population down. And so that time may be too long, where the grape clusters are infested with the mealybug. And you don't allow that to happen. So you use the technique called an inundated release, where you release many more than the natural population would be in hopes of bringing down the climbing population because the key to control is actually the second generation of these insects that are released whether wasp or beetle, not the first generation. A wasp can lay 100 to 150 eggs, a beetle can lay up to 400 eggs. So that's 400 times the control in the second generation than the first.
Craig Macmillan 6:39 And how do we distribute these in the field? What's the what's the method by which both the beetle and the Wasp are introduced?
Brett Chandler 6:46 Many methods can be used. Drones are much more popular now and being used. The drone pilots are quite quite adept at getting them where they need to be when they need to be. We work with companies like Parabug, who are quite familiar with working with the beetles and depositing them quite a bit in the Central Valley forests and other growing locations and the Wasp as well. Hand releasing can if you have a clumped distribution, where you only have pockets, hand release is probably better if you have it broadly where the vine mealybug is broadly throughout the vineyard, a drone is helpful. But drones can be expensive to come for just five or 10 acres, you need to get a large acreage to make it effective where several neighbors get together and the neighboring vineyards all working together to allow it to happen. Drone pilots have to travel, their time. So to be cost effective, you need a larger acres for the drone. But at the same time, you need manpower available to release by hand as well.
Craig Macmillan 7:43 So for dropping a beetle, we're dropping as an adult?
Brett Chandler 7:48 Yes, we ship the beatles as adult their wings and they can fly. So when they come out, they'll drop a little and start flying and working towards the vine. And settle on the line, if there's any mealybug in the area, they will immediately be olfactory stimulated to search for them. They smell the mealybug and that's one of the driving things that attracts them and keeps them in the vineyard. Feeding as long as the population is is active.
Craig Macmillan 8:49 Is that true for the Wasp as well?
Brett Chandler 8:49 The Wasp is more of a solitary searcher, they like very small numbers when the vine mealybug are just emerging from under the bark or maybe on the edge. When high numbers of vine mealybug come out, they unfortunately attract the ants and the ants are the downfall of the Anagyrus. Anagyrus goes from very effective to about 2% effective when the ants are active in the in the vineyards. It is a big limiting factor of theirs. Whereas the Beatles because of their mimicry, they even smell like the mealybugs, and the ants will ignore the juveniles. Once the adults have laid the eggs, the ants will ignore them. And they can feed and control the mealybug with no disturbance from the ants.
Craig Macmillan 8:55 Interesting. Is there an advantage to using both types of organisms?
Brett Chandler 8:59 You can if you're properly timed in high numbers mid season, the beetles are definitely better because they're more effective. As far as bringing down high numbers and a little more tolerant of active spray programs. If you're using mating disruption that works very well. A recent study showed that beetle feeding is actually stimulated by the odors of mealybugs by the female pheromone and it actually stimulates their feedings. So it not only collaborates but it's actually a synergistic effect if you're using pheromone systems like the CheckMate or something like that. And if you're using trapping, that also helps you to time your initial releases of your parasitoids where you want to get them out there very early and as about a week after your first flight is a good time to plan to release. The problem is you don't know exactly when that is and that's the biggest problem is the lead time to get these insects grown. It's about 80 days for the Wasp and about 105 days for the beetles where we have to have those on hand and have started growing them 100 days before you need them. And that's that's the limitation, they don't have a long shelf life.
Craig Macmillan 10:10 So tell me more about the rearing, I think this is really fascinating.
Brett Chandler 10:13 The rearing system is actually rearing on live mealybug host, we rear ours on citrus mealybug, which is a similar host to vine or grape mealy bug, but not problematic if it should escape. So we have large colonies of millions of mealybugs in enclosed spaces, where we raise them to high densities, let the beetles go in the rooms, the adults lay their eggs, feed, reproduce, those 500 400 eggs hatch out, and then we harvest them out of the room, put them in bottles, and ship them to growers. And we've got about five to 10 days from harvest to use them so that they're still strong and vital. That's why we can't hold them over really from more than a week.
Craig Macmillan 10:55 So do you have like phases, you have different different populations that are kind of different stages, so that you can kind of hit the windows as you're going forward? Because otherwise you'd have everybody coming online at 105 days. That'd be like, okay, we got five days to do all the business in the world. Let's get them out there now. You must must wrap it up somehow.
Brett Chandler 11:15 Yeah, you're exactly right, we start logistics in January, and start talking to growers all the way up as far as Napa is down as far south as Delano, and everywhere in between. And if you'll notice, the vines come on at different times along that gradient as well as you run north to south. So that staggers it a little bit. But May and June are we're swamped. We're selling every one we can grow and working to grow more each year. So we do have to stagger them. And we do have almost 50 rearing rooms, where we have cycles coming off every couple of days. So we have fresh every couple of days. So it's continually going on a year round basis. And interesting thing this winter has been we sold tripled the number of beetles this winter than we normally have. And it's just taxing our staff to the maximum. So unfortunately, this year, we are not going to be rearing the Anagyrus Wasp, we simply don't have the manpower for it this year. I believe there's another source for those that's available. But the beetle demand is so strong, we're doubling our population from last year and thinking we're going to need to double it again to make it available because demand is so high.
Craig Macmillan 12:24 So this is really been adopted?
Brett Chandler 12:25 Very much very much. We've been doing it for about 10 years up in Napa and about eight years in the Central Valley and then scattered through that in the Central Coast. And it's becoming more and more driven by the the customers the end customers that want to see a sustainability component to the grapes going into the system. And also a big problem shifting towards the Beatles is the big problem has been for the Anagyrus has been the loss of Lorsban. Chlorpyrifos was actually a very good IPM tool that could be sprayed at the base of the vines to keep keep the ants at bay and allow the Wasps and the Beatles to do a better job. And with this loss, and not a great replacement on the horizon, people are having to use more and more than they did at the past. I mentioned about the Anagyrus dropping off, it drops about 75% and effectiveness when ants are present. So as ants come up, you need many more Anagyrus to get the same concentration in the past. And same thing with the beetles which were treating a lot more acres than we had but also more per acre.
Craig Macmillan 13:32 So there's no overwintering of either of these organisms?
Brett Chandler 13:37 There actually is. As far up as as in Tracy and Lodi area, we've had some overwinterings in most winters. The problem is the numbers are so low, that it's hard to get them going in the spring. You kind of have to kickstart it, but we do get carryover particularly along the coast, we get a lot more carryover. But the wasp, the populations dropped so low, it's very, very difficult to get much carryover with that. So seasonal inundative releases, which is what we've used in citrus for almost 100 years. We've been growing these beetles here for just about 95 years, and they're a great supplement to your pest control. You can't expect classic, practical,complete biocontrol in a crop that is not a naturally occurring ecosystem. There's not an ecosystem somewhere with 100 acres of perfectly uniform vines all coming in at the same time.
Craig Macmillan 14:27 Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And so this is not a refugia issue. It's not like oh, if I just had the right you know habitat for them they would establish and hangover it's that isn't that's not really a strategy that would work either populations in place.
Brett Chandler 14:42 In most areas you can get a few but the refugia is, can be problematic. They like soft bodied pests, the beatles particular and the mealybug you're not going to get mealybug to produce over the winter they go underground or under the bark so there's simply no food available for the wasp. But the beetle will feed on many soft bodied insects, reproduce on several species of mealybugs. But truthfully, there's not much activity during the winter months, and they have to kind of settle down and it takes them a while to get up to numbers and the pests being, taking advantage of that get jump started in the spring. So if you could get caught up, but you may be on your economic threshold, and they may be in your bunches by the time you get that done.
Craig Macmillan 15:29 What is the integration of cultural control, cultural practices, biological control, chemical control? So the, you know, the classical IPM framework. What do you see growers doing in terms of that integrated approach that's working well, not just for the control the mealybug, but it's also making it possible for these other practices to work well?
Brett Chandler 15:51 Well, the control of the ants through either minor cultivation, or banding with sticky, sticky materials on on the poles and on the lines to exclude the ants. Cultural practices as the're pruning to flag where it was a problem last year, you got those black vines, you've got sooty mold residues so that it combines to catch your eye particularly at this time of year at budbreak. And early in the season. flag that. That's going to be where you're going to see your activity first. And you can have a reward to your pruners to your irrigators to weed people working. Give them the flag and they come back and show you how many they did and you buy them lunch, something like that. Anyone can notice the black stains, you don't have to be highly educated. Then you concentrate your scouting on those black spots rather than having to canvass the entire vineyard. Where the black spots are is where you're gonna see the problem emerge first. Later in the season for spread, you'll have to spend more time. But that's a good economy of time, is to allow everyone that goes through the vineyard to have a part in monitoring.
Craig Macmillan 16:59 And then I can target what I do, whether it's a release or, or whatever. How to pesticides come into play here? Because I think there's always a conflict between biological control agents and pesticides.
Brett Chandler 17:12 We found a good solution in the citrus which seems to work in the grapes just as well. Particularly with newer products like Movento, Spirotetramat, very soft on beneficials, goes into the tree provides long control, goes into the vine provides long control, is not particularly disruptive, has very low surface residue. We found the mealybug and the Cryptolaemus aren't too disrupted by sulfur sprays either. And they do pretty well there. Abeamectin sprays for mites seem to do pretty well. Some of the plant growth regulators though can be quite hard on the beetles. Like Esteem. They will impact them as well. So that is something although it's considered safe for parasitoids, it's not safe for predators. And so we want to watch those when you combine those. Imidacloprid doesn't seem to do too much of a problem with when that's chemigated in or even applied on on a surface surface treatment. We just tried to time the releases to say a week after after your application of something like that, or a few days before a sulphur spraying. By timing it allows the beatles to find it, lay their eggs, which they will almost immediately, same with the wasps. Having something blowing dust. Even if it is just sulfur dust is highly disruptive, no one would want to have a bag of dust blown on them. And so just the disruption breaks down their activity. So giving them a few days of free time to get used to the odors, detect the mealybug find them do their feeding or their egg laying before you have to pass through again. So the calibration and the timing and the synchronization between your scheduled sprays is is it's usually not too hard to do but it does take a little forethought.
Craig Macmillan 18:53 You might have mentioned this but I'm not positive, we're talking about a release in the spring. They're not additional releases after that, it's a one release per year.
Brett Chandler 19:02 Actually not. The Anagyrus are so expensive to rear the high numbers aren't practical and so many are lost for various reasons that they release about every two weeks up to eight times a year. The Cryptolaemus we do an initial release at a base number and then a follow up release if it's if it's needed by by scouting and and about 50% of the time it's needed. So Cryptolaemus maybe once maybe twice, antivirus up to eight times. So there's a lot more work involved in the Anagyrus. So and they're more expensive. So you want to make sure you're using an expensive tool like that to its best effect. So if you have ants, Anagyrus are not recommended.
Craig Macmillan 19:45 Now we talked about the fact that overwintering isn't really practical, but what things can I do during the season to encourage protect, promote the beneficial insects that I've released?
Brett Chandler 19:54 Very simply the some of the broadleaf plants, some of the lupins and things like that will, if allowed to grow near the vines, will offer a little alternate nectar and a little food if the numbers are getting low for the beetles. The wasps, they will host feed. Like I say they're much more delicate, and it's hard to keep them around. That's why the constant releases during the year because of multiple overlapping generations, they're only feeding on about four days out of 30. Of a 30 day lifecycle for the mealybug, only four days that mealybug appropriate to be stung. So trying to get that you're releasing constantly to provide some loss there at every stage of the life. So that one wasp finds its mealybugs every couple of weeks. The main thing is to keep the disruption of the harsh chemicals to a minimum, or at least timed and coordinate with your insectary. The other thing is coordinating with your insectary and getting to know your supplier. Ask them do you have you know, customers already booked for this time. You know, historically, when when you've first seen it each year. You know historically, when your bunches normally close up, and when you want to get it in there. Follow the the history of vineyard and have it in your mind when you speak to them and give them a target window as early as possible. And they will work with you. You may have to shift a week or two, like I said one way or the other because of availability, but we're constantly expanding production to try and supply everyone as needed. But it's the growth of this. It's grown 30 40% In the last two years in demand, and it's just quite a quite a tough talent to find people that know how to grow insects to hire them. There's not a job board you put up and say, recruiting insecr rearing people, come on over.
Craig Macmillan 21:37 What is your experience? What are growers telling you? This sounds like this is a grower to grower explosion. Talking to people and I'm like. So what are you hearing back from growers that's making them so excited or making them really recommend this to their neighbors?
Brett Chandler 21:52 It seems that they see results. But it's very difficult to quantify an exact percentage, but they're they're satisfied with it. We had one grower who started out and promised he would buy from us if we wouldn't tell anyone he was using them. He thought it was a competitive advantage. And he wanted to keep it a secret from his neighbors because he thought he had one up on them.
Craig Macmillan 22:16 Meanwhile, the pressure of spread from across the fence line continues. I can see that I get you know I can I can see the mindset there. It makes sense. It makes sense. That's one thing I've always loved about this industry, and I've learned about Ag in general is how kind of collaborative it is. Insane things in the wine side, people ask me, you know, oh, or you know, how cutthroat is it? And it's like, well, there is competition, but also everybody's in the same boat. We're all facing the same problems. It's all the same time. You know, I mean, we're kind of a community regardless. With that idea, are you finding, is the spread of information, is this via meetings? Is it just one to one? Is there press stories that have made a difference? I, I'm just really curious about this as a model for other kinds of sustainable technologies.
Brett Chandler 23:01 It I think it's a combination of both. But the onside demonstration, the Lodi, grape growers have have had onsite demonstrations of drone releases for everyone to see. Things like the the Ag Expo, it's been going on and talking about that Kena Daane's been talking about it for several years. But now the practicality of it is really coming forward because people were scared that it was a lot more work. And it's not really. But it is it is a different kind of work, and it is practicable. But it does produce good results. And that's why the growers are coming back year after year to us and buying more each year. I don't think they'd be wasting their money if if they didn't think it was effective. And it seems to be that they're quite satisfied with with the results they're seeing in all aspects of it.
Craig Macmillan 23:48 Are there new things on the horizon? Or things that have just kind of happened recently that are exciting? Are there other organisms that have potential or there are other methods that are starting to show us potential? Do we have new information about the fine mealybug we didn't have before?
Brett Chandler 24:02 You'll have to talk to Dr. Daane about that. Kent knows all the details. I know he's working very hard on it. And he has been for many years. As I say, I think the drone technology and the practicality of the drones is making it more practical to people. Because whether it's an insect or a vineyard, you don't have people standing around, you're usually short handed, especially now. And the drones allow them to also to cooperate them with themselves and their neighbors and work among themselves to have the drone come in and do large scale releases. And that frees up the labor and they may take a few and do some a couple spot releases, but overall they can do broad releases and introduce them to an area, frankly the way we have done with the scale parasites in the citrus for 65 years. And the innondative, area wide approach brings it down and tends to expand overall control. While it's hard to tell on an individual vineyard block or orchard the overall regional control, you'll see it effectively as the numbers begin to drop. As long as we can keep good control of the ants. The ants are a plague in the citrus as well and a huge problem for us. And we use the Lorsban as well and founded quite an effective IPM tool, and we're looking forward to some useful replacement on the near horizon.
Craig Macmillan 25:18 Is there a biological control agent for their Argentine Ant?
Brett Chandler 25:22 They've tried. The thing is a super colony, believe it or not, in other parts of the world, two colonies from 50 yards apart, will fight each other. But most of Western California is one super colony of Argentine Ants that cooperate and feed. They actually keep the Fire Ants out. Where they have controlled them. The Fire Ants come in and they reduce the control and the Fire Ants are decimated by the Argentine Ants in Southern California.
Craig Macmillan 25:49 That's interesting. That's really, really interesting. Well, I want to thank you for being our guest today. This has been great, a lot of great information and some kind of hope, I feel. It's exciting when we get biological control success. At the beginning of the philosophy, like you said, going back 100 or more years ago to classical approach, we had a couple of successes that were really, really exciting. And then people kind of discovered how difficult it was. And I really appreciate folks like you and the rest of the community that keep sticking to this idea, and finding ways to make it work, because it's a fantastic strategy, and it has its place may not be perfect, but man, it makes a huge difference. And I think that's really great. I want to appreciate that. So I want to thank our guest, Brett Chandler, President and General Manager of Associates Insectary for being on the show today. I look forward to seeing you again. It's been a few years before just bumping into you in person again.
Brett Chandler 26:40 I hope so. Craig, look forward to seeing you soon. Thank you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai | |||
| 129: The Efficient Vineyard Project | 07 Apr 2022 | 00:25:03 | |
The Efficient Vineyard Project uses three phases to help growers improve their farming techniques; Measure, Model, and Manage. Terry Bates, Senior Research Associate at Cornell University in the School of Integrative Plant Sciences and Director of the Cornell Lake Erie Research and Extension Laboratory, has worked with the Efficient Vineyard Project since 2015 to collect and interoperate spatial data. He knew that growers were aware that variation in the vineyard was important to manage, but they did not know how to work with spatial data. The three phases create a foundation to make data work for each grower. The first phase, Measure, looks at how growers go about collecting data, what sensors they have, and how that data is being collected. The second phase is to Model the collected data to get the best information. And the third and final phase is to Manage through the mechanization of tasks. The program has even released a free My Efficient Vineyard software to make this process even more accessible to growers. References:
Subscribe on iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 128: A New Focus on Weed Management (Rebroadcast) | 17 Mar 2022 | 00:36:13 | |
If weeds aren’t a top priority in your pest control program, maybe they should be. John A. Roncoroni, Emeritus UC Cooperative Extension Weed Science Farm Advisor and UCIPM affiliate advisor in Napa County discusses his specialty; weed management in California’s Coastal and Foothill premium winegrape growing regions. He covers why weeds should play a more important role in pest control programs, knowing which weeds you have on your property, fire mitigation, and the toughest weeds to control today so you can bolster your weed management program. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 127: Soil Microbes and Nutrient Availability (Rebroadcast) | 03 Mar 2022 | 00:29:07 | |
Dr. Tarah Sullivan is Assistant Professor of Soil Microbiology at Washington State University. In this interview, Tarah discusses how the plant microbiome mirrors the human gut, the ways in which soil microorganisms can alter the bioavailability of micronutrients and metals for plants, why plants in alkaline soils can be deficient in iron when the soil is not, if cover crops can improve soil microbial communities, and what is next for her research. Tarah’s research emphasis is on linking the function and phylogeny of the soil microbiome, specifically with regard to the interactions and impacts on metal bioavailability and soil health. Whether the context is micronutrient availability in the rhizosphere, which confers plant growth promotion and crop enhancement, or in the context of contaminated systems where bioremediation and bioaugmentation are the best options to remediate heavy metals polluted sites, the soil microbiome is key in these biotransformations. Understanding the consortia of organisms and the mechanisms involved drives the work done in her lab with a wide array of biochemical and molecular techniques. References:28: Understanding Soil Health (Podcast) 53: Producing Compost and Carbon Sequestration (Podcast) 106: What? Bury Charcoal in the Vineyard? (Podcast) 113: Microbial Inoculants for Soil Health (Podcast) Digging into Soil Bacteria and Chlorosis Floor Management for Soil Health Soil Microbiology & Agricultural Sustainability | Tarah Sullivan (Podcast) Tarah Sullivan, Assistant Professor of Soil Microbiology, Washington State University Vineyard Team Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship Get MoreSubscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 126: Developing New Irrigation Technology for a Fraction of the Cost | 17 Feb 2022 | 00:24:01 | |
Greg Pennyroyal of Wilson Creek Winery and Vineyards was looking for soil moisture systems and found that the products available in the market were all expensive, proprietary systems that did not meet the needs of small block Temecula vineyards. He partnered with Reinier van der Lee, CEO of Vinduino, to reverse engineer the technology to develop a product that would give the same results for a fraction of the cost. They have expanded this project over the last five years to collect more and more data that can improve irrigation decisions. Today, they can connect the dots between SAP analysis and soil analysis and continue to add more variables. Over collecting data now will allow them to see what things are most actionable so they can develop a system that is economical and implementable for all blocks. Because there is more to irrigation than how much water is put on, the next phases of research will look at how water holding capacity, organic matter, and biological capacity at vineyards under different farming methods like Regenerative Agriculture impact irrigation efficiency. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 125: Using Grape Grower Demographics to Influence Climate Change Adaptation | 03 Feb 2022 | 00:29:05 | |
There are numerous tools and technologies to improve irrigation efficiency but by looking at grower demographics, we can better predict which growers will implement best management practices. Plus, we can learn how to educate all growers to improve adoption. Nicholas Babin, Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences at California Polytechnic State University, conducted a two-year study to assess Paso Robles California AVA grape growers’ thoughts around climate change adaptation, irrigation efficiency, practice adoption, and SGMA. SGMA, or Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, is a California state policy aiming to bring over drafted groundwater basins into sustainability in 20 to 30 years. Agencies are established in sub basins like Paso Robles to establish groundwater management strategies for their region. After discovering that the adoption of water management strategies like soil and plant tissue monitoring devices, distribution uniformity tests, and flow meters, was lower for smaller vineyards under 40 acres, Nicholas and his team looked at other demographics to determine which factors most influence adoption of best management practices. By evaluating growers’ income, rainfall, education, vineyard size, and other influences, the research found that the most important factor in predicting the adoption of water efficiency management practices is participation in the SIP Certified program for sustainable winegrowing. Nicholas also covers the Cal -Adapt tool to predict the impact of climate change on specific vineyards and gives a sneak peek at his latest research on the efficacy of carbon farming programs. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 124: Virginia Creeper Leaf Hopper in Vineyards | 20 Jan 2022 | 00:29:47 | |
While many growers are familiar with the Western Leafhopper, they may not know as much about the Virginia Creeper Leafhopper. Houston Wilson, Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist in the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside and Director of UC Organic Agriculture Institute has been studying the Virginia Creeper Leafhopper and potential biological controls. Leafhoppers are pierce and suck feeders. The insect removes small amounts of plant material causing a stippling effect on the leaf. This damage reduces the photosynthetic capacity of the vine and can reduce yields. The Virginia Creeper Leafhopper was recently introduced into the North Coast of California where it was discovered that it has no biological controls. Additionally, its life stages are different from the more well-known Western Leafhopper so growers must utilize different management practices to control the pest. References:
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| 230: Sustainable and Organic… What’s the Difference? | Marketing Tip Monday | 27 May 2024 | 00:03:51 | |
Have you ever been asked “What’s the difference between organic and sustainable?” Have you seen farming operations that have both certifications? Welcome to Marketing Tip Monday with SIP Certified. We know customers are looking for wines labeled as sustainable. While our longer-form episodes help you learn about the latest science and research for the wine industry, these twice-monthly micro podcasts will help you share your dedication to sustainable winegrowing so you can show your customers that you share their values. In this Marketing Tip, you’ll learn how Certified Organic and sustainable compare, and get some ideas for engaging in a conversation about what your certification means. Sustainable and Organic OverlapThere is a lot of overlap between the programs. Both programs are committed to environmental preservation and regeneration through practices that address:
A lot of SIP Certified farmers are also Certified Organic. Even if they’re not certified by both, many of their farming practices overlap the programs. Since many organic practices are sustainable and vice-versa, an operation can attain both certifications without many complications. When a winegrower gets both Certified Organic and SIP Certified sustainable they demonstrate their commitment to environmental preservation and beyond. It also appeals to eco-conscious consumers who consider both certifications when making purchasing decisions. How to Explain Sustainability The 3 P’s of SustainabilityWhat makes sustainability unique is that in addition to addressing farming practices, it also looks at the social and economic aspects of the operation. A good way to remember this is the 3 P’s of Sustainability: People, Planet, and Prosperity. You can tie several practices that your business engages in every day back to the 3 P’s:
* Overlap with Organic. Tell a StoryStories make facts more memorable. You can tell your customers that your brand practices social responsibility, but without sharing a specific example of what that looks like, you haven’t really told them much! Next time someone asks you, “What’s the difference between organic and sustainable?” try to share a specific sustainable example from the People or Prosperity categories: The Journey to Net-Zero3 P's Category: Prosperity When the team at Center of Effort looked at their energy use, they discovered many areas where they could adjust to be more efficient. Over time, these changes have compounded to have tremendous energy savings: · Run their cooling system during off-peak hours. · Replace a 15-year-old chiller with a newer, more efficient one that allows for selective tank cooling. · Install a remote-operated quick-draw door in the production room to address insulation losses. Since making all of these changes, their winery and hospitality areas are now 100% powered by the sun. In fact, they now run net-negative and send generated power back to the grid! Did you see Center of Effort's Sustainable Story feature in Grape and Wine Magazine? Tell Your Sustainable StoryWe are here to help you tell your customers how your brand protects natural and human resources with the Sustainable Story program. This simple yet powerful free tool helps you tell your own personal sustainable message. And it just got better with a new online course. Go to the show notes, click the link titled Tell Your Sustainable Story to sign up, and start writing yours today! Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team. Resources:
Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace | |||
| 123: What is Happening in Biologicals for Pest Management and Plant Health | 06 Jan 2022 | 00:21:57 | |
Consumer demand for transparency and sustainability of their food system is leading to more and more agrochemical restrictions to address concerns for pollinators, noenicitinoids, and drift. Additionally, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investors are putting pressure on the chemical industry to improve their metrics. Pam Marrone, Founder and CEO of Marrone Bio Innovations outlines the market, status, and potential for biologicals in this excerpt from our 2020 Sustainable Ag Expo. Bringing a new pesticide to market can cost upwards of 300 million dollars and takes an average of 21 years. These challenges have big companies looking at new technologies like biologicals. Bringing a biological to market costs five to 10 million and can be accomplished in three to four years. Growers are seeing that using an integrated solution creates a better final product. Biologicals offer new modes of action, the ability to spray up until harvest, and short reentry times. Plus, they can allow growers to improve soil health and reduce greenhouse gasses. References:
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| 122: Preserving Agriculture Land to Combat Climate Change | 16 Dec 2021 | 00:28:54 | |
Maintaining agricultural land can be a solution to climate change. Renata Brillinger, Executive Director at California Climate & Agriculture Network (CalCAN), and her team are working to incentivize sustainable practices like composting, cover crops, and solar pumps at farms. They promote four grant programs that help farmers and ranchers have a positive impact on the planet and their bottom line. The first is to prevent urban sprawl by funding easements to maintain working farmland. The second is to increase on-farm water use efficiency which also reduces energy consumption. The third is to reduce methane emissions in livestock operations by collecting dry manure. And the fourth is to fund healthy soils programs to improve the organic content in soil and reduce the need for synthetic inputs. As of December 2022, there are more than 200 million dollars in grant funding coming online. It is important that farmers apply for funding not only to execute their own projects but to ensure that these programs continue to be funded in the future. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 121: Regenerative Agriculture (Rebroadcast) | 02 Dec 2021 | 00:21:51 | |
David R. Montgomery defines regenerative agriculture as leaving the land better off and more fertile as a consequence of cultivation. David studied geology at Stanford University before earning his Ph.D. in geomorphology at UC Berkeley. Today he teaches at the University of Washington where he studies the evolution of topography and how geological processes shape landscapes and influence ecological systems. In this research, he has defined three principles to build soil fertility; minimal disturbance, cover cropping and growing a diversity of crops. David has studied the success of these principles in agricultural systems around the world, from subsistence farmers to large commodity crops in North America. Healthy soils support more crop growth, have less erosion, and even look and smell healthier. The author of three books, David is a wealth of information on how soil life impacts plant productivity. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 120: Autonomous Drone Vineyard Spraying | 18 Nov 2021 | 00:20:50 | |
Imagine improving both the efficiency and safety of your team with autonomous drone vineyard spraying. That is exactly what David Goldfarb and the team at Clos de la Tech are trialing in their vine rows. Although this technology has been used in Japan for a number of years, it is new to the United States. Initially, they looked to drones as a way to scout for pests. Spraying was limited due to the small capacity of the machines. Then an advancement inspired by COVID stadium sanitation standards changed the game. A tethering system was created to attach the drone to a full-sized tank with a lightweight hose. Since FFA standards are still being written for drone spray applications, trials were conducted with water. The Clos de la Tech team found that coverage could be more than sufficient and they look forward to testing this technology more in the future. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 119: Vine Mealybug 101: Species Identification, Lifecycle, and Scouting to Create an IPM Program | 04 Nov 2021 | 00:25:05 | |
The first pillar of any successful IPM (Integrated Pest Management Program) is to know the pest you want to manage. Emily Symmes, Entomologist and Technical Field Manager at Suterra, addresses the basics of vine mealybug (VMB) in grapes in this expert from the 2020 Sustainable Ag Expo. VMB are phloem eaters, piercing the trunk, canes, and berry clusters and vectoring leafroll-associated viruses. In high populations, they will weaken the vines and can cause vine decline and death. Their rapid development time and often overlapping generations make using selective pesticides challenging because multiple lifecycles are active at one time. Adding to the management challenge, VMB spread easily by machinery, workers, and birds. Proper species identification is vital to understand biologies and seasonal cycles of the VMB. Monitoring should be managed with both pheromone trapping and scouting throughout the year. Pheromone traps are most effective when placed at the vineyard entrance since VMB come in on machinery. Additional traps can be placed in the center of the block. Visual scouting should include looking for active VMB under the bark, in leaves, and in clusters, as well as signs of their existence including honeydew and ants. Listen in to learn more about VMB identification and management. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 117: Grapevine Mildew Control with UV Light | 07 Oct 2021 | 00:26:34 | |
UV lamps have been used in the medical field, food processing, and sterilization for 75 years but application on plant disease management only began in the 1990s. UV light is a natural component of sunlight. The most harmful wavelengths like UVC are screened out by our ozone layer. DNA damaging UVB does reach the surface, however, most organisms can utilize blue light to repair the damage. David Gadoury, Plant Pathologist at Cornell University, is part of a large team of international researchers testing this technology on a variety of crops. Because there can be significant differences in environments, pest pressure, and times of year crops are impacted, it is important to trial this methodology globally. Powdery mildew microorganisms live in a sunlight-filled world so they use the sun’s natural blue light to repair UV damage. More recently, scientists found that UV light for pest management is much more effective when used at night when microorganisms cannot employ the repair process. So far, trials have found that UV light is most effective against powdery mildews. In the best treatment scenarios, control is on par with the best available fungicides. And now, UV light treatments are being paired with autonomous robots, providing potentially even greater efficiencies to growers. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 116: Using Nudge Theory to Improve Irrigation Practices | 16 Sep 2021 | 00:31:36 | |
How can values, beliefs, and attitudes around irrigation improve water efficiency? That is exactly what a recent California Department of Water Resources (DWR) grant project aimed to discover. Grant recipient, Vineyard Team, worked with 59 growers over three years to conduct irrigation-related behavior interviews, Distribution Uniformity evaluations, and determine if continued interaction (nudges) with the grower would increase the adoption of irrigation best management practices in vineyards. Every participant received a free DU and personalized report of recommendations so the researchers could track which improvements, like replacing plugged emitters, were implemented. Participants were divided into two groups, some with no contact beyond the initial DU test. The other half received regular nudges through phone calls and email calls to see if they had questions and to provide technical information. Listen in to learn how nudges change irrigation efficiency. References:108: Using Satellite Data for Irrigation Scheduling 101: Sub-surface Micro-irrigation in Vineyards Drip Irrigation Systems: Common Problems and Fixes Irrigation Best Management Practices Irrigation System Maintenance Tips - English Irrigation System Maintenance Tips - Spanish Get MoreSubscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 115: Examining Plant Nutrient Mobility with SAP Analysis | 02 Sep 2021 | 00:25:00 | |
Plant SAP analysis gives farmers insight into how the plant can take up and mobilize nutrients. Traditional tissue testing is usually done at the top of the plant, sampling only the youngest leaves. SAP Analysis is actually a pair of tests, comparing nutrients in young and old leaves to see what is being taken up today and how the nutrients are moved around. Test results compare levels in young and old leaves across 24 different nutrients. One important comparison is Nitrogen efficiency, so the farmer can see how much Nitrogen is actually being taken up by the plant and calculate a cost analysis. Learn more about SAP Analysis and also some fascinating research about the relationship between silica, iron, and aluminum in grapevines. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 114: Designing a Vineyard for Year-Round Sheep Grazing | 19 Aug 2021 | 00:24:54 | |
Numerous vineyards have utilized sheep and goats for grazing but most only during the winter. Kelly Mulville was on a mission to design a vineyard for year-round grazing to restore the ecosystem with livestock. The challenge was to find a vineyard design where the animals could not eat the vines. In a partnership with Paicines Ranch in California, Kelley and the team utilized the Watson Training System which holds the cordon wire at 66 inches. The vineyard incorporated nine grape varieties and trialed year-round sheep grazing last summer with great success. Using the sheep will eliminate all suckering and tipping, dramatically reduce fertilization, decrease irrigation use, and lower labor costs. Listen in as Kelley explains the trial process for tips on how to set up your own vineyard for year-round grazing. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 113: Microbial Inoculants for Soil Health | 05 Aug 2021 | 00:30:39 | |
A healthy soil has hundreds of different species of microbes while a depleted one may only have one dozen. A number of common viticulture practices are not conducive to a healthy soil biology so Dave Olson of Sustainable Growing Solutions is looking at how we can improve soil quality with microbes, ultimately improving plant quality. This process can be foliar with soil inoculations over time. Microbes do not colonize all at once so it important to add them over a period of time so that some will pave the way for others. Dave discusses the best time for applications and the importance of having an objective before trialing inoculants. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 229: Weed Control in Vineyards | 16 May 2024 | 00:33:48 | |
Trying to manage the weeds in your vineyard? John Roncoroni, Weed Science Farm Advisor Emeritus with the University of California Cooperative Extension, Agriculture and Natural Resources covers control practices including biological, mechanical, cultural, chemical, and perhaps in the future, electrocution. Although weeds rarely compete with vines, they can host insect and vertebrate pests and get in the way of pruning crews, increasing labor costs. Listen in for John’s number one tip to better manage weeds in your vineyard. Resources:
Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. TranscriptCraig Macmillan 0:00 Our guest today is John Roncoroni. He is Weed Science Farm advisor emeritus with UC Cooperative Extension, UC Agriculture Natural Resources, and we're going to talk about cultural control of weeds in vineyards today. Thanks for being on the podcast, John.
John Roncoroni 0:13 Now you bet, Creg, thank you for having me.
Craig Macmillan 0:16 We met with we'll start with kind of a basic foundation, what would you say is the definition of cultural weed control? Maybe How does it differ from other forms of weed management?
John Roncoroni 0:25 cultural weed control as part of an integrated pest management program, you know, we have basically cultural mechanical, sometimes they're put together sometimes they're split, we have biological, which is much more important, I think, in insects than it is in weeds. Now, we talk about biological control of weeds just a little bit to show how it fits in with all this too, is that you know, when you see that rust growing on a malba, or cheese weed plant in California, people say, Well, maybe that can control and you can see sometimes it really weakens the weeds. But the one reason that doesn't work here very well as it does in other places is the same reason why we can grow such great grapes and make great wines in California is because it doesn't rain in the summertime, if it rained in the summertime, like it does. In many other areas, that moisture level would stay up and we probably have a better chance of controlling Malba. We do use biological control of weeds in more landscape like range land type at large areas, but really on any kind of agricultural situation where we're looking at control in one spot, it really doesn't work that well. Even with star thistle we be talking about people wanting to put our application of of weevils for start thistle. Well, they're out there, and they're on a larger scale. So that's biological, much more important in entomology than in Weed Science, a chemical control, obviously, the use of chemicals, either conventional or organic chemicals or control. And then we have mechemical or cultural you know, cultural weed control to me is using the utilizing the plants that are there or sheep in areas of the San Joaquin Valley that used to use ducks or geese to pull out Johnson grass rhizomes, yeah, we're utilizing sheep quite a bit more. Now. Of course, mechanical we're looking at when you look at something like a mower, right, a mower is mechanical and cultural because when you mow, you're leaving some plants. So you're mechanically mowing them down. But culturally, you're leaving plant where something like French flower, maybe a blade or or you know, one of the the weed knives are all the different moving wheels, maybe more considered mechanical.
Craig Macmillan 2:30 Let's talk about mechanical a little bit. There was a book I don't know if it's still in print. And it was a SARE book. And it was called steel in the field. And the author's thesis or premise or idea was if you drive around farm country, no matter what the crop is, there's always a graveyard of old implements, just parked just parked there, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
John Roncoroni 2:51 Oh, god. Yeah.
Craig Macmillan 2:54 And his his point was, all of those things were technologies that someone had come up with. And then the individual farmer, probably then made modifications to those for their site for their crop for their soil, then the herbicide era came on. And that wisdom was lost, basically. And the argument was, hey, maybe we can bring that that idea back. And I mean, this goes back to like the 80s, early 90s. It's happening, it's happened. What are some of your favorite technologies in terms of cultivation, mechanical weed control, and some of the limitations, some of the plants that works well with other situations where it doesn't? What's your experience been?
John Roncoroni 3:39 I love talking about that, Creg, is it you know, talking about using mechanical control, and then and then going into chemicals, and now going back, it's almost like I talked to people about chemical control itself. When I started, Roundup wasn't glyphosate was a new thing. And we used it very judiciously. And I tell people, it's almost like, I learned to drive with a stick shift. I had to learn all these other things. Well, after that people learned to drive automatics. Right, because they knew one way to do it. Well, now that we're back to using stick shift, it's a whole lot easier for me, because I remember now people have to read or write. It's, it's the same thing with the mechanical. And when I started a Davis, you know, in the early 80s, we probably first came to work in vineyards in Napa, close to Davis, about 85, 86. And at that point, there was a lot less drip irrigation, a lot more dry farming, and a lot more French plowed. One of the reasons was we didn't have drip irrigation. I mean, we all want deep roots, but you're going to have more shallow roots with drip irrigation. And that was one of the reasons we moved to chemicals away from this big pasture. We always had a blade, right something like to drop a name a Clemens blade, which we all know what that is. It just cuts. You know, one of the problems with that is if the soil is too moist, then it's going to cut and go right back. And there's been a lot of innovation. My colleague Marcela Moretti, a But Oregon State's done a lot of testing with different kinds of machines. You know, one of the things about mechanical or even like mowers is that so few growers have mowers?
Craig Macmillan 5:11 When you say mower? You mean an in row mower?
John Roncoroni 5:13 Yeah, I mean inrow mower. All right. And I'm sorry, I when I talk about weeds in vineyards, because I tell people I've made my whole career out of about three
Craig Macmillan 5:21 Three to six inches.
John Roncoroni 5:24 I have about a foot and a half. Right? Sometimes I'm up to four feet, right. So that's where my whole career is right there. And that we talk about when we talked about what we're doing in the middle is with cover cropping. That's a whole other podcast and probably, I mean, I've done cover crop work over the years with some large IPM grants. I did quite Elmore and some other things. Zalem and Jim McDonald Yeah, no, I'm talking about just under vine we're thinking. Yeah.
Craig Macmillan 5:53 All right we're under vine.
John Roncoroni 5:54 Talk about being a very specific expert - four feet. At the most.
Craig Macmillan 6:01 I got it. I get it.
John Roncoroni 6:02 You know, very few growers are using mowers we have the big bladed mowers and also we'll have a straight trimmer. I was trying to do some string trimmer work, but just using a little weed eater. My old friend, Mike Anderson, who was the superintendent or basically ran the oppo research station said that I could use a string trimmer in one of their vineyards over his dead body. And I was like, you don't want any girdling in those vines. So I know, there's been a lot of apprehension. There are some other kinds of mowers very, very, very few growers have mowers, from what I've just done some surveys, I've done one because you have to go back over and over and over, right? And then everything has been weighed against, well, we can just spray mowers or one, you know, there's several different and I can't remember all the trade names. But you know, there's some of the basic technology. Yes, there's some that do some stirring of the soils, you know, with blades that are perpendicular to the soil, right. So they're, they're stirring it, there's what we used to call and when I worked in bean weed control, Lilla stuns, which are wheels that turn sort of at a 45 degree angle to stir the soil. There's, you know, power driven machines, there's just ones that ride along and there's blades, there's, you know, there are so many, and it really depends on the kind of soil you have, you know, our rocky is sometimes the place where we put grapes are not a place where you could put tomatoes, right in times, shallow soil, hillsides, kind of cultivation, can you can you do cultivation? Can you do light cultivation without getting you know, soil movement? Can you even do it? Is it allowed by, you know, some rules about land use in those areas. So, there's a lot of things that go into mechanical and again, from my perspective, the weeds you have.
Craig Macmillan 7:54 I like this point here, because I think put to put things into kind of a general sense to guide things. We have blades that basically cut just below the surface. So that's cutting off the top of the plant from the bottom of it for certain kinds of plants that will kill it or control it. Then we have things like a French plow, which is a burying it's a true plow. Yeah, it's flipping soil, picking it up and flip flopping it over. Then we have the sturer. So you mentioned that little stun the central lines and other example, sun flowers. That's what they do. Yeah. Yeah. Things like that. My missing one.
John Roncoroni 8:26 mowers.
Craig Macmillan 8:27 mowers, okay. Yeah.
John Roncoroni 8:29 So that, you know, then there are a lot of variations on those combinations. It just amazing for me, and I follow a few of the manufacturers and get to see like on Twitter X, whatever, to see the videos that they're posting on LinkedIn. You know, it's just amazing to me what they're doing and the innovation that's going into those. One of the things that my again my colleague Marcel HomeReady, up at Dr. Moretti up at Oregon State talks about making sure your tractor is big enough for some of these, you know, hydraulic using, right, but one of the things we always used to talk about was, you know, the use of gas well, I know there's a lot more use and we're moving more into electric tractors, and those sorts of things. But when it comes to mechanical, really doing a good job of mechanical weed control with those some of those, you're going to have to have electric or gas you're going to have to have a big tractor. They're not going to be like a you know, a little ATV with a nifty 50 sprayer spraying herbicides right you're gonna need some hefty equipment in a lot of them not always.
Craig Macmillan 9:33 Let's start with weed knife. That's a very popular technology you see it oh yeah all over the place. What are the kinds of weeds that that's good for controlling and under what conditions it doesn't work well and under what kind of conditions does it not work well?
John Roncoroni 9:47 And I don't know the areas and passive as well as I know Napa I was brought a while but I would tell the growers you know, using a weed knife in Carneros you have about four days from when the soil goes from being too wet to being too dry. I have heavy clay soils, it holds moisture and it just. Yeah, exactly. And I'm sure there are areas like that, you know, and it can't, you can successfully cultivate down there, but it's tough, you need the timing, it's so important. If you're going to wet that soil just goes right back with that blade, right you cut through and the roots are able to tell back in, you know, if it's too dry, it's really going to be a rough ride. Because you're not going to go too deep, it's going to work well on some smaller annual weeds, which, you know, a lot of our weeds are, you know, some of the grasses with their net have a root ball sometimes are harder than just a small annual broadleaf plant, you know, you're going to have some problems, especially with something like malware, cheese weed that that grow very large. And depending on when you doing it something like cheese weed is and rye grass and Fillory, while I mentioned them are the first weeds to germinate in the fall. So by the time you get in a little bit later, they may be too big to really do a very good job on.
Craig Macmillan 10:59 Are their soils where we die for it's particularly well?
John Roncoroni 11:03 I would say you know, in less than heavy clay soil and not complete sand, a sandy loam soil, I think that holds some moisture, you know, it was able to get in anything, I think it's not a complete stand or a real heavy clay, they do a nice job, but the weeds can't be too big. And again, it's that timing and you know, with vineyards, it seems to think everything happens at once right time when you may be in having to do some sort of insect spray or mold spray, the same time you should be out there cultivating so just and it takes a while to do a good cultivation job.
Craig Macmillan 11:35 The speed that you're rolling is really important. You want to be slower ride faster.
John Roncoroni 11:40 Well, and Dr. Moretti has done this work there is an optimum speed. If you go too slow, then you really don't do a good job of cutting. If you go too fast, you miss some. And maybe this is where some of the electric AI technology can help. You don't want to cut the vines. Right, so you have this pull away, that keeps the weeds, the weeds will go right next to the vines, which you know can be a problem. We'll be talking about other situations with little vertebrate pets.
Craig Macmillan 12:06 I'm kind of getting astray here a little bit, but I No, no, but I think this is an important question. So choosing what I do and how I do it, we go back to the other technologies, Why care about weeds? Right? Why care about you know, I had I had a vineyard once that had been an oak field. And it was direct planted own rooted sprinkler system that was planted in 1976 I got the vineyard 1993 out of heavy clay soil, and I would irrigate with sprinklers twice a summer, and that oak grass would grow up into the fruit zone up into the canopy. But it would dry out. And it completely choked out everything else I had, I had no other real issues. And we would mow the middles. And I remember people going oh my god, you got all this issue, you need decent herbicide, you think grass out of the middle because the grass is gonna. And like these vines were super vigorous. They were tons of crop. I mean, I had to crop thinner. And so I started asking myself, well, how much competition? Is this really doing? Are there particular weeds that we should see? And you're like, wow, that's gonna be a competitor for water, nutrients and others where we go, No, I don't really want it there. But I'm probably not going to dig my vines.
John Roncoroni 13:13 So Craig, this is the eternal question when it comes to this. And it really depends on where you grow your grapes, right? If your goal is to get 25 tons of grapes, if you're somewhere near Bakersfield won't offend anybody, but they're looking more for tonnage. Right. And I've gotten a lot of flack for using our premium grape situations, we're not always looking for maximum tonnage. Right. And I don't know that the problem with weeds and if you hear me speak about weeds, I rarely have ever talked about direct competition between weeds and grape vines. Now, there are some exceptions, you know, when we were looking at that balance between irrigation and getting the deficit, irrigation, right, getting those maximum flavors into those grapes. So we may be right and a little low with our water in August or September, near the end. And we see that especially, I don't know so much about about I know, part of the areas where we are with the vineyard team there that they gave, we can get these howling north winds, right? Right. And you can in a very short time, you can turn some very great, expensive grapes into really great expensive raisins, right, getting that water in at that time of year. So having any kind of like flu Velen, which is really just covers the whole area of Napa and Sonoma. I know it's moving around some other areas. But you know, people say well, how much water does it use? And my old friend Rhonda Smith used always asked me well, how much water is it used? I go, we don't have crop coefficients for all the crops. It's hard to know which you know which weeds grow, how much water they use. And then the other thing too, is that if we're looking for consistency in a vineyard, and only half the vineyard is covered with that weeds where we're gonna put two too much water in one area and not enough in the other. Isn't that different? So it's competition for that sort of thing. And of course, young vines, right when we have young vines with big weeds and that that oak grass that you had, if you had young vines, you probably wouldn't have to be worried about being a grape grower very long, right?
Craig Macmillan 15:17 You have seen that young, really healthy barley cover crop?
John Roncoroni 15:21 Oh, yeah, it's it's tough for first three years. But like talking about establishments, it's really important, no matter what you do to keep the grapes sort of weed, not weed free, but really keeping the competition down. And then late in the summertime, but the rest of the time. It's other things that I've talked about these, it's one of those things where you ask people, you know, raise their hand if they have this problem. It's 50%. Yes. 50%. No. And that's voles. And I tell people, I thought that when I was in Napa, I think 30% of the growers do weed control strictly for vole protection. Because those nasty little marmots can they can girdle a grape. And I know one vineyard and Carneros they couldn't get in and do some work. Someone told me that one year they lost one in five vines. Wow. And they're not coming back. Right? That's, that's bad. Yeah. So you know, it can be a problem. We found this when we were working with mow and blow technology years ago, looking at cutting cover crop and throwing it on the vine. The Weed control was fantastic. But in my whole time, working in vines from 1985. And, you know, until today, I've never been in a vineyard, except in this trial, where I saw voles running between the rose in the middle of the day. Right, they were just happy there was so many they kind of had to get out just to get a breath of fresh air, they use those tunnels, you know, just runway so that they were protected from that, you know, the birds of prey, which you know, can help. And I people always ask about that. But again, we have that pest and prey cycle that the voles may come in and do a lot of damage, before they get a chance to be taken. And then it depends on what your neighbors doing and how effected the birds are. This is a question that I our new vertebrate pest person, Brianna Martineco in Napa who she took my office, not my place, right. So we we about a weed scientist. And one of the questions I've asked is, you know, how much of an area around the vines? Do we have to keep clean, so that the birds have a chance and the voles stay scared? You know, that's kind of question, you know, especially as an emeritus, you can ask these questions. And, you know, let the new people answer them. You know, the other thing and I've talked about this is in a rare occasion, you know, one of the things that we do you see people, anytime I'm out in the field later in the season, I talked to a grape grower, while we're out there, they're pulling those leaves off so they can get more air movement. Well, if you get some tall weeds like that, you know, the oak grass that was growing, you know, are you going to have restricted air movement? Are you going to have higher moisture content? Is that going to increase your pathogen pressure it can, doesn't always happen. The other thing too is having, you know, high grass can cause in frost prone areas, you know, if you're not getting that radiation from clean soil, and that's in the middle, not so much under the vines, you know, we can have that and sometimes on young vines near the vine itself, getting that reradiation, but again, you know, as I like to tell people, you're not going to have all these situations, and it's not going to be every year, you know, some years you're doing things you may not need to have weed control that year, but you don't know until after that year, you know, and now and I'm not I'm not a pathologist, I'm not an enthramologist, I'm not a viticulturalist I'm a weed scientist. But you know, there's been some indications that some weeds that are growing and some of the we plant and some of that we don't are having a, you know, an increase in pathogen plant pathogens that are moved by certain insects. tikka pirate likes legumes Well, you know, especially in some of our low nitrogen situations, plants that produce their own nitrogen, like Bird Clover really tend to like that situation because they have a, they have a built in advantage by making their own nitrogen. So we can in some vineyards, we can see a high population of bird clover, which may or may not cause an increase in tikka, which could cause an increase in red blotch. So, you know, when you think of weeds just specifically for competition, like when I talked to master gardeners, I say, you know, if you're growing carrot, you know why you do weed control because you want a carrot. But when it comes to a mature, you know, a 10 year old vineyard, really hard to see that weeds are going to compete on an everyday basis like they would with an annual crop, but there are other reasons why we do it. Ease of harvest, and I talked about, you know, in talking with some pruning crews, right, you know, if you have weeds growing in when you're pruning, and I tell people, if you have an area that takes an hour for let's clean, takes a pruning crew an hour to prune, if there's a bunch of weeds that they have to move around and get around, and it takes them an hour and a half. So your labor costs have gone up 50% Yeah, these are the kinds of things that as a weed scientist, I think about I tell people I really want to know two things. And when we're when we're taping this, it's the right time of year. I only know weeds in college. Basketball. So these are the only things I really know. So, you know, and I've had other I've had, you know, some people sit down and say I should have known that you have to worry about, you know, disease pressure, and getting labor contractors. And I just think about weeds.
Craig Macmillan 20:16 And let's go back to another technology that we touched on snow plows, French plow, that's a very old technology. And, you know, we just mentioned that what a plow does is it turns the soil over, so it buries the weed plants, especially when you get into the right time, what conditions are appropriate for using a French plow? What conditions maybe it's not gonna work so great.
John Roncoroni 20:41 French plow, I mean, you know, the USDA says that, you know, doing something like that the soil is never good, and you're going to mess up the microbes, especially if you're working on that lower area. But as far as just from a weed perspective, if you're dry farming, a French blot works fantastic, right? You're not looking for, in fact, you're trying to discourage as many roots at the top as you can. So doing using a French plow when you're dry farming, it's fantastic. We don't have you know, a lot of dry farms where we are looking at trying to have more consistent harvest and looking at consistent income, where you know, dry farming were at, at the will of the of the weather, that's another talk for another day with people who are doing marketing and know viticulture are better than I do. But see, I've seen more French plows as people have gone back to mechanical in the last few years, and I have in the past think there's a lot more viable options, when you're actually looking at doing some drip irrigation, then they're just by number a lot more viable options. Just by new having new machines coming out then the French plow but I was a dry farmer, my weed control would be French plow under the vines and disk in the middle because everything's you know, maybe having a little cover crop to get more penetration. But, you know, the farther north I lived, the more water penetration I would have. So I'd get more rain.
Craig Macmillan 22:00 So let's talk about drip irrigated vineyards. And you mentioned there's a suite of technologies, some are new, some are old, what are some of those technologies that have worked well in a drip irrigated vineyard?
John Roncoroni 22:12 When I got to Napa in 2007, sustainable at that point meant post emergent only and for those kind of funny now is roundup on the right no preemergent no cultivation and we were drip irrigating, we were keeping those roots at the top so we can drip irrigate. So that's where a lot of that came from. Now, you know, using something like a blade using a little Dustin with those moving things, anything that's sort of like you don't want routine, right? Again, I don't I'm not a vitaculturalist. But roots at the very top are not great, right, you're not probably irrigating correctly, if you're getting a lot of roots at the top, but you don't want to get too deep, where you're getting some of those main roots with cultivation. You know, that's one of the reasons that we do have drip irrigation. At that level. You know, I've talked to people who weren't using cultivation and ask them why their drip irrigation lines weren't closer to the soil so they're gonna have less evaporation. One of the things that we get into with grape growing or anything is that you do things because you've always done them that way, we are cultivating that we do need to keep that drip irrigation at at a higher at a high level. But I think any of those anything that's not just completely disrupting the soil. One of the things that I would like to see with with mechanical like a blade is using some electric eye, AI technologies to get closer to the vines. But right now we have to really, you know, it's all mechanical, right? If we can have these machines down in Salinas, that are taking weeds out from in between lettuce, we don't have to be nearly that technological, to get weeds right around the vine without hurting them. And we have a little bit more leeway with the vine than we do with lettuce. Even though you lose a lettuce plant here or there. You're okay. You don't want to lose too many vines. You know, I think that that's where one of the reasons that we could use more technology. One of the things again, my doctor Moretti up at Oregon State and also lenses masky. Back in Cornell, who they were both at Davis at the same time, Lynn as a postdoc, and, and Marcelo as a as a graduate student, they're working with electrocution of weeds, I think it's what they call it. And it's not just burning them off, like you would use electric light with a flamer. It actually sends electricity down into the roots. So it's, he's working on it mostly in blueberries. But the technology I just I saw his presentation at the Western society Weed Science meeting just a couple of weeks ago in Denver. It's an interesting technology. If you're like having a transformer on the back of your tractor. It's pretty cool.
Craig Macmillan 24:35 There's a there's a lot of potential here in the future for improving what we're doing now.
John Roncoroni 24:40 Oh, yeah. And I don't know how like electric is going to fit into this. But and this is the problem. We ran into herbicides. Anytime you use one technology over and over and over and over and over, you're going to choose for weeds. If you constantly mow under the vines or anywhere, right without some soil disturbance or application of herbicide, something Like Melva, low growing weeds, they'll adapt, right nature will find a way. So the biggest thing we have to do is whatever we do just don't do it all the time. That it's the right message. One of the things that I think we want to talk about was under vine cover crop. It is something for me, I've been trying to push under vine cover cropping for so long. And the problem is, is that because the seeds are expensive, I tell people that one of the one of the plants that I pushed, just because I liked the way it worked, and what I've seen is Zorro fescue. That's a brand name, it's it's rat tail fescue, you see it growing as a weed a lot of places, one of the things I like about it is that about the time we start irrigating, it's dead, it's the nest, and you can discover you can turn it over, because once it's gone to seed, you can mow it all those things. It's a it's a self receding cover crop problem is that because the seeds are fairly expensive, we planted at about eight to 10 pounds per acre and sometimes mixed with Blendo broam, which grows a little higher and stays a little greener longer than I like, because it can be some competition for water. But that's oftentimes keeps it down. But the problem is, is that first of all, how do we get it on the vines, I find people putting it out by hand, because we haven't adapted for the cedar under the vine. Second of all, it starts to reseed itself at a fairly high rate, sometimes 50 or 100 pounds the next year and the third year. So I tell people, if you can't give me three years to make it look good, then let's not start because oftentimes, you know, we started and it looks like it's not doing a very good job the first year, and it doesn't look very good. And some people who don't ask people who make decisions about vineyards who maybe work other places, then the vineyard don't like the way it looks. Right? Right, and we move to something else and they end up spraying it out or cultivating it out.
Craig Macmillan 26:55 Then this is an example of modifying the environment to address this problem and modifications to the environment take time.
Speaker 1 27:03 And this is what intrigues me about regenerative agriculture. I know this is a whole nother subject for someone who probably but as a we, as a plant biologist, and ecologist, you know, actually choosing plants that we want to be there without causing problems. Again, the voles, the legumes with maybe some other virus problems can be, but I think choosing these plants is going to be so important. But you know, it's interesting, I had someone call me and they wanted to start using regenerative agriculture. And I told them, you know, your first three years are going to be really hard I go, you have to choose the right plants, you're going to probably maybe even have some reduced yields. And they said, Well, why John, because my friend has been doing it 25 years, and he's doing great, because his soil knows what to do. So anytime we make that transition and transitioning to this under vine cover cropping. And there has been places in the past where we've tried to use a listen. But listen, because of insects and some other things. The problem with alyssum is after about three or four years, it gets to be about four feet thick. It's one of these things, it's good for a while, but after it kind of takes over, it can cause some holding in moisture and doing some other things. I mean, some people again, depending on how fertile your soil is, you know, some places it may not be a problem, but we have to look at it on a vineyard by vineyard scale. And that's been the thing about herbicides is you don't have to think about the basically the vineyard by vineyard,
Craig Macmillan 28:24 We're basically at a time but don't ask your boys. Is there one particular thing that you would say to grape growers on this topic of let's just say mechanical?
John Roncoroni 28:34 On the whole subject of weeds, Craig, I just want to say that they need to know their weeds better. Right? I know it sounds like I always have a chip on my shoulder. And now that we have to right thing about glyphosate is they really didn't have to think about didn't have to think about their weeds. So there's there's two things I want to know we're almost out of time, but we are out of time. But there's two things I want to say about this real quickly. And I know it's mechanical, but those people who are still using chemicals, they could do a better job. Right new nozzle shielding timing, think more about put as much time and effort into thinking about the weeds as you do about insects and pathogens. Know your plants. Don't just say I'm going to do this. It doesn't matter what the weeds are, know your weeds, know their biology. Know the timing, no matter what kind of control you're doing. And then once you do, get the best tool, like if you are still spraying in certain situations in certain vineyards, use new drip reducing nozzles, use shielded sprayers when you do mechanical, you know, don't just get that old thing that like you said, that's been sitting out in the back, right? Look at the kind of machine that you want to use what we do have, I think when it comes to weed control, the whole industry could do a much better job. Okay, one of the things that I put a slide up one time and I said look, I understand pathogens first and then insects, and then weeds and someone got up and corrected me and they said John, that's wrong. I said Oh really? They go? Yeah, it's pathogens, insects, fertilizers and weeds. Right so weeds and when it comes to weeds being third weeds are not just third weeds or a distant third. They only think for me about all the cons Diversity that's happened is that people have to think about weeds again, they have to go back to knowing what we knew before that before they all started using chemicals.
Craig Macmillan 30:07 So that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Our guest today has been John Ron crony. He is Weed Science firm advisor emeritus with UC Cooperative Extension, UC Agriculture Natural Resources. I followed you from afar for a long time. And I'm very excited to get you on the podcast. This has been a great conversation. Yeah, there's so much more to talk about, and I'm sure that we will, we will reconvene at some point.
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| 112: How Deficit Irrigation Impacts Soil Quality | 15 Jul 2021 | 00:25:52 | |
Deficit irrigation is used in winegrape production to keep berries small and enhance the flavor of wines, particularly with reds. Joan Davenport, Emerta Professor of Soil Sciences at Washington State University says to get an accurate measure of soil moisture, you need to focus monitoring where the roots are. These measurements are ideally taken about 15 to 20 inches from the vines. Deficit irrigation can lead to a buildup of salt and sodium, negatively impacting soil quality. Salts cause root burning and damage to root systems, hurt microorganisms, and prevents calcium uptake. Joan talks about her research project to compare soil quality between Washington vineyards irrigated with snow melt (surface water) versus ground water (water from wells). References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 111: Planting a Miyawaki Mini Forest for Carbon Sequestration and Biodiversity at Chamisal Vineyards | 01 Jul 2021 | 00:20:06 | |
Every vineyard has a portion of the property that is non-productive, but are there ways to maximize the benefits of this land? Fintan du Fresne, General Manager and Winemaker for both Chamisal Vineyards and Maine Wines and Christian Rodriguez, Assistant Vineyard Manager at Chamisal Vineyards found the answer to this question with a Miyawaki Mini-forest. Conceived by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, these mini-forests can take be developed in spaces as small as 30 square yards. Development of a coastal oak woodland at Chamisal Vineyards began by excavating three feet down, adding mulch and compost, and planting 400 to 500 native plants at a high density. This process enables the forest to establish three to four times as rapidly as it would in a natural setting. The established forest will not only proffer a habitat for local fauna but, also provide carbon sequestration. The next phase of this project includes a partnership with Cal Poly State University to pipe C02 from the winery into the forest to see how much carbon sequestration is possible. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 110: How to Develop a New Vineyard Site | 17 Jun 2021 | 00:30:54 | |
Vineyard development begins with the soil. Steve Vierra, Director of Vineyard Operation at Derby Wine Estates and Certified Professional Soil Scientist, has developed many vineyards since the 1990s and always begins with a site evaluation to determine what is actually plantable. This includes a deep dive into all aspects of the prospective vineyard including climate, rain fall, aspect, slope, rootstock, soil types, and best varieties to create a self-sustaining vine. The goal is to develop a vineyard that is easy to farm around natural resources and the goals of the business. Steve covers how he evaluates soils with both pits and physical property tests for micro- and macronutrients. Learn about ideal rootstocks and clones for different soil types, plus Steve’s favorite development projects in Paso Robles California. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 109: Beth Vukmanic, Program Director + fitness influencer, Vineyard Team/SIP Certified + Bethercize, San Luis Obispo, CA | 03 Jun 2021 | 00:52:00 | |
The introductory voice and producer of this podcast, Beth Vukmanic, joined Jaime Lewis of CONSUMED in the much-awaited season nine. The CONSUMED podcast stokes candid conversation about life and flavor, ten episodes at a time. Jaime interviews eaters, drinkers, thinkers and makers across California and especially at its heart, the Central Coast. And, this past year, CONSUMED hit the top 40 podcasts about food and wine in the United States. Enjoy this rebroadcast. An Introduction from the CONSUMED podcast: When Beth Vukmanic came on the podcast, I was certain we'd talk only about her work with the Vineyard Team, an organization based in Atascadero, California that promotes sustainable winegrowing throughout the U.S. But Beth surprised me with all her many special fun facts: she was born in a moving VW Rabbit on a freeway in Detroit, she plays the harp professionally, and — here’s the biggie — she is a fitness superstar. No really. Beth is a hugely popular Instagram fitness instructor with a following like you wouldn’t believe. She’s kind, sharp, thoughtful and fun, and I liked her immediately. Listen to Beth talk about her background in agriculture, her longtime commitment to sustainable winegrowing, and how she likes to eat when getting home from a big HIIT workout. References: | |||
| 108: Using Satellite Data for Irrigation Scheduling | 20 May 2021 | 00:31:42 | |
There is no doubt that water is a precious resource, particularly in drought prone regions like California. It is very important for growers to measure soil moisture and there are a bevy of technological devices available to utilize. From soil moisture probes to pressure bombs, these tools are helpful but, they only provide data on once specific area at a time and many are time consuming to use. Today, there is a lot of free satellite data available and that data is being captured by Irriwatch. Founder and CEO Wim Bastiaanssen is an international academic leader and is engaged as a Visiting Professor at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). He holds a Ph.D. degree in crop-soil-atmospheric physics from Wageningen University. Having grown up on a potato farm, Wim aims to provide practical guidelines for irrigation management. The IrriWatch software aggregates data from 10 satellites to provide daily moisture measurements down to the pixel, allowing growers to optimize irrigation water applications in a world of dynamical weather, soil and crop processes. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 107: How Grazing Sheep Can Benefit Your Vineyard | 06 May 2021 | 00:29:46 | |
Using sheep to graze vineyards has many benefits including lowering the carbon footprint, fewer tractor passes, and reduced herbicide use. Kelsey Brewer, Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California at Davis has been researching how these living lawnmowers impact nutrient and energy flows in the eco system. When tractors were replaced by sheep, the research team found that vineyards had 1.3 times more organic matter and nitrogen plus twice as much available soil nitrogen in the soil. Grazed vineyards have very high microbial activity, improved infiltration, and porosity. Of course, sheep are not a good fit for every vineyard system. Their benefits are not seen in ranches where heavy tillage is still used. While a manager could establish their own flock, most grazing is contracted with experienced professionals who can intensively and efficiently graze in vineyard. References:
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| 106: What? Bury Charcoal in the Vineyard? | 15 Apr 2021 | 00:26:38 | |
What, bury charcoal in the vineyard? Biochar is a specialized form of charcoal made from waste woody biomass at high temperature in the absence of oxygen. We know soil organic matter is important for the health of any crop. It turns out the use of charwood (biochar) goes back to ancient civilizations and it can be found naturally in soils from fire events. Doug Beck, Science Officer at Monterey Pacific in Monterey California, recently conducted a four-year trial to test the impacts of biochar and compost as soil amendments on wine grape growth, water use, yield, and water quality. This is an excerpt from his presentation at the Sustainable Ag Expo in November 2020. This fascinating trial showed that the addition of biochar and compost to the soil improves nutrient efficiency, improves water holding capacity, and positively impacted yields. References:
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| BONUS: The Smiths of Saxum Support College Students in the Name of Juan Nevarez | 08 Apr 2021 | 00:09:37 | |
Higher education is important to many students but paying for college can be challenging. The Vineyard Team Educational Scholarship helps college students whose parents work in members' vineyards and wineries achieve their dreams. The Smiths of Saxum and James Berry Vineyard, know that our people are vital to sustainability. Justin Smith tells the story of Juan Nevarez, a person instrumental in their wine business for over three decades, and their inspiration to donate to the scholarship fund in his name. Pebble Smith says, “The year is 1985 and we’re looking at our first harvest at James Berry Vineyard. Our family, alone, has deer fenced, laid out, staked, and planted 35 acres of Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc. We know there is no way we can get the grapes off and to the winery just using our family and any friends still willing to help us. Our very first thought was to call our friend Juan who was then helping the Baldwins develop their vineyard and winery. He looked at us pleading for help and said ‘no problema, I’ll be there before the sun’s up with enough men to get all your grapes off before noon.’ He was true to his word and our first harvest was the exciting start for two successful careers: our fledgling vineyard and Juan’s labor contracting business. Thirty-five harvests later and Juan and now his family, are still supplying us with skilled and trusted vineyard laborers. I know this is not the end for our relationship with Nevarez Labor but Juan’s passing has left his family and ours with a big hole in our hearts. To help heal that hole we have put forward money for the Vineyard Team Educational Scholarship Fund and we know that would have made him very happy. So in honor of Juan, Terry, Justin, Heather and I would like to honor all the Nevarez family for being such an integral part of our community.” The Vineyard Team is grateful for the Smith family’s donation which helps us reach our goal to raise $25000 in 2021. You too can make a life changing impact on a student’s future. Donate at vineyardteam.org/scholarship. References: Get MoreSubscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 105: Grapevine Shaking for Botrytis Control | 01 Apr 2021 | 00:28:01 | |
In 2008 the oversupply of Sauvignon Blanc coupled with the financial crisis lead to trialing shaking to remove berries in New Zealand for the very first time. A few years later, the New Zealand Winegrowers Society funded a three-year grant to test the impacts of shaking on dropping fruit, wine quality, and botrytis. Mark Allen of Allen Vineyard Advisory explains that because shaking the vine four to six weeks after fruit set does cause some damage to the canopy and berries, pathologists assumed that the shaken vines would have a higher incidence of botrytis. They were surprised that they did not. In fact, the botrytis levels were markedly less in the shaken vines than the control. Trials have found that shaking reduces botrytis at harvest by at least 50 percent plus the cost is significantly less than dropping fruit. With increased resistance to chemical controls, good wine quality, and cost efficiency, shaking shows a lot of promise. References:
Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 104: How to Tell Your Story on Instagram | 18 Mar 2021 | 00:25:10 | |
The 2020 pandemic showed many brands how social media can be an important means of communication. Heather Daenitz of Craft & Cluster helps wines brands tell their grape to glass story with photography and social media. Keeping up with latest trends and algorithms can be challenging. At the end of the day, Instagram wants to keep people on the platform as long as possible. If you have good content the algorithm will show your posts to more people, benefiting both your brand awareness and Instagram. A few years ago, a common tactic was to post multiple times a day. Today, it is more important to post less frequently with more intention. Social media is a great way to share a brands values and to diversify both marketing channels. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 228: Viticulture with a Vision: Oso Libre's Dedication to Social Responsibility | Marketing Tip Monday | 13 May 2024 | 00:02:26 | |
Businesses are vital contributors to the communities they serve. Beyond stimulating the economy and creating jobs, many business owners go the extra mile by creating a meaningful philanthropy program. Their efforts profoundly impact facets of the community that need support the most. Welcome to Marketing Tip Monday with SIP Certified. We know customers are looking for wines labeled as sustainable. While our longer-form episodes help you learn about the latest science and research for the wine industry, these twice-monthly micro podcasts will help you share your dedication to sustainable winegrowing so you can show your customers that you share their values. Meaningful corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies give businesses the opportunity to connect with community members, improve company culture, and cultivate consumer trust, all while doing good for causes they believe in. This week’s Marketing Tip tells the Sustainable Story of how Oso Libre demonstrates tremendous Social Responsibility through the Por Vida Foundation. Supporting 4 Worthy Causes Oso Libre’s founders, Chris and Linda, started the Por Vida Foundation in 2011 to support causes that are near and dear to their hearts. By using funding streams from multiple winery activities, they support:
This means that Oso Libre’s guests and customers are giving back to these deserving causes, too! The proceeds from many weekend tasting fees and private events at Oso Libre are turned into charitable donations through the Por Vida Foundation. In the tasting room, the Votive Candle Offering welcomes visitors to light a candle and use the offering box to support these causes. Proceeds from sales of their Solera wine bottles are also donated. This is a special blend that the winery makes every year. It is treated like a growler at a brewery: Members can bring their empty bottle back to the winery to have it filled with the latest vintage. Their foundation is a tool to help them give back and inspire their supporters to join in the good feeling of philanthropy. Tell Your Sustainable Story We are here to help you tell your customers how your brand protects natural and human resources with the Sustainable Story program. This simple yet powerful free tool helps you tell your own personal sustainable message. And it just got better with a new online course. Go to the show notes, click the link titled Tell Your Sustainable Story to sign up, and start writing yours today! Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team. Resources: Vineyard Team Programs: | |||
| 103: Environmental, Social, & Governance Initiative in Spain’s Priorat Region | 04 Mar 2021 | 00:30:55 | |
The small Priorat region in Spain has a fascinating history dating back to the Moors in the 8th century, to the birth of its wine production for a local monastery in the 1100s to the near complete devastation of its vineyards by phylloxera in the late 19th century. Replanting began in earnest in the 1950s and top reviews by Robert Parker in the 2000 helped solidify this area as a top wine region in Spain. Local Perinet Winemaker Antoni Sanchez-Ortiz notes how years of abandonment has lead nature reestablish its place among the vines, hazelnut, olives, and forest. To maintain this balance of nature and winemaking, the winery has established an ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) initiative. The lack of electricity means that current production relies on generators. Perinet’s Environmental project is to convert the property to 100 percent solar power. Socially, they provide a workplace that takes responsibility for their footprint, an organization their staff can feel proud to work for. They take Governance personally, becoming a brand that leads the way, setting an example of what the rest of the region can do. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 102: Effects of Landscape Management on Pest Control in Vineyards | 18 Feb 2021 | 00:23:02 | |
The resource concentration hypothesis looks at how the advent of modern agriculture as monoculture created an environment where pests can grow faster because their resource, the crop, is more prevalent. Biodiversity is fundamental for pest management and Daniel Paredes, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California Davis, in the department of Wildlife Fish and Conservation Biology, is studying how sustaining natural habitat around vineyards can increase biodiversity. Promotion of natural habitat impacts vineyards in two different ways; 1) the promotion of natural enemies and 2) by diminishing the pest population. Speaking about his latest research project in Spain, Daniel says, “At harvest, we found pest outbreaks increased four-fold in simplified, vineyard-dominated landscapes compared to complex landscapes in which vineyards are surrounded by semi-natural habitats.” This study shows that conserving and restoring natural vegetation creates a more stable environment. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||
| 101: Sub-surface Micro-irrigation in Vineyards | 04 Feb 2021 | 00:33:04 | |
While grape production does not require extensive water use and the majority of vineyards in the Pacific North West are drip irrigated, drought conditions in recent years have led growers to seek more efficiencies to reduce water use. Pete Jacoby, Professor of Crops and Soil Sciences at Washington State University knows that in a traditional drip irrigated vineyard, water is lost through evaporation plus plants loose about 90 percent of the water they take up through transportation. Most sub-surface micro-irrigation is done with buried lines which are easily clogged in fine silty loam soils or damaged by rodents. So, he is partnering with commercial grower sto test a different sub-surface irrigation system - vertically placed PVC pipe. By placing pipes at one, two, three, and four feet, the experiment tested water reduction from 60 percent all the way down to 15 percent of what was typically delivered through above ground irrigation. Researchers discovered that this changed the vine root architecture from 18 inches all the way down to two and three feet. Plus, grape quality could be sustained with significantly lower water applications. Using these promising results, Pete is now testing white varieties and how sub-surface micro-irrigation impacts nutrient management. References:
Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org. | |||