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GRAPEGROWER INTERVIEW 34 WINES&VINES March 2018 Q Water is a big issue in California and has been particularly divisive in Paso Robles. What are you doing to improve your water management? Heinzen: Water as an area for investment in technology is not a new concept in vineyards. I have been fortunate to work for progressive companies since I started out of college and have been exposed to everything from manually vacuuming the air out of soils with tensiometers to hauling a radioactive element around the field embedded in a neutron probe. There are many, many good tools available today, but we prefer technologies that give us irrigation intel- ligence without the need for manual collection and data entry. We still heavily rely on our vine- yard manager's eyes and experience, but we like data that tells a continual story of the plant's water needs and affirms or challenges what we visually observe. TULE Technology is one such device, and it relies on the relatively recent application of surface renewal technology to grapevines. A field device constantly monitors the actual evapotranspiration that is generated over a 5- to 10-acre block. It pairs this data with a sensor that quantifies applied irrigation. Like many other tools, it gives us a snapshot of the current water status of the vineyard, but where it really transforms our management activities is in its predictive power. Their software learns the re- sponse pattern of applied irrigation water and subsequent evapotranspiration loss and predicts the impact and timing of future irrigations. This builds efficiencies into our scheduling of irriga- tors, saves money and water by reducing our irrigation applications and ultimately enhances grape quality by improving the precision of ir- rigation. In my opinion, the best part about their technology is that you only rent it, so each year you receive the latest unit and software. You aren't stuck with an outdated device. Another water-saving application that doesn't often get considered when talking technology is the application of amendments and injection tools that improve water quality and penetration. I'm always surprised when people tell me they don't treat or monitor their irrigation water, be- cause Paso Robles has some notoriously poor water qualities with salts, bicarbonates and high pH. We use automated dosing machines by pH Technologies to mix sulfuric acid into our drip systems to bring the pH down to 6.0 or 6.5. Not only does this help keep our drip hose clean and drippers uniform, but it improves water and nutrient uptake by the plant roots. These tech- nologies constantly monitor pH and adjust the dosage, and we can also precisely meter in fertil- izer or water-buffering products that help im- prove soil infiltration, reducing water loss due to field evaporation or run-off. Q Are your workers using power prun- ing shears? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Heinzen: We have trialed some pruning guns but have yet to buy the high volume needed to supply an entire crew. As competing tech- nologies come onto the market, we have seen the prices come down and are very tempted. We chose instead to invest in a handful of tying guns over the past couple years as an initial foray into small-tool technology. The gun is loaded with a thin reel of wire that ties a grapevine cane to the wire, with the wire de- signed to last about one season. These tools have probably cut our labor needs for this activ- ity in half and represented an easier adoption curve. The practice of tying canes is fairly mo- notonous and doesn't require the field person- nel to weigh a lot of decisions. We are able to speed up this activity with the gun because of less fatigue and faster application of a tie. We have found that the gun requires training and experience for its use, but the activity of tying can be accomplished by anyone. Pruning decisions require a great deal more skill and concentration, so while a gun would reduce fatigue, I don't think we would see the same degree of labor savings in speed as we see with the tying technology. A resident of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Laurie Daniel has been a journalist for more than 35 years. She has been writing about wine for publications for more than 21 years and has been a Wines & Vines contributor since 2006. Vineyard Tools Battery Powered Pruning Shears • 1.25-inch and 1.5-inch cutting capacity models • 15,000 pruning cuts per battery charge • Includes lithium battery, harness, holster and carrying case www.zenportindustries.com | 503-524-7289 Gra ing Tools w zenportindustri Tying Tools & Supplies Harvest Shears ineyard T ols Pruning | Gra ing | Tying | Harvest Custom made - Handcrafted Barrels "We use automated dosing machines by pH Technolo- gies to mix sulfuric acid into our drip systems to bring the pH down to 6.0 or 6.5. Not only does this help keep our drip hose clean and drippers uniform, but it improves water and nutrient uptake by the plant roots." —Randy Heinzen