Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/66137
TE CHNOL OG Y COMPANY Gorman-Rupp Co. Pacific Ag & Vineyard Inc. Spec Trellising Spectrum Technologies Inc. COMPANY Irrigation Design & Equipment Suppliers PHONE Advanced Viticulture LLC AgFast Corp. Dynamax Inc. WEBSITE (707) 838-3805 advancedvit.com (909) 451-2299 agfast.com (281) 564-5100 dynamax.com (419) 755-1011 grpumps.com (209) 365-7222 pavdevelopment.com (215) 322-5588 spectrellising.com (800) 248-8873 specmeters.com Irrigation Flow Meter Suppliers PHONE FMC Technologies (Invalco Product Line) Fruition Sciences Inc. Metrohm USA Inc. Ranch Systems LLC Valley Pipe & Supply COMPANY WEBSITE (254) 968-2181 fmcinvalco.com (510) 325-3824 fruitionsciences.com (866) METROHM metrohmusa.com (415) 898-5900 ranchsystems.com (559) 233-0321 valleypipe.com Vineyard Communication Systems Suppliers PHONE WEBSITE Advanced Viticulture LLC Bristol Babcock Camalie Networks Ios Inc. Kerber Applied Research Inc. (707) 838-3805 advancedvit.com bristolbabcock.com (650) 799-6571 camalienetworks.com (509) 674-7086 iosincorporated.com kerberresearch.com Winesecrets_Dir11.qxp 12/9/10 2:49 PM Page 1 For more on vineyard technology suppliers, see Wines & Vines' 2011 Buyer's Guide in print or online at winesandvinesbuyersguide.com. "Getting the berry size right," Gates says, "ensures that your vines are balanced." Too little water can reduce yield. Too much water can reduce alcohol, color and pH while increasing titratable acidity. Irrigation patterns affect the aroma, as- tringency, balance, body, color, taste and texture of the wine. "The wireless sensor network is the best vision of what the vines are seeing," Gates says. "It's better than leaf water potential, stomatal conductance or pressure bombs." The network has limits, though. At Ridge's Monte Bello property, sensors from four vines measure the transpiration rates for a five-acre block of Cabernet Sauvi- gnon. The sensors are limited to sleeves that wrap around an arm with a diameter of 30mm or less. And many factors besides soil moisture and weather conditions affect the transpiration rate—cultural practices, health of the vine, insect damage and vine cultivar, for example. "I wait until the vine needs water, then irrigate to the soil profile," he says. "I might irrigate a shallow clay soil for 12 hours or a clay-loam soil for up to 24 hours." "Water is precious," Gates says, "so we are trying to figure out the best time and how much to water." Before Gates installed the sap-flow rate sensors and the weather station, he irrigated the vines from the Cabernet Sau- vignon test block with up to 45 gallons of water per vine in dry years. During the wet growing season of 2010, he did not irrigate at all. "For 2010, yields were average for Monte Bello at 2.5 tons per acre, and the quality looked excellent," Gates says. Providing North American Wine Producers with Easy Methods for: STARS Tartrate Stabilization & pH Reduction Alcohol Adjustment (our place or on site) Volatile Acidity Reduction Wine Taint Removals: 4-EP Smoke Must Concentration via Reverse Osmosis Wine Clarification via Cross-flow Filtration Color Adjustment via Ultrafiltration Wine & Juice Clarification via Mobile Centrifuge CA: Napa, Sebastopol - OR: Dundee - TX: Spring Branch VA: Ashburn - BC: Summerland - ON: Niagara on the Lake www.winesecrets.com Tel: 888.656.5553 32 Wines & Vines JULY 2011 Programming the remote While sensors from Fruition Sciences keep a close watch on transpiration rates and fieldwork, a weather station from Ranch Systems keeps track of the climate of the vineyard by sampling the atmosphere and then sending field data to a server that re- lays the information to Gates' cell phone or computer via the Internet. The weather station measures leaf wetness, solar radiation, temperature and wind speed. It reduces water consumption by reporting weather conditions that al- low Gates to closely manage the vineyard and stores indices for Botrytis and pow- dery mildew. A Ranch System server calculates the in- dices based on data gathered from the vine- yard and formulas developed by researchers at the University of California, Davis. Gates can review the powdery mildew index