GRAPEGROWING
Weather Stations Come a Long Way
Innovations help growers gather data and put it to better use
By Paul Franson
W
ith erratic climate
events occurring globally as the earth warms,
it’s never been more
important to monitor
the conditions in vineyards. Fortunately, weather instruments
have come a long way from the days
when observers had to manually record
temperatures and measure rainfall with
calibrated collection cups.
Sophisticated instruments collect measurements such as leaf water content and
soil moisture, transmit it by cell phone
or satellite and present it via the Internet
for vineyard managers to monitor from
anywhere using smart phones and other
portable devices.
Vineyard weather sensors can monitor wind speed, temperature, dew point,
humidity and barometric pressure, and
interconnected network subscriptions give
even deeper understanding of patterns.
Wines & Vines interviewed several
vineyard owners and managers who
use the new technology to see how it’s
helping them; then we asked companies supplying the technology to share
product information.
IPM using weather stations
John Kautz Farms in Lodi, Calif., has had
a Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 weather
station with integrated pest management
(IPM) in the field for more than a year. The
Kautz family owns and manages 5,500 acres
of grapevines in and around California’s
San Joaquin Valley. It also has a crushing
facility in Lodi called Bear Creek and owns
Ironstone Vineyards in the Sierra Nevada
foothills region, along with other labels.
Joe Valente has been the vineyard manager for Kautz Farms in Lodi for the past
32 years, during which time he’s learned a
lot about pest and disease management in
grapes. “Every year is different,” he said.
“You can’t duplicate the weather.”
Weather is the most important factor
when it comes to disease and pest management, and IPM takes the proactive approach that if you know the current and
past conditions you can treat for potential
pests and diseases.
In 2011, La Bella Rosa Vineyards’ IPM for Grapes software identified pests attacking the leaves.
Highlights
• Climate change is making weather
monitoring even more important.
• Modern instruments include leaf- and
soil-moisture sensors.
• Sophisticated software helps target
pests for treatment.
“Every year we know if we have a
cool spring that we need to be concerned
about mildew, and if we have rain during
the spring bloom we have to be concerned
about phomopsis cane and leaf spot,” Valente said. “If we have a hot summer with
days reaching close to 100°F past July 4,
we need to be concerned with mites and
leaf hoppers. In 2011 we were lighter due
to the blossoms getting rained on, but we
expected 8-10 tons of grapes per acre for
our normal yield.”
Valente knows the importance of
integrated pest management and how the
technology has evolved during the past
several years. “Using IPM we follow the
degree days so we are not spraying just
to be spraying. We use sulfur on a normal
rotation to control mildew, but the treatments are dependent on the weather, and
pesticides are expensive. Some go up to
$200 per acre—and that is just for the
chemical, so you have to know when and
where to use them. If we see mites as a
potential threat, we check the field and
depending on the number of them per leaf
we know if we need to use a miticide.
“Mites can be tricky because you have
to watch when you use the miticide. You
can’t pick fruit within 30 days of spraying,” Valente said.
Valente has been monitoring the
weather for many years using a wireless
solar-powered Davis Instruments Vantage
Pro, but this season he obtained new technology, the IPM for Grapes software plus
a wireless leaf-moisture sensor mounted
in the canopy of his Zinfandel vines.
The Davis Instruments Vantage Pro
weather station tracks changing conditions in the field and sends them wirelessly to Valente’s office, where the Vantage
Pro console reports real-time readings and
automatically uploads information to the
42 W I NE S & V I NE S DECE MBE R 20 12
W&VDec12_42-66.indd 42
11/26/12 11:38 AM
GRAPEGROWING
Weatherlink software for analysis and
monitoring by the IPM module.
“Every year we have more and more
insects and invasive species with people
bringing them in; this year two of our
outbreaks were from nurseries,” Valente
said of the continuing battle.
Another Davis system for IPM is at
La Bella Rosa, a boutique winery in the
Sierra. Its IPM for Grapes software identified a pest attacking the leaves, allowing
the grower to take corrective action, treat
leafhoppers and save the 2011 crop.
Monitoring a mountaintop vineyard
Peter Molnar, general manager and partner
at the 105-acre Obsidian Ridge Vineyards
in the Red Hills of Lake County, Calif., uses
a Ranch Systems weather station to monitor the weather at the diverse property.
“Obsidian Ridge is planted at 2,700
feet on the Mayacamas Ridge,” Molnar
said. “This presents a triple challenge of
extreme environmental variability, rugged terrain and remote location. Ranch
Systems’ durable wireless nodes and
user-friendly analysis software provide
an effective and affordable way for us to
monitor a range of climate factors all the
way down to block level. Furthermore,
Weather Monitoring System Suppliers
COMPANY
PHONE
WEBSITE
Advanced Viticulture Inc.
Davis Instruments
Nielsen-Kellerman
Picovale Services Inc.
Ranch Systems LLC
Spectrum Technologies Inc.
Terra Spase Inc.
(707) 838-3805
advancedvit.com
(510) 732-9229
davisnet.com
(610) 447-1555
nkhome.com
(530) 889-8845
picovale.com
(415) 884-2770
ranchsystems.com
(800) 248-8873
specmeters.com
(707) 967-8325
terraspase.com
For more on weather monitoring sytem suppliers, see Wines & Vines’
2012 Buyer’s Guide in print or online at winesandvinesbuyersguide.com.
the Internet component means that the
vineyard managers, winemaking team and
consultants all have shared access to the
real-time data wherever they are, greatly
improving daily decision making.”
Molnar continued, “In our 10 zones we
have over 35 wireless nodes measuring
humidity, temperature, wind speed, rainfall,
dew point, soil moisture, UV radiation and
irrigation water flows. We access all this
data and view graphical charts in real time
via the Internet and can quickly create custom historical comparisons and drill downs.
We now adjust watering, canopy management and harvest sampling much more
quickly based on daily climate analysis—
not easy in such a remote location. Plus,
in the winter the system acts as a 35-point
frost alarm system, which with the radical morphology of our site is a huge help;
the systems sends alarms to the complete
vineyard team’s cell phones 24/7.”
He added, “Finally, we can use all this
information not only for decision-making
during the season, but also later on to look
for hidden relationships between vineyard
factors and wine quality, ultimately letting
us grow and make ever-better wine.”
Napa Valley-based Beckstoffer Vineyards
uses the weather system to control irrigation remotely. Vineyard manager Gaspar
Roby said, “After testing Ranch Systems on
www.tenaxus.com
Bird Netting
Environmentally - friendly
alternatives to chemicals and
other ineffective methods,
available in a variety of sizes and
mesh openings.
IPM for Grapes:
Ground Protection
Your Pest Management Solution
Davis’ Integrated Pest Management for
Grapes software links your weather data to
actual pest risk, helping you to prevent crop
damage before it starts.
Used together with our Vantage Pro2™ Weather
Station, a Wireless Leaf & Moisture/Temperature
Station and Weatherlink® software, Davis Instruments
offers you a complete solution for crop management.
For more information, please call 800-678-3669.
Green solutions for preventing
wheel rutting and creating
temporary parking areas!
Deer Fence
Long-lasting effective
predator control solutions that
do not obstruct the landscape!
WAV1212
800-678-3669
www.davisnet.com
Jane Fridley de Bigit
p. 651.414.9498 | jdebigit@tenax.com
WIN ES & V I N ES D EC EM B ER 20 12 43
W&VDec12_42-66.indd 43
11/26/12 11:38 AM
GRAPEGROWING
a 10-acre vineyard block in St. Helena in
2006, we decided to contract their services
to remotely operate and monitor the whole
20-acre ranch. Ranch Systems allows us to
operate irrigation valves as well as to monitor soil moisture at different soil depths. Not
only that: It operates the 12 irrigation valves
that we have in the ranch, but also collects
very valuable information that we use in finetuning irrigation frequencies and amounts.”
He said the software was easy to use and
partnered with good customer service.
Powdery Mildew Index
100
90
80
70
60
50
Networks bring benefits
While standalone stations are powerful,
the biggest benefits come from integration with other stations nearby. Picovale
Services is a consulting firm specializing
in accurate data collection and dissemination for the agricultural community.
Picovale’s weather-monitoring and
alert services provide accurate real-time
weather information at what the company
calls an affordable price. Utilizing direct
satellite communication and solar power,
the weather stations can be placed
anywhere in a field where there is a clear
view of sky. The company’s online web
interface provides the mechanism to
retrieve real-time weather information
40
30
20
10
0
Terra Späse maps the Napa Valley region.
and includes various models for pests,
irrigation and disease management.
Additionally, it has included an interface
to provide alerting capabilities when
critical weather thresholds are met.
Another supplier of networked stations
is Terra Späse of St. Helena, Calif. It has
been a reseller of the Adcon Telemetry line
of weather stations and environmental
monitoring systems since 1995.
Adcon systems typically used in
vineyards include:
• Weather stations for climate monitoring
and disease risk assessment.
• Soil moisture monitoring stations for
irrigation management.
• Frost alarm devices for protecting vines
from early season cold.
The McCrometer companies recently
acquired Adcon Telemetry, giving Terra
Späse customers access to a wider range
of vineyard-related technology including
water level sensors, flow meters and
supervisory control systems allowing the
remote operation of valves and switches.
Terra Späse operates extensive networks
of Adcon devices in Napa and Sonoma
counties. Typically, customers enter into
a data-sharing agreement to use data
from other customers’ weather stations in
exchange for making their data available
to other users.
The weather station data are collected,
archived and, in many cases, made available
for sale. Terra Späse has assembled a
historical data set covering Napa and
Sonoma counties that dates back to 1996.
(Continued on page 46.)
Building a Better
Nursery,
Block by Block
Quality and selection are
growing at Vintage Nurseries
Recently Vintage Nurseries began establishing
new mother blocks with 2010 Protocol
Material just released by FPS UC Davis. And,
to keep up with demand, we are planting on
100 acres of virgin soil never used for grape
growing before, to ensure the cleanest young
e
s at th
Visit u posium.
m
y
S
d
Unifie
20
#
Booth
Wasco
661-758-4777
Santa Rosa
707-542-5510
Paso Robles
805-237-8914
Modesto
209-523-8036
15
vines available. That’s the Vintage Nurseries
way... improving excellence block by block.
800-499-9019
www.VintageNurseries.com
Serving the Wine,
Table Grape and Raisin Industries
44 W I NE S & V I NE S DECE MBE R 20 12
W&VDec12_42-66.indd 44
11/26/12 11:38 AM
GRAPEGROWING
A closer look at the systems
Kestrel weather stations: Among typical
instruments are Kestrel weather stations
agriculture. In one system the vineyard
manager and winemaker gets:
• Accurate climate data (weather station)
Bluetooth to make data logging and data
• A sophisticated, action-oriented frostalerting system, which can call regular
transfer fast and easy.
phone lines, leave voice mails, etc.
from Nielsen-Kellerman. The Kestrel 3000
Davis Instruments: Davis Instruments
measures wind speed, temperature, wind chill,
weather stations help implement integrated
relative humidity, heat stress and dew point.
pest management. The company has been in
Some of these new sensors can be
the instrumentation business for more than
combined with sophisticated software to
40 years, and its line of wireless weather
perform new tasks.
stations is very popular.
• A complete wireless irrigation control
system
• A proven solution for multi-level soil
moisture monitoring and profiling
• Water
resource
management
(water
levels in tank, flow-through water meters
The Kestrel 3500 does many of the things
A basic choice is the $595 VantagePro2
that the 3000 does, but it also measures
wireless weather station. Adding a wireless
pressure trend, which can help vineyard
leaf and soil moisture station to the VP2—
One of its newest offerings for 2013
managers predict when bad weather is
plus new Integrated Pest Management for
season is plant material temperature
heading their way.
Grapes software—gives growers real-time
monitoring using hypothermic needles
Solar radiation is extremely important to
access to the weather conditions and a model
that can be inserted into fruits or plant
many vineyard managers. The Kestrel 4400
that predicts the probability of specific pests
material.
can help track that as well as wind speed,
and disease trouble.
temperature, dew point, humidity and
Ranch
barometric pressure. It’s also available with
specializes
Systems:
in
including regulatory reporting)
• Visual/security monitoring with cameras
The Ranch System is an all-in-one
Ranch
weather
Systems
monitoring
for
package: one software tailored for viticulture.
P.F.
Your Source for All
Vineyard Trellising Supplies
Gripple Fastening System
Available at JSC!
Visit us at the
Unified Symposium
at Booth #906!
LARGEST MANUFACTURER of Superior Grape Stakes Nationwide!
Grape Stakes | Wire | Grow Tubes | Fencing | T-Posts | Bird Netting
Vine Protection | Anchors | Tying Materials | All Trellising | And More!
800.423.8016 | www.JimsSupply.com
WIN ES & V I N ES D EC EM B ER 20 12 45
W&VDec12_42-66.indd 45
11/26/12 11:38 AM
GRAPEGROWING
(Continued from page 44.)
This is one of the largest and highest
resolution weather data sets compiled for a
North Coast viticulture region.
Weather data from the network also
generate daily regional maps of various
weather parameters including temperature
and rainfall as well as disease risk assessment
data such as powdery mildew and botrytis
risk indexes. These maps are available on a
subscription basis at terraspase.com.
In addition, weather station data are
used by Terra Späse’s partners at Fox
Weather in making region-specific,
agricultural weather and disease risk
forecast products that also are available
by subscription at terraspase.com.
Weather stations at Pride Mountain
Steve Pride is CEO of Pride Mountain
Vineyards at the top of Spring Mountain,
straddling Napa and Sonoma counties.
Pride has three Adcon weather stations
from Terra Späse set up on its 235-acre
property. The system has been up and
running for more than two years.
The stations record temperature,
cumulative growing degree days, humidity,
powdery mildew index, botrytis index and
rainfall. The data is recorded continuously,
and managers can look at it remotely (or
download it) from a computer.
“All the data ever recorded is available
online, which makes it convenient to go
back and quickly review past episodes
of weather,” Pride said. “It is amazing
how quickly you can forget precisely
how many rainfall events occurred, for
example, in May and June of 2011 (other
than to just say vaguely ‘a lot!’)”
“In seconds, I can now print out a
continuous reading of rainfall during
those two months and see exactly what
happened on the three different parts of
our property. These data are always quite
distinct from what is recorded somewhere
down in the Napa Valley.”
Pride said that he imagines that different
vintners use this information in different
ways. “We tend not to use it so much in a
proactive way but in a historical way that
allows us to correlate weather, viticultural
practice and subsequent wine quality.”
He added, “ Although we looked
carefully at the powdery mildew index
during the early parts of the past two
growing seasons to make sure our spray
program was adequate (and not overkill),
our spray schedule is set ahead of time
and only needs to be slightly adjusted
depending more on weather forecasts
than the weather of the current day.
“We definitely looked closely at the
botrytis index from Sept. 27 through Oct. 5,
2011, when rain events gave valley vineyards
so much trouble. Fortunately, at our
elevation of 2,100 feet, we had only a mildly
enhanced index Oct. 3 that was not followed
by any botrytis outbreak whatsoever.”
During sustained warm weather, Pride
likes to be able to look at the continuous
record of temperature from the previous
couple of weeks as a means of quantifying
the severity of the heat wave.
Pride added, “Similarly, in the spring it is
nice to have a record of the temperatures
from the past few evenings to be better
prepared for a freeze. Although we still have
alarms that go off in our vineyard foreman’s
house that are independent of the weather
stations and that allow him to light smudge
pots prior to freezing temperatures, having
the actual recordings of the temperature
and humidity during those scary spring
mornings helps us to better understand the
severity of the cold spell.”
Another index that Pride uses quite
often is growing degree days. “Is 2012
a particularly warm year, or was 2011
particularly cold?” Most growers have
Use Your iPhone or iPad as a
Powerful pH Meter
For more details, visit us on line at:
www.ph1phmeter.com
iPod, iPhone and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple
®
Multipoint Calibration
Manual or Auto-Temperature Compensation
Time/Date/Location Stamp Recording with Comments
GPS Coordinate Recording for Field Use
E-mail Data Records for Compliance and Record Keeping
11751 Markon Drive Garden Grove, California 92841
Tel: 714-895-4344 • Fax: 714-894-4839
46 W I NE S & V I NE S DECE MBE R 20 12
W&VDec12_42-66.indd 46
11/26/12 11:38 AM
GRAPEGROWING
access to region-wide or countywide
degree days, but Pride finds it useful to
count his property’s unique experience.
Looking at growing degree days lets a
vineyard manager know how the growing
season is developing relative to previous
years. Pride has 15 years’ worth of growing
degree day records from neighboring
Paloma Vineyard for comparisons.
Pride says, “The stations allow us to
quantify our growing and ripening seasons,
which means we can make the correlation
between weather, viticultural practices and
subsequent wine quality each vintage. Having
the weather part continuously recorded is
important to making these linkages.”
Surprising diurnal discovery
O
ne surprise the instruments demonstrated at Pride Mountain Vineyards was a smaller
than expected diurnal swing. “I have been astonished to learn from the weather sta-
tions just how narrow our diurnal temperature fluctuation is on the property,” Pride said.
“Most mornings during the growing season there is a temperature inversion, in which
temperatures rise the higher you head up into the mountains. We have learned that the
warmest point on the property is always at the highest elevation of 2,180 feet.
“Low temps for us on a morning in which the valley has fog and 54°F will typically be
in the low 70°s at 2,100 feet and in the mid 60°s at the 2,000-foot elevation. On a day
like that, high temps might get up into the mid-80°s, while it could be low 90°s down in
the valley. During the warm weather of the second week of August this year, we had low
temps of 80° or 81°, with high temps of only 94° or 95°. We would never have guessed
WSU’s AgWeatherNet
In the Pacific Northwest, Washington
State University operates AgWeatherNet.
Each weather station collects the full suite
of weather data required for vineyard
management including air temperature,
relative humidity, wind speed and direction, solar radiation, leaf wetness, soil
temperature and precipitation, etc.
The data is available in near realtime, and its quality is monitored on a
continuous basis. In addition to providing
WinesandVinesFeb2012_BWquarterpagead.pdf
the real data,
the net has a range of tools,
the low temperatures were that warm at 4 a.m.”
P.F.
models and decision support systems
based on the weather data.
Recent advancements include cold
hardiness, an updated growing degree
day tool and various disease models.
In collaboration with an irrigation
engineer, an irrigation-scheduling tool was
developed that can be accessed from a
1
1/8/12 device
7:50 PM
hand-held
like a phone or computer.
More than curiosities
Weather stations have long been interesting for grapegrowers, who have so
much riding on the weather. But with
the addition of better digital tools,
weather stations have become more
than curiosities, and potentially important ways to use weather data continue
to unfold.
Now all print subscribers
get free digital access
TANKNET® THERMOSTATS
operate stand-alone and network with
NO NEW WIRES at the tank.
C
M
Y
CM
MY
View this issue on your
computer or any mobile device.
CY
CMY
K
DIGITAL EDITION
707 938-1300
WWW.ACROLON.COM
®
winesandvines.com/digitaledition
48 W I NE S & V I NE S DECE MBE R 20 12
W&VDec12_42-66.indd 48
11/26/12 11:38 AM