Sustainable Winegrowing

If you like this podcast, then you will not want to miss the premiere sustainable winegrowing event of the year – the Sustainable Ag Expo. Cliff Ohmart, Principal at Ohmart Consulting Services has helped Vineyard Team bring together the nation's top researchers to present at the Expo for a number of years. In today's podcast, you will get a preview of the topics and speakers for this year's event.

Enjoy the perfect blend of in-person and online learning. Speak directly with national experts, earn over 20 hours of continuing education (including 18 hours of DPR), and explore sustainable ag vendors November 14-15, 2023, at the Madonna Inn Expo Center in San Luis Obispo California.

By popular request, this year we have doubled the number of online courses so attendees can learn on-demand between October 16 and November 30.

Here are some of the sessions Cliff mentions. Make sure to check out the sustainableagexpo.org for the full program:

In-Person

• Integrating Multiple Layers of Spatial Vineyard Information into Variable-rate Management Maps
  • Terry Bates, Cornell University
• Vineyard Spraying Technologies to Improve Application Efficiency for Every Grower
  • Brent Warneke, Oregon State University
• Trunk Renewal for Management of Trunk Diseases
  • Kendra Baumgartner, USDA-Agricultural Research Service
• Soil Health and Regenerative Management to Support the Goals of Winegrape Producers
  • Cristina Lazcano, UC Davis; Noelymar Gonzales Maldonado, UC Davis; Charlotte Decock, Cal Poly
• The Importance of Areawide Controls for Mealybugs and Leafroll – Is This Cost Effective?
  • Kent Daane, UC Berkeley

Online

• Update on Vineyard Autonomous Equipment
  • Michael Miller, CAWG, Director of Government Relations
• Nematodes affecting winegrapes: Biology and Management
  • Dr Inga Zasada, USDA ARS
• Biological Control of the Glassywinged Sharpshooter and Pierce's Disease
  • Dr. David Morgan, CDFA
• Current Status of the Winegrape Market
  • Jeff Bitter, Allied Grape Growers

As a listener to this podcast, take 50 off of your ticket when you use code PODCAST23 at checkout. Get your ticket at Sustainable Ag Expo.org.

Resources:

• ***Tickets | Sustainable Ag Expo***
• 53: Producing Compost and Carbon Sequestration
• 90: Nematode Management for Washington Grapes
• 129: The Efficient Vineyard Project with Terry Bates
• Efficient Vineyard
• Madonna inn
• Sustainable Ag Expo Program:
  • In-Person
  • Online

Vineyard Team Programs:

• 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 - $50 OFF with code PODCAST23
• Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace
• Vineyard Team – Become a Member

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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

Craig Macmillan 0:00

And with me today is Cliff Ohmart. He is a consultant with Omart Consulting in a whole variety of areas. One of the things that he's doing right now is he's helping to organize or he's organizing the program for the 2023 Sustainable Ag Expo in San Luis Obispo coming up. He's going to tell us a little bit about some of the folks and some of the topics that will be there and some things that might be of interest to you. So welcome, Cliff.

Cliff Ohmart 0:22

Thank you very much, Creg. It's nice to be here with you. And I think this is a great opportunity to have this podcast before the expo so people can get an even better feel than just the website of what's coming.

Craig Macmillan 0:34

Absolutely. For those who don't know, what is the Sustainable Ag Expo?

Cliff Ohmart 0:38

it is a combined presentation slash trade show that the Vineyard Team has been putting on, I think, for at least 15 years now.

Craig Macmillan 0:47

It's been a while.

Cliff Ohmart 0:48

I's developed into quite the history, the roughly the format is there's a session in the morning from eight to 10, a half hour break for people to go out to the trade show 10:30 to noon, more presentations. Then there's lunch for people go to the trade show, then one to three, another half hour break, and then 3:30 to five. And there's only one session at the time, so people don't have to worry about missing something. Also, they're free to circulate through the trade show during the presentations if they so choose. This year, the Vineyard Team decided to change the format, which I takes I'm excited to see how this will go. So this year, it will be Tuesday, Wednesday full days as I just described that schedule. But then Monday evening, it'll be a kickoff what we're going to be doing for the feature presenter, which is Dr. Terry Bates from Cornell, he and I will be on stage for a period of time, I think half hour to an hour where we'll be in sort of an interview back and forth situation give a chance to see him ask questions to get ready for the next day. And so I'm excited about that. And then the first session which will be Tuesday morning from eight to 10. First Terry Bates will be doing a formal presentation of his work followed by a panel of Terry Bates, Dr. Andrew McElrone, and Dr. Mason Earles from Mason is from UC Davis. Andrew is works at ARS Agricultural Research Service Station, and Davis and their area of expertise is all around detailed data analysis and Andrew especially on water relations, particularly in vineyards, Mason Earles more along remote sensing, things like that. And the focus of Terry's talk, as well as the night before is on precision viticulture. He, along with a big team of people developed something called the efficient vineyard. And it's very impressive, in part because the software is available for anybody for free. And it's anywhere from it can capture as the website is a really nice website for you can use your phone to capture gopher holes, the location of gopher holes, broken post right up to very advanced remote sensing that you can import into the software. So it's all in one spot. I'm excited about this, because I think you've probably seen the same thing. There's so much technology out there. And it's very exciting. But I think especially for the small to mid size grower, there's a concern about do I have the time to do this? Do I have the ability to do this? What's this all about? Where's the bigger grower can hire somebody to check it out? And I think the session Monday night and Tuesday morning is going to be focused on what's the reality here? What can growers do with it. And then from the researchers perspective, which is Andrew McElrone, and Mason Earles, they want to see people applying their work. And so what is that's really what I'm hoping to get out of that session.

Craig Macmillan 3:49

Yeah, I have interviewed Terry Bates. And I've also communicated with him off and on over the years. And his areas of specialization is proximity sensing. So some of the high tech stuff they do has to do with like yield monitors and harvesters and different types of EC sleds and stuff like that. But he also is very much about making a map. And you can do it. One of his messages to me almost every time I talk to him is like people can do this, you can do it. You don't need to go too crazy, the most important thing is do it. And so I'm really excited to see him there and talk about the more advanced technological stuff. But also I imagine he'll be encouraging people to follow this concept. I think it's really, really fascinating and the things that they find out it's fascinating, too.

Cliff Ohmart 4:33

I agree.

Craig Macmillan 4:34

There's a lot of stuff also that's out there that's available but you don't have to invent you don't have to invest in there's information that's out there.

Cliff Ohmart 4:40

Yeah, that's what I think, especially for us on the West Coast. You know, Cornell is a powerhouse, as you know, and I think West Coast people, some people probably know that others don't. And there's more and more things to tap into, on both coasts, as well as the Middle. One fun thing too for me Is the moderator for the after Terry's talk for the session with Terry, Mason, and Andrew is going to be moderated by Donnell Brown, who is executive director of the National grape Research Alliance. And one of the things to think about is I don't have to moderate she's going to do it. Then the other thing is, the National Grape Research Alliance has been instrumental in bringing researchers together from around the US in viticulture and enology and creating a goal oriented team to go pursue money to do various things like develop the efficient vineyard project. So she's going to be the moderator. So she knows these people well, so that'll be fun. My only regret is I know, there won't be enough time to really get into what we do as much. But there'll be afterwards for people to talk to the speakers on the side.

Craig Macmillan 5:56

And that is one of the really great things about the expo is the speakers. Well, I guess full disclosure. Years ago, I worked for a Vinyard Team. And the position was technical program manager and and I was responsible for putting together programming for the expo and whatnot. Every buddy that I ever recruited, was super happy to stick around and talk to growers. That was like the high point for them. And this is an opportunity where you get to do that. And they take questions during the session. But sometimes people there's not time or they didn't want to ask and then they have an opportunity to actually interact with the with the scientists themselves. And that's just a fantastic opportunity. Because a lot of conferences and meetings, you can go and you don't really have the opportunity to talk to the the experts afterwards. And it's much more informal. It's very much also grower to grower, I think one of the things that's great about the the expo is there's a lot of conversation after the sessions between people along the lines of Yeah, we tried this, or we're thinking about trying this, or what do you think about it, you know, and that's just super invaluable. I think.

Cliff Ohmart 6:59

I don't want to forget, I don't think we will. But another change in format is this year, instead of the third day of presentations, we're going to be recording 10 or so virtual recordings that will be available from October 16 to November 30, to the attendees of the Expo, and we'll touch on a couple of those. I'm sure the Vineyard Team website will have a nice list of presenters of the imprison Expo in virtual as well so people could see. But I think we're going to touch on a couple of those you and I in this podcast. But I wanted to bring that out as well.

Craig Macmillan 7:34

Let's go right into that. First of all, because that is a change for Expo. But I think it's also a change kind of in our modern world. So this is the idea of making content available to those who have bought tickets essentially. Right. So it's another day of the expo, but they can view it at any time during that window.

Cliff Ohmart 7:51

Yes.

Craig Macmillan 7:52

So that gives them some schedule flexibility, which is pretty cool. Who are some of the folks that are going to be in these virtual virtual sessions?

Cliff Ohmart 8:00

There's a really interesting, I think half hour to 45 minute talk by a fellow named Michael Miller, who is the California Association of Winegrape Growers, Director of Government Relations, and he is doing a presentation on the laws and regulations related to using robotics, particularly driverless tractors in the vineyard, which probably does not surprise you. The technology is ahead of the laws and regulations. So there are driverless tractors now a little available, and yet the laws and regulations around you know, through OSHA, are you have to have a driver on the tractor at all times. Very interested to hear that presentation about what's coming, who's doing the work to try to change those laws. What might the changes look like.

Craig Macmillan 8:45

I'm totally fascinated by this idea. And yeah, absolutely, technology will run ahead of regulation, and then regulation kind of get caught up. And that's where we're at. Right now. We're in the middle of that process. And we went through with drones to kind of work our way through it. I can't wait to see that one. And it's gonna be fascinating. Who else?

Cliff Ohmart 9:05

Another advantage of doing these virtual recordings is we can get people from overseas. So those that have attended the expo before, especially the virtual ones during the pandemic, there's this interesting fellow Dr Zi Hao Wang at the University of Sydney and he has been working on using drones in vineyards for bird control. So he's two other and two years in the past on this and it's a continuation of the work he's doing. It's still pretty much theoretical at the moment in that it's not being used commercially out in the vineyard. However, he is an engineer by trade and education. And you can see when you see some printed presentation, he brings that to the end. One of them very interesting things is his his focus is on tethered drones. Not free flying drones. For two reasons. One is they need to be on call all the time during the day daylight hours. So there's a problem with battery life. And with tethered drones, you don't have to have that. The other is that even though drones, the trades make it sound like they're very easy to fly, they get away. And another reason that tethered drones offer the advantage. So it's fascinating. He's got simulations that he shows in his presentation about how the Tethered drones will work. One of the things that he he just reviews what he's done before, and there is a past year's presentation on this, where he shows proof of concept that you can train the birds to be afraid of drones, if just the drone by suffer bird is not going to be afraid of it. But he literally took dead crows. And because crows do exist native crows in Australia and our problems, he hung them from drones to show that you can definitely condition them very quickly. And then he's got great videos of birds flying away during this.

Craig Macmillan 11:04

That is really a trip.

Cliff Ohmart 11:05

And then another interesting one is going to be on carbon planning for for your farm or your vineyard. There is a company that develops sensors and things like that, but also ecologically based things called Agrology. They do some very detailed work. And so the CEO of Agrology, Adam Koeppel is going to give a presentation, carbon planning, I mean specifically about carbon planning, and measuring soil carbon in real time, which is necessary and the benefits of carbon planning. I thought that that's kind of a unique thing as well.

Craig Macmillan 11:40

What is carbon planning?

Cliff Ohmart 11:42

This would be you know, you've already heard people marketing, I've got a carbon neutral vineyard, it's how do you measure that? You know, how do you sequester carbon? Can you sequester carbon? What difference does it make, but it would be along the lines of and clearly energy consumption comes in? How do you develop a carbon plan for your farm, so that what's happening in the soil, but also energy use and all of that.

Craig Macmillan 12:06

Speaking of so carbon, there is going to be a session I think on day two, around climate smart AG, regenerative ag and soil health.

Cliff Ohmart 12:15

Yes, and I am so excited about this session. When I reached out early on, I definitely wanted to session on soils, because there's so much going on around soil, micro biomes carbon sequestration, regenerative farming, and knowing that there's a lot of great concepts out there. But how much do we really know about all these things? Well, actually, the title of the session is, for the whole two hours, soil health and regenerative management to support the goals of Winegrape producers, Charlotte Decock, from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. So she'll be local in terms of the in person, Expo, she's going to be tackling this topic of regenerative agriculture. What is it? And what can be your production goals around it? So she herself is leading a comprehensive effort on looking at the practices which, you know, regenerative AG is nothing new, to be honest. And I think a lot of us realize that but so she's gonna be looking at things that are going to be sound very familiar cover cropping, compost, addition, sheep grazing, and no till, and what are they doing to specific soil characteristics biophysical and chemical, then another very interesting talk is Noelymar Gonzales Maldonado. And she is a PhD student with Christina Lazcanois here at UC Davis and Noely done some interesting survey around the perceptions of grape growers on what they think soil health is. And then she's connected that to the results of our survey to actual problem soils versus healthy soils and based on the growers deficient, and what they have done in those soils to, you know, address this idea of soil health, and it's going to be fascinating.

Craig Macmillan 14:02

Oh, yeah, um, yeah, totally.

Cliff Ohmart 14:04

Because we're talking about practitioners out there. What do they think regenerative AG is soil health is how do they deal with it and the soils if they have both really good ones, and not so good soils. And then the last person is I mentioned Christina Lazcano, and she's a soil scientist here at Davis, and she's going to be looking at regenerative ag and production goals. And she's leading a comprehensive effort on practices that I've already mentioned the cover crop and compost edition and looking at the effects chemically and physically on the soils. So you can see they're all related. The session is going to be interesting in that they'll all be up front, and they're going to be tag teaming. So it's going to be a really different type of session.

Craig Macmillan 14:49

That sounds really, really fascinating. I know Christina and Charlotte, and they are absolutely fantastic. Not only are they great scientists, they're great communicators, that's worth the price of admission to just see that one session. As far as I'm concerned.

Cliff Ohmart 15:01

So that's going to be Wednesday morning from eight to 10. So, you know, I think we've got a lot of good stuff all day. But the session opening session Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning are clearly highlights.

Craig Macmillan 15:15

Something else we should mention before I forget, are there continuing education hours available?

Cliff Ohmart 15:19

There are and we basically our goal was to have 15 to 18 continuing education units for PCAs. And growers. So that means related to pest management stuff, it will be a combination of the in person presentations, as well as those virtual presentations. Some of the virtual ones will be awarded CPA units, CEU units where you will have to take an exam after you have presentation because you can imagine there's no way in two days, we're going to be able to cram in 15 to 18 hours of CPUs a lot of CCA units as well, for the in person expo.

Craig Macmillan 16:01

Are any of those laws and regs. DPR laws and regs units?

Cliff Ohmart 16:05

There are we have a closing session on Wednesday afternoon, that is going to be done by Juan Muniz from AgSafe on worker safety and pesticides around the farm. So that'll be an hour and a half of laws and regs for that session.

Craig Macmillan 16:21

You've been to a bunch of these what's what's your favorite part, we've talked, we've hit on some highlights, but just you personally what's your favorite part of going to Expo?

Cliff Ohmart 16:27

My favorite part is to listen to what people are talking about in terms of the different presentations. You know, I'm biased, because I've helped put them all together. That's what I listened for. And then of course, for me, I get to see people because being retired, I don't go to many meetings anymore. And it's great to see both the growers the viticultural consultants, the trade people that I know to talk on the side. So all of that, and then it's fun to peruse the trade show, I don't have a lot of time because I ended up introducing a lot of presenters. So it's it really is a combination of all of that, because I stay at the Madonna Inn it's also fun to stay in one of those funky rooms at the Madonna Inn. That's not to say it's not comfortable. But I think you laugh. I think anybody that stayed there, they've got some really interesting rooms.

Craig Macmillan 17:19

For those who don't know, in San Luis Obispo, there's a hotel called the Madonna Inn, and they have themed rooms, and they're all different. And they're all decorated to the theme. So depending on how many times you stay, you'll stay in different rooms, and you'll see different things and the facilities themselves are quite interesting. So yeah, it's a fun, it's a fun place. It's a fun place to do it. And then they have an expo hall, which is where the expo will be, which is again, really a nice building, it's really well appointed, has everything that we need. Oh, what about what about food people need bring sack lunch?

Cliff Ohmart 17:53

No, my experience with the expo is there's always food available for lunch. It's gonna vary from Tuesday to Wednesday. But I have never felt like I needed to go out over lunch.

Craig Macmillan 18:06

I've always been very happy.

Cliff Ohmart 18:08

Yeah. And then there'll be a snack in the afternoon, and then tea and coffee and some pastry in the morning before you get there. So it's worth getting there a little at a time. Because that's there as well.

Craig Macmillan 18:20

How did you come up with the program? Were you given direction? Did you say hey, these are great ideas that you have people come to you and say I'd like to do this? How did you put together?

Cliff Ohmart 18:29

There is an organizing committee that the venue team through Beth Vukmanic put together and it's you know, it's an existing committee from year to year. And so how we start is we independent of them, I sit down and come up with some ideas and send it to them. And they do the same to me. And we very quickly put a pretty large spreadsheet together with all our ideas and with the ideas come specific people. And then from there, it really tends to come together very quickly. Once we get started reaching out to people, we base it on what's been happening in the past what seems to be current this year, that wasn't last year. So it's a combination of things.

Craig Macmillan 19:12

So again, it's grower driven, growers talking about what's of interest to them, and then handing it over and saying, okay, brings the best in the brightest. Obviously, things are always in flux. And at the point of this interview, we're quite a ways out from the expo. But we do have some other rock stars. I wanted to mention, John Roncoroni is going to be there. Apparently, he's a weed scientist. He is fantastic. I think he's retired or close to it, at least the last time I talked to him. And then Kendra Baumgartner and she's been kind of a perennial favorite, her areas, trunk diseases, and that area has progressed dramatically in 20 years what we've learned and it's always a joy to see what new stuff she brings. Akif Eskalen who's doing a lot of work in nursery practices. He's doing some pretty interesting things that could impact the whole industry, which I think is is pretty cool. Emily Symmes is going to talk a little bit about mealy bugs and mating disruption and David Haviland, who's an absolutely fantastic entomologist. I think he's going to talk about ant control. That's right. He's a very good speaker, and really, really good. George Zhuang. He is an extensionist, and has been doing really great work around the central valley, I believe, predominantly, but he speaks all over the state and has worked on all kinds of stuff. I think he's going to talk about root stocks. At this time. Matthew Fidelibus is also gonna be talking about root stocks and varieties in that session.

Cliff Ohmart 20:31

What I would point out there is he has developed an online guide to grape varieties root stocks, and that specifically was talking about so I think that's a great opportunity for growers to hear about this.

Craig Macmillan 20:43

I'm also happy to see that Mark Fuchs is coming back. He's from Cornell, he has been one of the leaders in research on red blotch. He was our featured speaker at the expo, gosh, I don't know five or six years ago, he's always fascinating and is doing really interesting work. And then one of my favorite entomologist, and people in the whole world, Kent Daane, is gonna be talking about leaf row virus and areawide management for mealy bugs, which is turning out to be really important working together as a group to manage a pest. It's not just within your fence line, it's crossed the area. And that's been a really interesting project that has gotten some traction in Lodi, I'm familiar what they what they've done, there. And so that should be really fascinating as well, who am I leaving out?

Cliff Ohmart 21:26

Our fellow named Brent Warneke, who is going to be talking about sensor based sprayers and spraying and vineyards. He's from Oregon State. And he'll be talking about air blast, as well as micro sprayers. He's done a series of interesting work on sprayers that are sensor based. And as he sort of says in his little description, just because you have a sensor based sprayer, doesn't mean you're all ready to go. He's going to talk about how they can be best used and what they actually can do for you.

Craig Macmillan 21:58

David Morgan, I'm not familiar with David Morgan, can you tell me who that is?

Cliff Ohmart 22:03

You did a great job of covering the entire agenda for the in person. Now we can talk a little to finish up on the virtual part. So I was really interested in trying to get someone to come and talk about the Pierce's Disease Control Program that is based at CDFA. And it's the research arm is funded by growers by an assessment. It's very important, I think, for growers to see how successful their research dollars have been. And to make a long story short, I ended up having David Morgan, who is now working on exactly what he's gonna be talking about. But he is going to focus his presentation on the bio control of Glassman sharpshooter, which I think everybody knows is one of the crucial pairings in the Pierce's disease problem. He's stationed out in Riverside with CDFA and very knowledgeable biocontrol is his expertise, there's going to be a talk about a fellow named Michael Brownbridge who is with Bioworks. I'm not familiar with Michael but he's going to be talking about pesticides as well as bio fertilizers. So that's going to be a part of the program. And another one we just you mentioned Kent, Dana, and you refer to Lodi Yes, I've been so excited to secure Maria's Zumkeller she is with Lang Twins vineyard in Lodi and I saw a talk she gave at Lodi grape day in February, the Lang Twins have recognized for a while now the seriousness of leaf roll virus being vectored by vine mealybug. So the two together it's becoming a huge problem. They have boldly approached the use of intensive monitoring and rogueing vineyards to see if they can manage economically vine mealubug for leaf roll. And so Maria is going to be talking about the latest. They've got several years of data now and it's very amazing and impressive to see what they've done. It's possibly for people that have serious problems with leaf roll. This is one approach they might want to take and it is connected to Kent Daane's work because he's worked in the Central Coast and Lodi with area wide management and fine mealybug and coupled with that leaf roll So those are the things that I'm highlighting up then there's a talk by Luca Brillante, from Fresno and he's going to be doing a presentation on diagnosing red blocks disease, which of course is what Mark Fuchs would talk about diagnosing red blocks with spectrometry. So remote sensing.

Craig Macmillan 24:40

And then there's also some thing on powdery mildew controlled organic powdery mildew control.

Cliff Ohmart 24:45

Yes, there is interesting talk by Annemiek Schilder who is the county director in Ventura County and she has done a research experiment using compost tea and So that's what her presentation is going to be about. It's basically starts by saying what is compost tea, which is important to understand how to make it. And it's it's pretty simple. And then how to apply it and what results she's gotten out in the vineyard with it.

Craig Macmillan 25:16

Yeah, that'll be very interesting. People have been playing around with that for a long, long time. And I think it's, it's interesting to see it come back. And then one that I think that I will try to catch is Jeff Biller talking about the grape market, we can't forget the the other E. Right. We've got the environment, social equity, and economics and so grape markets' important. So all part of the all part of the picture and the those talks whether, it's him or somebody else is always very interesting. And there's usually something along those lines in the Expo.

Cliff Ohmart 25:48

And it's going to be very current. We have organized with Jeff, he will record that presentation, literally a few days before the videos will be released. So I think like October 11. So it would be very up to date. In fact, to Jeff's credit, he was not going to do a recording unless he could do it at the last minute because things change. Again, I agree. It's, you know, their times are not easy for a lot of growers. So a grape market is as complicated and

Craig Macmillan 26:17

Ever changing.

Cliff Ohmart 26:18

Yeah, we all need to keep track of that.

Craig Macmillan 26:21

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks Cliff has been great. Our guest today was a Cliff Ohmart with Omart consulting, and one of the things he does is he helps put together programming for things like the Sustainable Ag Expo, which is coming up in November of 2023. I personally cannot recommend it enough. Every time I've gone or have helped organize it. I've learned so much. And I've also met so many great people and some of them are speakers and so more growers and some of them were vendors and it's just a it's just a fantastic time to kind of get away and it's also really fun because usually hopefully harvest is over and you have a little little reward there at the end before you take your break and then come back and do budgets. So anyway, thanks, Cliff.

Cliff Ohmart 27:02

You're very welcome Crreg. It was really great to do it and I will see you and San Luis Obispo.

Craig Macmillan 27:09

You will see me you will see me I'll be there.

Nearly Perfect Transcription by https://otter.ai

Looking for a fun group project for the upcoming slow season? Grab your team and create a Sustainable QR Tour!

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.

A Sustainable QR Tour is a unique, educational, self-guided way for your guests to learn about your brand's sustainable practices.

When you create your Sustainable QR Tour, you will:

1. Showcase your sustainable attractions.

2. Explain each attraction with a short video or quick written description.

3. Bring your tour to life by posting your QR codes and making a map.

By taking your Sustainable QR Tour, your visitors will:

1. Learn about your brand's values.
2. See sustainability in action.
3. Enjoy an activity as they taste your sustainable wines.

In this Marketing Tip, we'll walk you through all of the steps to create your Sustainable QR Tour.

Step 1: Identify Your Sustainable Attractions

1. Get your team together and talk about examples of sustainability at your property.
   • SIP Tip: use the Sustainable Stories worksheet to get the ball rolling!
2. Pick 5 to 10 things that can be seen and/or approached by a visitor at your property. These will be the attractions for your QR tour.
3. Take notes about the sustainable aspects of each attraction, and why it is important to your brand. These will be used to create the content describing each attraction.

Ideas to Get You Started Vineyard Attractions

• Vines (Value #2: Water Management)
• Soil and plant-based moisture monitoring devices ensure vines are irrigated when needed.
• Drip-irrigation systems use 20-50% less water per-acre than sprinkler systems.
• Owl box (Value #3: Safe Pest Management)
• Owls are natural predators for vertebrate pests like squirrels and gophers.
• Cover crop (Value #5: Habitat)
• Contribute to the vineyard ecosystem's biodiversity.
• Provide homes for beneficial insects.
• Prevent soil erosion.

Winery/Tasting Room Attractions

• Solar panels/EV charging stations (Value #4: Energy Efficiency)
• Capturing the sun's energy means less draw from the grid.
• Pamphlets for charitable foundations, organizations, etc (Value #1: Social Responsibility)
• Socially responsible businesses give back to their communities.
• Your brand's Newsletter (Value #6: Business)
• Sustainable businesses celebrate their successes and plan for the future.
• 7 Values of SIP Certified table sign (Value #7: Always Evolving)
• SIP Certified members stay up to date with the latest sustainable winegrowing practices

Step 2: Explain Each Sustainable Attraction Create Your Content

Each one of your sustainable tour attractions will have its own QR code. When scanned, the code should open up either a video or a written description.

• Use video: Grab your phone and in two minutes or less, introduce the topic, explain its sustainable aspects, and tell the viewer why it is important to your brand. Post your videos to YouTube, or give each one a dedicated blog post on your website.
• Write it out: Create a blog post on your website for each of your sustainable attractions and put the information in writing.

It is important that the information for each sustainable attraction is on its own page! That way, when the QR code is scanned, only the information for the appropriate attraction opens.

Generate Your QR Codes

Visit the published page for each sustainable attraction's content, and follow these steps to generate your QR code:

• Tap your mouse's right clicker anywhere on the web page.
• Click "Create QR code for this page."
• WARNING: Don't modify the link that appears under the QR code!
• Click the button to Download your QR code.
• Rename your QR code so it's easily identifiable.
• SIP Tip: use a name that includes the tour stop (e.g.: cover crop video)
• Save your QR code on your computer.

Step 3: Bring Your Tour to Life

Now it's time to post your QR codes at your stops, and make a map so visitors know where to find them.

Print & Post Your QR Codes

You will need to print your QR codes and give them a clear, protective covering to shield them from the elements. You can use a laminator, packing tape, or clear binder inserts. Or have them printed on a material that can withstand the elements.

Attach them to a sturdy surface at or in view of your Sustainable QR Tour attraction.

Make a Map

Your visitors will want to know where to go when they embark on your Sustainable QR Tour!

Your map can be hand drawn, or you can use an application like Canva, or Adobe Illustrator to make your map.

On the back of the map, list out your stops in the order they appear along the path, and give a quick hint for finding the QR code.

SIP Tip: Make it a Game!

Create a quiz sheet for your guests, and have them complete it once they visit all of the stops. Or, encourage them to post a picture or video from their tour experience on their social media and tag you.

Put your guest's names into a pot for a monthly drawing, and get creative with your prizes! A complimentary tasting for two, a piece of SWAG from your shop, or a private tour with your General Manager, Winemaker, or Vineyard Manager are just a few ideas.

Coming Up...

Our next Marketing Tip will feature the final story in this year's round of Sustainable Stories from SIP Certified Members. Be sure you don't miss the inspiring story of how Talley Vineyards supports all of their employees in their professional development.

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, download the worksheet, watch the videos, and you are ready to tell your Sustainable Story!

Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team.

Resources:

• *** Tell Your Sustainable Story Online Course ***
• Business: Niner Wine Estates
• Marketing Tips eNewsletter
• Safe Pest Management: Wolff Vineyards
• SIP Smart Training online course
• Sustainable Story Worksheet | Print
• Sustainable Story Worksheet | Electronic
• What's your Sustainable Story?

Vineyard Team Programs:

• 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 - $50 OFF with code PODCAST23
• Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace
• Vineyard Team – Become a Member

High temperatures and extreme weather events can have numerous impacts on wine grapes and ultimately wine quality. Dr. Andreea Botezatu, Associate Professor and Extension Enology Specialist at Texas A&M University, Texas AgriLife Extension Service finds that changes in ripening patterns are the most common. In high heat, sugars accumulate faster, acids degrade, ripening happens earlier and the result is higher alcohol wines. The challenge is that ripening is not linear. Tannins and maturation of the seeds do not progress at the same pace. Plus, high pH causes color and flavor instability.

Andreea is experimenting with verjus, the juice of green grapes. In North America, grapes from crop thinning are traditionally considered waste. However, in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, green grape juice is used in many culinary practices. Verjus has little sugar, high acidity, and low pH making it a perfect addition to unbalanced wines.

Learn about her current experiment testing both red and white grape verjus against three other acidification methods. Plus, Andreea gives listeners tips on how to prevent that green pepper flavor caused by ladybug taint.

Resources:

• 145: New Class of Compounds Linked to Smoke Taint in Wines (Podcast)
• 143: Can Barrier Sprays Protect Against Smoke Taint in Wine? (Podcast)
• Dr. Andreea Botezatu's LinkedIn page
• Dr. Andreea Botezatu ResearchGate
• Dr. Andreea Botezatu Google Scholar
• Malo-Lactic Fermentation in a New Climate
• Sustainable Wine Practices
• Texas A&M Facebook page
• Texas A&M Foundation
• Texas AgriLife Extension Enology YouTube

Vineyard Team Programs:

• 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 - $50 OFF with code PODCAST23
• Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace
• Vineyard Team – Become a Member

Get More

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

Craig Macmillan 0:00

And my guest today is Andreea Botezatu She is Associate Professor and extension enology specialist at Texas A&M University, the Texas AgriLife Service. Thanks for being our guest today.

Andreea Botezatu 0:11

Thank you for having me.

Craig Macmillan 0:12

We're very interested in some of the work you've been doing recently around effects of warming climates on vines and on wines. You're in enologist. In particular, you've been doing work on wine quality. That Correct? And you've been doing work in Texas, obviously.

Andreea Botezatu 0:26

Yes, for the past seven years or something. Yeah.

Craig Macmillan 0:30

And would you say that temperatures during the growing season in Texas overall have been increasing?

Andreea Botezatu 0:35

I would Yes, the temperatures historically have been increasing. And furthermore, we see a lot more extreme weather events. So temperature records being broken, as well as like I said, extreme weather storms, winds hail, a lot of hail we, we've been having quite a bit of hail in Texas. So these can affect the process of grape growing.

Craig Macmillan 0:58

Absolutely. So definitely, there's been some changes, how has this been affecting one quality, what particular parameters are being most affected?

Andreea Botezatu 1:04

Right. So this is not straightforward answer for this question. Because because several things can happen when you have extreme weather events and temperatures rising. The biggest one that we see here is a changing ripening patterns. So sugar accumulation and acid degradation, they kind of change sugar tends to accumulate much faster, because of the earlier heat we tend to see earlier ripening. So earlier, harvesting sugar accumulates faster acids degrade quite a bit, the ripening is not linear anymore. So we see ripening in terms of sugar, but we don't see that in terms of tannins or aroma compounds or maturation of the seeds. So there's a bit of disconnect there. That's one thing because of the higher sugar accumulation, we tend to see higher levels of alcohols in wine, which is not necessarily a good thing. There's only so much so much alcohol that you want to have in wine that becomes overbearing and unpleasant and the wines will be unbalanced. Most importantly for us in Texas, and I'm sure for any other grape growing region that deals with high temperatures is an increase in pH because of acid degradation. We see grapes coming in with very low titratable acidity, we're talking three four grams per liter, and then pH is of four and above.

Craig Macmillan 2:31

Wow.

Andreea Botezatu 2:32

Yeah, yes, wow, indeed, very, very high pH is that we have to deal with as winemakers as I'm sure your audience knows high pH can cause a host of problems and wine quality problems from microbiological instabilities, compromising one quality that way to color, instability, aroma, and flavor, balance all of that. So that's a big thing that's happening.

Craig Macmillan 2:56

And those high sugars are also problematic just for getting your fermentations done.

Andreea Botezatu 3:00

Absolutely. You can have problems starting your fermentation, you can have problems finishing your fermentation,

Craig Macmillan 3:05

What kinds of things are winemakers doing to try to manage these factors, but and what kinds of things are you looking at to try to manage these factors?

Andreea Botezatu 3:13

Right, so my researcher at A&M, is focused on acidity and acidity management, again with a focus on pH more so than titratable acidity. So over the past six years, we've been looking at two alternative acidification methods. One is enzymatic, it employs the use of glucose oxidase that is a is an enzyme that helps transform glucose into Gluconic acid, thereby increasing the acidity of the wine and increasing the pH. So we've done some research on both reds and whites. And that research has been published in peer reviewed journal. So those are links that I can share with you and now we are working with verjus and that falls within the sustainability category as well because a little bit of background on what verjus is and how it can help. Verjus is the juice of green grapes. It is produced from unripe grapes that are pressed and the juice obtained is called verjus which comes from French, the French language jus vert, green juice. So basically it means green juice. And because it's made from unripe grapes, you can imagine there's little sugar in it, the acidity is quite quite high and the pH is quite low. Traditionally, grape growers can practice this crop thinning practice to manage their crop and crop quality. What they do is they drop some of the grapes on the vine before they ripen in order for all the resources of the vine to be directed to the grapes that are leftover. So the grapes that are getting dropped are traditionally especially in North America considered waste nothing is done with them. They are left on the vineyard floor. I have a European background right and I I grew up with these grapes being turned into virjus, we have a different name for it in Romanian, but same idea. And this juice was used quite heavily for various culinary practices in Eastern Europe and throughout the Middle East. So remembering that I thought, Well, why not try to take these grapes and make verjus out of them and you start to acidify? It is a natural product that comes from the vineyard and it gives added value to the grapes, right?

Craig Macmillan 5:29

And these grapes, are we talking just past verasion, are we talking still in the in the berry green hard pea stage?

Andreea Botezatu 5:36

So verjus traditionally is made pre veraison. There's not a set date for grape thinning or verjus production. It can vary anywhere from 30 days post bloom to 45 days post bloom and the beginning of verasion there.

Craig Macmillan 5:53

So tell me more about this. We make some verjus we collect some berries that haven't been through verasion yet, and then they're crushed, repressed or something. I'm also curious, is this done? Can this be done with both red and white varieties?

Andreea Botezatu 6:03

Again, a very good question. So last year, we had our first experiment with verjus and we made it with white from white grapes on Muscat Canelli. This year, we are making it from both white and red, we're using different varieties. And we're looking a little bit differently at it. So still, we want to see how it affects one quality and wine sensory profile. But what we're doing extra this year, so we're doing red and white. And on top of that we are comparing this method with three different acidification methods, three other acidification methods, both from a chemical and sensory perspective. So we're looking at, you know, the traditional tartaric acid addition that most wineries do, we're looking at verjus addition, we're looking at the GLX glucose oxidase that I mentioned earlier. And we're looking at ion exchange, which is becoming quite popular for pH reduction.

Craig Macmillan 6:57

Tell me more about that.

Andreea Botezatu 6:58

So ion exchange resins are widely used in water treatments, soft water, hard water, depending on what you're trying to achieve. Basically, there, there's resins that have been charged, and they can release either cations or anions. In our case, the resin that we use releases protons or hydrogen ions, and then the potassium in the wine gets reduced. And by releasing protons, increases the number of protons in solution, thereby decreasing the pH. And you basically pump your wines through this ion exchange column that holds the resin and it comes up on the other end.

Craig Macmillan 7:35

If I understand correctly, that's also removing the potassium, which is the buffer that's keeping it high. All right.

Andreea Botezatu 7:40

Some of that, yes, not all of it. Yes.

Craig Macmillan 7:43

Are you doing this at the juice stage, we're doing this just after fermentation. During aging?

Andreea Botezatu 7:48

We are doing this at the juice stage, from everything that I've heard in the industry, it is better to have it done at the juice stage, it has less impact on the final wine quality, but it's gentler, so yes, at all the treatments that we're doing, we're doing them at the juice stage and then fermentation follows sterilization and everything else.

Craig Macmillan 8:08

What kind of quantity or ratio of verjus might we need is in liquid or by weight to get these kinds of impacts that we're after?

Andreea Botezatu 8:19

Right? So it depends on what we're trying to achieve. We asked that question with our study last year. So we had two treatments last year one to see how much verjus we needed to add to drop the pH by one point. So let's say you start at 3.6, we're gonna bring it down to 3.5. How much verjus do I need to add to achieve that and the other one, the other treatment was to target pH. So again, you start at 3.6, but you want to drop it to 3.3. We did both. And it turned out in our experiment that we needed to add 2% by volume verjus to drop the pH by one pH point. And then for the target pH we needed, we added about 10 to 11% verjus to get to the target we wanted. So you know it depends on what you're starting with the pH you're starting with a depends on the pH of your verjus. And that makes a big difference. We're working with lower pH verjus this year compared to last year. So that might change things a little but this is what we got so far between two and 10%. With a pH is that we worked with.

Craig Macmillan 9:24

If I remember correctly during that latter phase before verasion when we get past like lag phase or so what's happening with the reduction in acidity is that the malic acid is getting metabolized basically as an energy source tartaric may come down a little bit during that period, if I remember right, so if I am picking things early, like pre raisin, I'm assuming there's going to be a quite a bit of malic acid in that juice.

Andreea Botezatu 9:50

That's right. Yes.

Craig Macmillan 9:52

And is that going to affect what I do from winemaking perspective?

Andreea Botezatu 9:55

Well, for whites, very little for reds. I think it's absolutely a positive thing because most winemakers will want to put their reds through malolactic fermentation. And that's problematic. Now here with a high pH is because if you have a malolactic fermentation with a high pH wine, you can run into a million different problems and have really serious quality issues. So by adding this natural malic acid from the grapes, you allow then your winemakers to run their malolactic fermentations at a safe pH and get that effect of roundness and softness and all the sensory properties that come with it.

Craig Macmillan 10:34

Are there things that growers can do in the field, we're talking about the bears up, so the things that other things that we can do in the vineyard to help ameliorate some of these are things that people experimenting with, or winemakers are interested in having vineyard folks experiment with.

Andreea Botezatu 10:48

I mean, in the vineyard, there's only so much you can do once your vineyard has been planted. Water management is very important. And it helps a lot makes a big difference. Water stress can can have quite the impact on grape quality and Vine health as well. So water management is a big thing. And then canopy management is another one, you want to make sure that your grapes are a little bit shaded, they're not completely exposed to the sun, so you avoid sunburn and heat and light exposure. These are things that some grape growers can do. Some grape growers in Europe, as far as I know, plant grass coverings to reduce the evapotranspiration, the soil level to maintain water in the soil as well some modify their canopy structure, raise the trunk. So there are a few options. But I would say water management and canopy management are the most important ones. However, there is something that can be done and is actually being done actively in various parts of the world. As temperatures change. grape growers are changing the varieties that they're planting to adapt to these higher temperatures and different weather patterns. So they're looking at varieties that are a lot more heat tolerant. And that's a big change, that's a big change. And that's going to have a big impact.

Craig Macmillan 12:07

Just to go back for a second, when we talk about irrigation management, what you're talking about is not stressing the vines overly you want them to be happy,

Andreea Botezatu 12:14

You know, vines, like a little bit of stress. So but not as much as we see with these types of temperatures here. So yes. Keep them somewhat happy.

Craig Macmillan 12:25

So there's some things that we need, we need to stay on our game, basically in the vineyard - monitor, monitor your your evapotranspiration, and also the plants status and all that kind of thing. Because I have seen vines and heat, you know, basically collapse. Yes. And, you know, it's all the chemistry in the grape just goes nuts. They're like at the last minute, you know, and you're like, Oh, we're doing great and everything goes to heck. what Oh, what about shade cloth? Are people using shade cloth?

Andreea Botezatu 12:51

Yes. So the answer is yes, you can use that. And another thing that they are using this has nothing to do with temperature but rather hail they use hail netting to protect their vines from from hail.

Craig Macmillan 13:03

Oh, interesting. Interesting. I've heard about that in Europe, and I've never seen it in the United States.

Andreea Botezatu 13:07

Yeah, well come to Texas.

Craig Macmillan 13:08

I'm gonna I do I need to come to Texas. I got a friend there who's a bit of culture tonight. He keeps saying you gotta come check it out. You gotta come check it out.

Andreea Botezatu 13:14

Well, I feel sometimes that like we are the main lab for grape growing in the world, because we've we've already done all this work because it's hot here anyways. So we started this 20, 30 years ago. Like we can teach the world a thing or two about grape growing in hot climates, really.

Craig Macmillan 13:34

And that's a really good point is that there's resources in other parts of the United States or the parts of the world that that may apply to your world. If you're in a different region as your region changes, then I've definitely learned that over time, I will look out for other sources outside of California. I'm in California, I'm on the Central Coast, California, which has traditionally been a very cool area. And we're gonna see if that continues, which then leads back to your point. So changing varietals, or varieties, I should say changing varieties, what direction are people going in? What's the what are people thinking?

Andreea Botezatu 14:09

Right, So people are looking at heat tolerant varieties. And these two, again, both come from hotter regions, southern regions, so we're looking at Spain, southern Spain, Southern Italy, Greece, some of the Georgian varieties as well. Some seem to be doing quite well. I can give you some examples of varieties that we have in Texas,

Craig Macmillan 14:30

Please.

Andreea Botezatu 14:31

We've planted a lot of Tempranillo, Mouvedre, Vermentino, Aglianico, Montepulciano, Sagrantino does fantastic here Tannat. does very well here as well. Albarino on the wine, white side, I said Vermentino we have some Russanne and Marsanneare doing okay, but southern Italian Spanish Portuguese varieties are quite the stars.

Craig Macmillan 15:00

That's interesting, and how are how are winemakers feeling about this? I mean, are they excited? Are they? Are they having a great time? I mean, Tannat was a very exciting variety about 10 years ago and have made some really nice wines in California, are people getting into it? Are they excited about it?

Andreea Botezatu 15:15

So winemakers are very excited about all of that the problem is not the winemakers, it's the consumers who are not not familiar with these varietals, they don't have name recognition, so convincing the consumers to try them and buy them and come back for them that that is the main problem that we are having now. But I think we're making a lot of progress. And actually, some of my research is focused on that as well. So name recognition and pronunciation and comfort in purchasing or choosing a wine that's hard to pronounce and submitted an article for publication, or looking at that just today.

Craig Macmillan 15:49

Just today, timely as today's headlines. Well, I'll be looking for that I'll be looking forward to that yet to people, you know, people will have to be kind of familiar with it, you know, they have to kind of recognize it over time, I think that can can definitely happen. I mean, I was thinking about SSangiovese in the United States, I'm thinking about Syrah, even in the United States, that was one that wasn't that labeled that much 30 years ago. And now we've got a whole fan base nationwide for that variety. And so maybe that same kind of thing will happen. And I hope so finding the plant for the place is huge, you know, and so if things are changing, we may want to think about finding different plants for that place.

Andreea Botezatu 16:25

I mean, look at Bordeaux, right? They Bordeaux, in France, they were approved to use six new varieties, which is extraordinary considering how long they only stuck with a traditional Bordeaux varieties. So now they are allowed to grow six new varieties, four reds and two white. So that's that's quite something. And that's not the only place where that is happening.

Craig Macmillan 16:47

Yeah, that's, that's very interesting. It will also be interesting to see if we have breeding plant breeding programs along these lines as well. That's an even harder road to hoe, because there's no history with it with a plant like that. But it's an interesting idea. I need to find a grower I need to find a plant breeder to talk to. So changing gears a little bit. There's something else that you've been working on that I'm really fascinated by. And that is Ladybug taint. And we are talking about the ladybug, we're talking about high sparrow.

Andreea Botezatu 17:14

Yeah, we're actually talking about ladybugs and this has been the subject of my PhD research and my postdoc work. So I've spent six, seven years looking at ladybugs and how they can affect wine quality. So for a little bit of background I have to start and be with some science. There is a group of compounds called methoxypyrazines that are naturally occurring in the world naturally occurring in plants. Many vegetables contain them bell peppers, for example, will have high levels of methoxypyrazines Peanuts, peas, green beans, some fruits contain them as well and grapes within a category of fruits, some grape varieties will naturally produce methoxypyrazines. These compounds smell like bell pepper in green beans like the vegetables that couldn't contain them. So at low quantities, low concentrations in grapes. These compounds methoxypyrazines can contribute to the paucity of the wine to complexity of the aroma profile and flavor profile of the wines. If however, these quantities increase, the concentrations increased, they can become overpowering and dominate the profile of the wine and you don't want your wine to smell like bell peppers and nothing else. Really, that's no fun. Another source of methoxypyrazines in the world is insects, in particular, lady beetles, ladybugs, and within the ladybugs category there are some species that are more apt at producing them but also infesting Vineyards, one of these species is called Harmonia axyridis, or the multicolored Asian lady beetle also known as MALB. Now this is a species that has been introduced into North America from Asia as a method of bio control against aphids in the 1960s mistaken and in time, it has established populations here and it has begun to spread so as the bio control method is very successful, it does what it's supposed to do but once the aphids are gone and the soybeans are picked harvested, then it looks for other sources of food and it can migrate into vineyards so these are the beetles will fly into vineyards they don't damage the grapes they don't bite into they don't want the grapes but they do feed on grapes that happen already open or cut for the sugar is you know is exposed in any way the flesh is exposed in anyways. And what happens is that if you pick the grapes with these lady beetles in them and you bring them into the winery with lady beetles in the menu, process them with lady beetles in these way they will also secrete something that's called hemolymph. It's basically their blood and this hemolymph will contain again Methoxypyrazines at quite high concentrations, these Methoxypyrazines get into wine, they tend to wine. So the wine will smell like bell pepper and green beans and potatoes and peanuts. And what's also interesting is that the ratio of these Methoxypyrazines is different in the hemolymph of lady beetles, as opposed to the ones naturally occurring in grapes. So there's one particular Methoxypyrazines , that's dominant in grapes, that's isobutyl Methoxypyrazines IBMP, whereas in ladybugs, it's the isopropyl Methoxypyrazines , and that's dominating. And that can be also a method of diagnostic, you know, if you're looking at a wine that smells like that, and you're not sure, where did they come from, if IBMP is the dominant one, most likely there was a lady beetle infestation there, if IPMP is the highest one, and it's just the grape and weather conditions or whatnot.

Craig Macmillan 20:51

Arectheir control measures, cultural things are their chemical things in the vineyard. And then the subsequent then moving to the next step is what what can wineries do when the grapes come in? Can they inspect the fruit?

Andreea Botezatu 21:05

Absolutely. So in the vineyard, there are some sprays that can be applied to get rid of the lady beetles. However, you have to be careful as a grape grower with pre harvest interval there. SO2 has been tested as a spray in the vineyard against a lady beetles as well and used to be very effective, which you know, it's very helpful because it's SO2 we sprayed and it was already added anyway. So that helps to have some natural products natural essential oils that have been tested, they were shown to be quite effective at repelling lady beetles. And then there's the same yo chemical, the push pull traps. So you want to have compounds that repel the lady beetles in the middle of your vineyard, and then compounds that attract the lady beetles outside of your vineyard. So it's a push pull system. That's what can be done in the vineyard. And then once grapes are harvested on the winery side, we need to make sure if we are aware that there was a lady beetle presence in the vineyard, we want to make sure we sort our grapes, very, very careful. I mean, it doesn't take much to taint the wine one lady beetle per kilogram of grapes is more than enough. So you got to be very careful when sorting to make sure we get rid of all lady beetles. And also what's important to remember is that even dead lady beetles can taint the wine. So even if you spray them kill them, if they're still coming in, they still have the potential to taint the wine. And that's one thing that's the first step that you can do as a winemaker, if still after that you have an issue with Ladybug tainting your wine, there are some things you can do. They're not extremely effective. So juice clarification has been shown to help a lot. Thermo vinification has been shown to help actually one very good method at reducing pyrazine levels in wine is Flash détente. That is very, very successful. And we have that here in Texas. And we have some wineries that use Flash détente are not necessarily for methoxy partisans for other purposes as well. But very successful at doing that. Some refinding treatments more or less successful. In my research, I looked at my plastic polymers and silicone and they worked, but you need to find a form of application to apply them industrial, you know, commercially. So right now we're not there yet.

Craig Macmillan 23:20

And these techniques were wondering would apply to both red and white wines.

Andreea Botezatu 23:24

Well, fining is more difficult with reds because of the loss of color. So it's easier with whites, but Flash détente on the other hand is better with reds than with whites. So thermo identification Flash détente would be better suited for it.

Craig Macmillan 23:38

In your experience. Do you think you're seeing an increase in Ladybug infestation? And is that possibly tied to the changes in climate?

Andreea Botezatu 23:46

Well, yes, we see a change in patterns. I don't know if necessarily an increase they seem to be moving from certain places and arriving in other places. So places that didn't used to have ladybugs have them now and then they move out certain areas. So yeah, there's a shift so people need to know about them. grape growers need to be aware of this problem and monitor their vineyards for ladybugs, you know, you don't think about it. They're cute little things and people seem to like them, oh, they're just ladybugs, but they can be quite quite detrimental, especially in particular species, which is quite easy to identify it has that M on the pronoun. So very easy to spot and to be aware of. So yes, grape growers need to keep an eye out for lady beetles in places where maybe they never used to have them before. Just something to be aware of.

Craig Macmillan 24:39

If we're talking about one particular species, is this an issue with other species in the order of Coleoptera?

Andreea Botezatu 24:47

To a much lesser extent, this one is worst one Coccinella septempunctata the seven beetle can summon spot beetle can also taint wines but we just don't see them in vineyards as much they're not as much of an issue as Harmonia.

Craig Macmillan 25:01

Interesting, we're getting close to our time here on both topics. Let's start with climate winemaking. And then let's talk about lady beetle. What is one thing that you would tell growers or winemakers regarding that topic and let's start with, with the warm wine.

Andreea Botezatu 25:17

Growers, I would advise them to choose their varieties carefully. When they initiate a vineyard when they start on the plan of vineyard and be very careful about their water treatment. To winemakers, I would say focus on pH rather than sugars focus on acidity. And also for those winemakers who look at malolactic fermentation in red as a given, I would urge them to reconsider. I personally don't see a reason why malolactic fermentation has to happen, especially if you have issues with acidity, it doesn't always benefit the wines. So and there are there are options out there to inhibit malolactic fermentation if you choose to do so there are several compounds that can help with that and help stabilize the wines from from that perspective. So I really, really encourage winemakers so at least think about that, start considering that as an option. Maybe start experimenting, you know, small amounts not necessarily go full on on not running malolactics, but start slow and see how it goes and see how that affects or changes the wine quality and wine stability.

Craig Macmillan 26:23

What about the lady beetle? What's the one thing you would tell both growers and winemakers about the lady bettle.

Andreea Botezatu 26:28

Do your best that so that it doesn't get into winery it's much easier to prevent than to fix the wines. So be very, very careful in the vineyard. Watch out for ladybugs and take them seriously if you see them.

Craig Macmillan 26:43

Action, early, early action, I think it was under chilled shift the closer to the crusher and the farther from the bottle you can fix a problem the more success you'll be. Well it looks like no farther from the crusher ahead of time. And closer to the crusher, after the crusher might be the solution. Where can people find out more about you?

Andreea Botezatu 27:04

Oh, I can share links to my Texas A&M page, my YouTube page. I have a YouTube channel where I post I have several different playlists where I post different videos related to enology wine quality, I can share with you the links to my peer reviewed papers on ladybug taint and pH management so they can find them on your website.

Craig Macmillan 27:27

That would be great. Yeah, but at least things will be on the show page. As always. Folks, I want to thank you for being on on the podcast. Our guest today was Andrea Botezatu. She's Associate Professor and extension technology specialist with Texas a&m University, Texas AgriLife service. This has been very enlightening. I think a lot of us are thinking about this, especially places that have been growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for a long time. A lot of people are thinking about this.

Andreea Botezatu 27:52

Well, you're welcome. And it was a pleasure being here. I just want to finish if I may with an observation that I had winemakers and grape growers from California contacting me about verjus research so they're very excited about that. I'm glad that we are getting to talk about this and maybe more people will hear about this and start thinking about about these options.

Craig Macmillan 28:15

Absolutely. Absolutely.

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A successful business does more than sell a great product. Companies that embrace the Business value of sustainability treat their employees and the community with care and respect.

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.

This is our 200th episode of Sustainable Winegrowing! Since 2016 we have spent over 700 hours researching the attest business trends and interviewing international experts so you can learn in the time it takes to drive in-between vineyards. Thank you to everyone who has helped make this program a success and to you for listening!

In addition to feeling good about doing good, businesses that practice corporate social responsibility also:

• Enhance customer loyalty and invite customers to share in the good feelings that come from good deeds (Forbes, 2022).
• Appeal to prospectus employees and strengthen current employees' satisfaction and performance (CR Strategies, 2009).
• Expand their network and build their company image (Forbes, 2022).

Looking for ways to engage your brand with your community? Listen in to learn how the whole team at Niner Wine Estates is involved in giving back.

Business at Niner Wine Estates

Sharing their prosperity with the community is one of the ways Niner Wine Estates embodies the Business value of sustainability.

Andrew Niner, President and CEO, is a board member of MUST! Charities, and believes in supporting the community through charitable donations.

Over the last 3 years, the Paso Robles, California based winery has donated an average of $245,000 annually to charities through a linked foundation.

Annual donations of $2,000 per employee go to a charity of the employee's choice, and their own personal donations are matched by the company.

Staff are further involved in community support efforts through monthly meal preparations and servings to people experiencing food insecurity.

Niner Wine Estates actively engages in research to ensure the long-term sustainability of the natural resources they and their neighbors rely on.

They are participating in a study of local hydrology facilitated by the United States Geologic Survey. The project goal is to improve understanding of how water moves in the Adeladia Area water basin so that groundwater resources can be quantified and monitored.

Good for the Community, Good for Business

If you are looking for ways to get your brand involved with your community, here are a few ideas:

• Donate to local charity programs.
  • Looking for a charitable cause that gives back to the wine industry? The Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship helps the children of California's vineyard and winery workers pay for higher education at trade schools and colleges. Click here to learn how to get involved.

• Contribute goods/services to local events.
• Get involved with local soup kitchens by donating food or volunteering.

People want to support businesses that share their values. Are you talking about how your brand values protect the people and the planet?

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, download the worksheet, watch the videos, and you are ready to tell your Sustainable Story!

Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team.

Resources:

• *** Tell Your Sustainable Story Online Course ***
• Business: Niner Wine Estates
• Marketing Tips eNewsletter
• Safe Pest Management: Wolff Vineyards
• SIP Smart Training online course
• Sustainable Story Worksheet | Print
• Sustainable Story Worksheet | Electronic
• What's your Sustainable Story?

Vineyard Team Programs:

• 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 - $50 OFF with code PODCAST23
• Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace
• Vineyard Team – Become a Member

Plants by nature are designed to interact with light. Satellites can measure the light reflected by plants to detect grapevine diseases before they are visible to the human eye. Katie Gold, Assistant Professor of Grape Pathology, Susan Eckert Lynch Faculty Fellow, School of Integrative Plant Science Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section of Cornell AgriTech is trailblazing remote disease detection with imaging spectroscopy also known as hyperspectral imaging.

Imaging spectroscopy was developed by NASA to tell us what Mars was made out of. By turning satellites back on Earth, Katie and a team of scientists are learning how to use the light reflected back to manage grapevine viral and foliar diseases. Listen in to the end to get Katie's number one piece of advice on the importance of data management.

Resources:

• Alyssa K. Whitcraft, University of Maryland
• Disease Triangle of Plant Pathology
• Gold Lab
• Katie Gold, Cornell University
• Katie Gold - Twitter
• NASA AVIRIS (Airborne Visible and InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer)
• NASA Acres - applying satellite data solutions to the most pressing challenges facing U.S. agriculture
• NASA Emit Satellite
• NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
• Planet Labs

References: Vineyard Team Programs:

• 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 - $50 OFF with code PODCAST23
• Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace
• Vineyard Team – Become a Member

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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

Craig Macmillan 0:00

With us today is Katie Gold, Assistant Professor of Grape Pathology at Cornell AgraTech campus of the Cornell University. Thanks for being on the show.

Katie Gold 0:08

Well, thanks for having me.

Craig Macmillan 0:09

Today, we're going to talk about some really cool technology. I've been interested in it for a long time, and I can't wait to get an update on what all is happening. There's some really exciting work being done on using remote sensing for the detection of plant diseases. Can you tell us a little bit about what that research is about what's going on in that field?

Katie Gold 0:25

Sure, what isn't going on in this field, it's a really exciting time to be here. So I guess to put into context, we're really at this precipice of an unprecedented era of agricultural monitoring. And this comes from the intersection of you know, hardware becoming accessible, the data analytics becoming accessible, but also investment, you know, a lot of talk of ag tech being the next big thing. And with that comes this interest in using these cool and novel data streams for disease detection. So my group specializes in plant disease sensing, it's our bread and butter to what we entirely focus on. And we specialize in a technology called imaging spectroscopy for disease detection. So this is also known as hyperspectral imaging. Imaging spectroscopy is the technical term. And this is a type of remote sensing that it differs from, you know, radio wave remote sensing, and it focuses on light in the visible to shortwave infrared range.

Craig Macmillan 1:13

Talk a little bit more about that. So when we talk about hyperspectral, we're looking outside of the range of radiation, essentially, that's not just light.

Katie Gold 1:24

So yes, and no. So hyperspectral is a word that describes how the light is being measured, kind of colloquially, we assigned to it more meaning that it actually has. That's why I often like to differentiate between it for explanation sake, what hyperspectral imaging is, when we talk about using it in the full vSphere range, these are all types of light, you know, it's all aspects of the electromagnetic radiation scale. But this spectrum of light that ranges from the visible to the shortwave infrared, this spans a range of about 2100 wavelengths. So to put that into context, we see visible light only. And this spans a range of wavelengths, that's about 300 nanometers, and went from about 450 to 750. So if you think about all the richness of radiation, the subtlety in differences in color that you see in everyday light, all of that comes from those subtle interactions of, you know, specific wavelengths of light hitting that stuff and bouncing back into our eye. So now imagine having seven times more wavelengths than that, you know, we have 2100, different wavelengths that we measure. And those wavelengths that are beyond the range that we can see the reason why we don't see them as they're less abundant, they're less emitted by our sun, but they're still present, and they still interact with the world. In particular, they interact very strongly with chemistry, such as environmental chemistry. So imaging spectroscopy was developed by NASA to tell us what Mars was made out of, then one day, they're like, let's turn this baby around and pointed at the Earth. And we discovered that it's quite applicable for vegetative spectroscopy. So telling us what vegetation is made of what the composition of the Earth is. And because plant disease impacts chemistry, so dramatically, plant physiology, chemistry, morphology, such a dramatic chaotic impact. It's a really excellent technology to use for early detection. So those subtle little changes that occur within a plant before it becomes diseased to the human eye, but it's undergoing that process of disease.

Craig Macmillan 3:12

Can you expand on that point? Exactly how does this work in terms of the changes in the plant that are being picked up by viewing certain wavelengths? What's the connection there?

Katie Gold 3:23

Consider the leaf, right. So plants are an amazing thing to remotely sense because they're designed by nature to interact with light. Now that's in contrast to skin right that's designed to keep light out plants are designed to have light go in and out, etcetera. So light will enter our atmosphere from the sun, and it will do one of three things when it encounters a plant, it'll be reflected back, it will be absorbed for photosynthesis, or it will be transmitted through the plant. And the wealth of that light is actually reflected back. And that reflected light can be detected by something as distantly placed as a satellite in orbit. And how that light is reflecting off a plant is determined by the health status of a plant. So a healthy leaf, right? It's going to be photosynthesizing. This means that it's going to be absorbing red and blue light for photosynthesis, it's going to have a lot of chlorophyll, it's going to be nice, bright and green, it's going to reflect back a lot of green light. And then it's going to reflect back near infrared light, because that is the sort of light that corresponds really well to the cellular structure of a leaf, right, so a nice healthy leaf is going to bounce back near infrared light. Now an unhealthy plant, it's not going to be photosynthesizing properly. So it's going to be absorbing less red and blue light. Therefore, it will be reflecting more of that red light back, it's not going to have a lot of chlorophyll. So it's going to reflect back less green light, and it's not as healthy. It's not as robust, so it will reflect back less near infrared light. So by looking at those subtle differences, and this is where we get back to that idea of hyperspectral. Right. hyperspectral is a word about how a sensor is measuring light. And hyperspectral means that a sensor is measuring light at such narrow intervals, that it's a near continuous data product. And this is in contrast to a multispectral sensor something Like NDVI that measures light in big chunks. The power is when you have continuous data, right? You could do more complex analyses you just have more to work with. And when you have discrete data, this is what makes hyperspectral sensors more powerful. It's how they're measuring the light, and often, that they're measuring more light that our eyes can see. But that's not necessarily a given hyperspectral sensors do not need to measure beyond the visible range, they can solely be focused on the visual visible range. Because once again, hyperspectral is a word about how the light is being measured. But we oftentimes kind of colloquially, so assign more value to it. But let's take that in combination, right. So you have a hyperspectral sensor that's measuring light and very, very narrow intervals near continuous data product, you're measuring seven times more wavelengths than the eye can see, combined together. That's how this works, right? So those subtle differences and those wavebands how they're reflecting both direct interactions with plant chemistry, you know, some certain wavelengths of light will hit nitrogen bonds go wackadoo and bounce back, all crazy. Otherwise, we're making indirect inferences, right, you know, plant disease as a chaotic impact of plant health that impacts lots of areas of the spectrum. So we're not directly measuring the chemical impact, right? We're not saying okay, well, nitrogen is down two sugars are up three starch XYZ, we're measuring that indirect impact.

Craig Macmillan 6:19

That's pretty amazing. And so...

Katie Gold 6:21

I think it's cool, right? Yeah.

Craig Macmillan 6:24

The idea here is that there are changes in the leaf that can be picked up and these other wave lengths that we wouldn't see until it's too late.

Katie Gold 6:34

Exactly.

Craig Macmillan 6:35

Okay. So it's a warning sign. That gives us a chance to change management.

Katie Gold 6:40

Ideally, so. Right, so it depends on with the scale at which you're operating. So now here comes another level, right. So if you're considering just that one individual plant, it's different from when you're considering the whole scale of a vineyard, right, you want your sensing to be right size to the intervention that you're going to take. So my group works with two types of diseases primarily, we work with grape vine viral diseases, as well as grape vine foliar diseases, for example, a grape vine downy mildew, which is an Erysiphe caused by a Erysiphe pathogen, and grapevine powdery mildew, which is caused by a fungal pathogen. Now the sort of intervention that you would take for those two diseases is very different, right? With a viral disease, the only treatment that you have is removal, there's no cure for being infected with the virus. Now, with a fungal pathogen or an Erysiphe pathogen like grape downy mildew. If you detect that early, there are fungicides you can use with kickback action. Or otherwise, you might change the sort of what sort of choice you might make a fungicide right. If you know there's an actual risk in this location, you might put your most heavy hitting fungicides there than in areas where there is no disease detected, or the risk is incredibly low, you might feel more comfortable relying on a biological, thereby reducing the impact. So given the sort of intervention, you would take, we want to right size, our sensing approach for it. So with grapevine viral diseases, when the intervention is so has such a vast financial impact, right removal, we want to be incredibly sure of our data. So we focused on high spectral resolution data products for that ones, where we have lots of wavelengths being measured with the most precise accuracy so that we can have high confidence in that result, right? We want to give that to someone and say, Hey, we are very confident this is undergoing asymptomatic infection. Now, on the other hand, with these foliar diseases, they change at such a rapid timescale that you're more benefited by having an early warning that may be less accurate, right? So you're saying, hey, this area of your vineyard is undergoing rapid change it might be due to disease might be because your kid drove a golf cart through the vineyard, however, we're warning you regardless, to send someone out there and take a look and make a decision as to what you might do. Ideally, we would have a high spectral resolution regardless, right? Because more spectrum or better, but the realities of the physics and the actual logistics of doing the sensing is that we don't get to do that we have to do a trade off with spectral spatial and temporal resolution. So if we want rapid return, high degrees of monitoring, and we want that high spatial resolution suitable for a vineyard, we lose our spectral resolution, so we lose our confidence in that result. But our hope is that by saying, Hey, this is a high area of change, and giving you that information very quickly, you can still make an intervention that will be yield successful response, right? You'll go out there and you're like, Oh, yep, that's downy mildew. Otherwise, like, I'm going to take my kid keys like he's out here, my vineyard again. Right? So it's, it's kind of work balancing, right. So we have the logistics of the real world to contend with in terms of using sensing to make to inform management intervention.

Craig Macmillan 9:36

This technology can be used or applied at a variety of distances if I understand everything from proximal like driving through a vineyard to satellite.

Katie Gold 9:48

Oh, yeah. And we've worked with everything.

Craig Macmillan 9:50

Yeah, yeah. And everything in between. I mean, could you fly over is a lot of companies that do NDVIs with flyover.

Katie Gold 9:55

You can use robots like we do.

We can use robots, there's all kinds of things we can do. Or what is a what is NDVI for the audience, even though that's not what we're talking about. You and I keep using it.

So NDVI stands for Normalized Difference vegetative index. It's a normalized difference between near infrared light reflecting and red light. And it is probably the most accurate measurement we have of how green something is. And it's quite a powerful tool. As you you know, we've been using NDVI for well over 50 years to measure how green the earth is from space. That's powerful. But the power of NDVI is also its downside. And that because it is so effective at telling you how green something is, it cannot tell you why something is green. Or it cannot tell you why something is not green, it's going to pick up on a whole range of subtle things that impact plant health.

Craig Macmillan 10:40

And whereas the kind of work that you're doing differs from that in that it's looking at different frequencies, and a higher resolution of frequencies.

Katie Gold 10:51

Exactly. So for the most part, we do use NDVI. But we use it more as a stepping stone, a filtering step rather than the kind of end all be all. Additionally to we use an index that's a cousin to NDVI called EDI, that is adjusted for blue light reflectance, which is very helpful in the vineyard because it helps you deal with the shadow effects. Given the trellising system Iin the vineyard. But yes, exactly. We, for the most part are looking at more narrow intervals of light than NDVI and ranges beyond what NDVI is measuring.

Craig Macmillan 11:22

What's the resolution from space?

Katie Gold 11:24

That's a great question.

Craig Macmillan 11:25

What's the pixel size?

Katie Gold 11:27

One of the commercial satellite products we work with has half a meter resolution from space.

Craig Macmillan 11:32

Wow.

Katie Gold 11:33

Yeah, 50 centimeters, which is amazing. Yeah, that was exactly my reaction. When I heard about it, it was like I didn't get my hands on this. But as I mentioned before, right, you know, if that resolution, we trade off the spectral resolution. So actually, that imagery only has four bands, that effectively is quite similar to an NDVI sensor, that we do have a little more flexibility, we can calculate different indices with it. So we use that data product, 50 centimeters, we use three meter data products from commercial sources. And then we're also looking towards the future, a lot of my lab is funded by NASA, in support of a future satellite that's going to be launched at the end of the decade, called surface biology and geology. And this is going to put a full range Hyperspectral Imager into space that will yield global coverage for the first time. So this satellite will have 30 meter resolution. And it will have that amazing spectral resolution about 10 day return. And that 30 meter spatial size. So again, kind of mixing and matching, you don't get to optimize all three resolutions at once. Unfortunately, maybe sometime in my career, I'll get to the point where I get to optimize exactly what I want, but I'm not there yet.

Craig Macmillan 12:41

And I hadn't thought about that. So there's also a there's a time lag between when the data comes in and when it can be used.

Katie Gold 12:48

Yes.

Craig Macmillan 12:48

What are those lags like?

Katie Gold 12:50

It depends. So with some of the NASA data that we work with, it can be quite lagged, because it's not designed for rapid response. It's designed for research grade, right? So it's assuming that you have time, and it's going through a processing stage, it's going through corrections, etc. And this process is not designed to be rapid, because it's not for rapid response. Otherwise, sometimes when we're working with commercial imagery that can be available. If we task it, it can be available to us within 24 hours. So that's if I say, Hey, make me an acquisition. And they do and then within 24 hours, I get my imagery in hand. Otherwise to there's a there's delays up to seven days. But for the most part, you can access commercial satellite imagery of a scene of your choosing, generally within 24 hours of about three meter resolution to half a meter resolution. That is if you're willing to pay not available from the space agencies.

Craig Macmillan 13:42

I want to go back to that space agency thing first or in a second. What talk to me about satellite, we've got all kinds of satellites flying around out there.

Oh, we do.

All kinds of who's doing what and where and how and what are they? And how long are they up there. And...

Katie Gold 13:58

Well, I'll talk a little bit about the satellites that my program is most obsessed with. We'll call it that. I'll first start with the commercial satellite imagery that we use. This comes from Planet Labs. They're a commercial provider, they're quite committed to supporting research usages, but we've been using their data for three years now. Both they're tasked imagery, which is half a meter resolution, as well as their planet scope data, which is three meter resolution. And we've been looking at this for grapevine downy mildew. Planet Labs, their whole thing is that they have constellation architecture of cube sets. So one of the reasons why satellites are the big thing right now they are what everyone's talking about, is because we're at this point of accessibility to satellite data that's facilitated by these advances in hardware design. So one the design of satellites you know, we now have little satellites called CubeSats that are the size of footballs maybe a little bit bigger.

Craig Macmillan 14:48

Oh, really?

Katie Gold 14:48

Yeah, yeah, they're cool. They're cute. You can actually like kids science fair projects can design a CubeSat now, fancy kid school projects, at least not not where I was. As well as constellation architecture. So this is instead of having one big satellite, the size of a bus, you have something like 10, CubeSat, that are all talking to each other and working together to generate your imagery. So that's how you're able to have far more rapid returns, instead of one thing circling around the planet, you have 10 of them circling a little bit off. So you're able to get imagery far more frequently at higher spatial resolution. And this is now you know, trickled down to agriculture. Of course, you know, what did the Department of Defense have X years ago, they've, I'm excited to see what will finally be declassified eventually, right. But this is why satellite imagery is such a heyday. But anyway, that's, that's the whole Planet Labs stick, they use CubeSats and constellation design. And that's how they're able to offer such high spatial resolution imagery.

Craig Macmillan 15:44

Just real quick, I want to try understand this, you have x units, and they're spaced apart from each other in their orbit.

Katie Gold 15:52

That's my understanding. So remember, I'm the plant pathologist here I just usethis stuff. So that's my understanding is that the physicists, you know, and NASA speak, they classify us into three categories. They've got applications, like myself, I use data for something, you have algorithms, which is like I study how to make satellite, talk to the world, right, like, make useful data out of satellite. And then there's hardware people, right, they design the satellite, that's their whole life. And I'm on the other side of the pipeline. So this is my understanding of how this works. But yes, they have slightly different orbits, but they talk to each other very, very like intimately so that the data products are unified.

Craig Macmillan 16:33

Got it. But there's also other satellites that you're getting information from data from.

Katie Gold 16:37

Yes, yeah. So now kind of going on to the other side of things. So Planet Labs has lesser spectral resolution, they have four to eight, maybe 10 bands is the most that you can get from them. We're looking towards NASA surface biology and geology data. And we use NASA's Avaris instrument suite, the family suite, that includes next generation, as well as brand new Avaris three, and this stands for the Airborne, Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer. Now, this is an aircraft mounted device, but this is the sort of sensor that we'll be going into space. Additionally, we're just starting to play around with data from the new NASA satellite called Emit. Emit is an imaging spectrometer that was initially designed to study dust emission. So like, tell us what the dust is made out of where it's coming from. But they've opened up the mask to allow its collection over other areas. And Emit has outstanding spectral resolution, and about 60 meter spatial resolution. It's based on the International Space.

Craig Macmillan 17:32

Station. It's located on the International Space Station?

Katie Gold 17:36

Yes, yeah. And that actually impacts how its imagery is collected. So if you take a look at a map of Emit collections, there are these stripes across the world. And that's because it's on the ISS. So it only collects imagery wherever the ISS goes. And that's a little bit different from this idea of constellation architecture, have these free living satellites floating through orbit and talking to each other.

Craig Macmillan 17:56

Are there other things like Landsat 7, Landsat 8?

Katie Gold 18:02

Oh, we're on Landsat 9 , baby!

Craig Macmillan 18:04

Oh, we're on Landsat 9 now. Cool.

Katie Gold 18:05

Yeah. Yeah, Landsat 9 was successfully launched. I'm really excited about its data.

Craig Macmillan 18:10

And it's coming in?

Katie Gold 18:11

Just to my understanding, yes, so we don't use Landsat and Sentinel data as much otherwise, our focus is on that spectral resolution, but Landsat 9 and its its partner from the European Space Agency's Sentinel 2, they're truly the workhorses of the agricultural monitoring industry. Without those two satellites, we would be in a very different place in this world.

Craig Macmillan 18:32

Right, exactly. Now, you said that your work is funded partially or all by NASA?

Katie Gold 18:37

Yes, partially.

Craig Macmillan 18:38

So partially, so what is the relationship there?

Katie Gold 18:40

So before I started with Cornell, I was hired by Cornell while I was still a graduate student, and as part of their support for my early career development, they sponsored a short postdoc for me a fellowship, they called it I got to stay with a faculty fellow feel better about myself at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where my graduate co advisor Phil Townsend had a relationship with so I spent nine months fully immersed in JPL. People think of JPL is like, you know, the rocket launchers, which they are, but they also study, you know, like some of those phase out and go out into the world. But some of the things they launched turn around and study the Earth, and they had the carbon and ecosystem cycling group there. So I was able to work with them, as well as the imaging spectroscopy group for nine months. And it completely changed my entire life just opened up the world to me about what was possible with NASA data, what was coming for potential use of NASA data. And it really changed the trajectory of my career. So I made connections, made friends got my first graduate student from JPL, that have truly defined my career path. So I work very closely with NASA, originating from that relationship, as well as I'm the pest and disease risk mitigation lead for the newly established domestic agriculture consortium called NASA Acres. So this is NASA's most recent investment in supporting domestic agriculture. Through this consortium we're funded to continue some of our research myself and my good colleague, Yu Jiang who's an engineer who builds me my robots. It's confounding our work continuously, as well as giving us the opportunity to try to expand our approach to other domains through interactions, one on one, collaborations with other researchers and importantly work with stakeholders. And this consortium, the Acres consortium is led by my colleague, Dr. Alyssa Woodcraft, based at the University of Maryland.

Craig Macmillan 20:20

Going back to some of the things that you mentioned earlier, and I think I just didn't ask the question at the time, how often does the satellite travel over any particular point on Earth?

Katie Gold 20:32

So it depends on the type of satellite design. Is it the big one satellite sort of design? Or is it constellation? Or the ISS, right? Like they think the ISS orbits every 90 minutes, something like that? So it really depends, but their satellites crossing us overhead every moment. I think at night, if you ever look up into the night sky, and you see a consistent light, just traveling across the world, not blinking. That's a satellite going overhead.

Craig Macmillan 20:59

Wow, that's amazing. Actually, are there applications for this technology on other crops?

Katie Gold 21:04

Oh, certainly. So yeah. Oh, absolutely. So the use of this technology for understanding vegetative chemistry was really trailblaze by the terrestrial ecologist, in particular, the forest ecologist because it's a, you know, it's how you study things at scale, unlike the vineyards would have nice paths between them for researchers like myself, and you know, us all to walk between forests are incredibly difficult to navigate, especially the ones in more remote locations. So for the past two decades, it really spear spearheaded and trailblaze this use, and then I work with vineyards for the most part, I'm a grape pathologist, I was hired to support the grape industry, they saw the research I was doing, they said, great, keep doing it in garpes. So I'm a reformed potato and vegetable pathologist, I like to say, but there's no reason at all why the work I'm doing isn't applicable to other crops. I just happened to be doing it in grape, and I happen to really adore working with the wine and grape industry.

Craig Macmillan 21:54

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That, it totally makes sense. How is this translating are going to translate for growers into grower practices?

Katie Gold 22:02

That's a great question. So the idea is that by trailblazing these functionalities, eventually, we'll be able to partner with commercial industry to bring this to growers, right. We want these this utility to be adopted for management intervention. But there's only so much one academic lab alone can do and the my role in the world is to trailblaze the use cases and then to partner with private industry to bring it to the people at scale. But the hope is that, you know, I want every venue manager to be looking at aerial images of their vineyards. Every day, right? I have a vision of interactive dashboards, maps of informed risk. One day, I want to have live risk maps informed by remote sensing. And I want every vineyard manager to be as familiar with their aerial view of their vines as they are with that side view of their vines. Right. And I think we're getting there sooner than you realize we're really at the precipice of this unprecedented era of monitoring or monitoring ability, right? And I'm really excited about what it will hold for management.

Craig Macmillan 23:02

And so you must have cooperators I'm guessing.

Katie Gold 23:05

Oh, I do. Yes. I've wonderful cooperators.

Craig Macmillan 23:08

At this stage. It sounds like we're still kind of in a beta stage.

Katie Gold 23:13

Oh, yes, very much in the beta stage.

Craig Macmillan 23:15

So I'm guessing that you're looking at imagery and spotting areas that would suggest that there's some kind of a pathology problem, and then you're going on ground truthing it?

Katie Gold 23:27

So yes, and no, it's more of a testbed sort of case study. We have nine acres of pathology vineyards here at Cornell, Agrotech, and Geneva, New York. And then we do partner with cooperators. We have wonderful cooperators based out in California, as well as here in New York. But those are for more on testbed sort of thing. So we're not just monitoring vineyards, and like watching them and say, Ooh, the spot appears here. We're doing more of a case studies where we intentionally go out and ground truth, then build those links between the imagery because we're not quite there yet, in terms of having this whole thing automated, we're still building those algorithms building that functionality. Now we've established proof of concept. You know, we know this works. So we're working on the proof of practicality, right? Building robust pipelines, ones that are that are resilient to varying environmental geographic conditions, right, different crop varieties resilient to confounding abiotic stress, that one drives us nuts. So that's the stage that we're at, but our collaborators and our industry stakeholders who partner with us. Without them the sort of work I do just simply would not be possible. And I'm extremely grateful for their part.

Craig Macmillan 24:29

So what, what is next, what's next in the world of Katie Gold and in the world of hyperspectral plant pathology?

Katie Gold 24:34

What's next for me is in a week, I'm boarding an airplane to go to Europe for a jaunt. I'm giving two international keynotes at plant pathology conferences about methods but what I really see as next for me is I really want to see the tools that technologies the approach that my group is using, percolate through the domain of plant pathology. We're such a small discipline, there's only about 2000 of us Around the world, in plant pathology, and you know, there's not even 10, great pathologist in this country, I can name every single one of them if you wanted me to. And I think I've got their number and my phone, really, I strongly believe we're at the precipice of such an exciting era in plant pathology, due to the availability of these imagery, these data streams, just simply an unprecedented era. And it will be a paradigm shift in how we ask and answer questions about Plant Pathology, because for the first time, we have accessible, accurate imagery that we can use to study plant disease at the scale at which it occurs in the field in real time. So I want to see these ideas percolate through the skill sets adopted, taken up and embraced and it we're seeing that start, you know, we're seeing that start, there's really excitement in plant pathology, about the use of remote sensing about GIS and that skill set in its value to our discipline. But I'd really like to see that expand. I think I am the first ever plant pathologist to receive funding from NASA Earth Science Division. When I started at JPL, they would introduce me as a disease ecologist, because no one had ever heard of plant pathology. And my wonderful colleague at JPL, Brian Pavlik, who's a JPL technologist, when we started working together, he had never once been into a vineyard. He didn't know about Plant Pathology, he was the one that called me a disease ecologist. And recently, I heard him explain the disease triangle to someone, which is, of course, the fundamental theory of plant pathology. And I was just so proud. But it also really represented this real excitement for me this embrace this acknowledgement of the challenges we face in plant pathology in these domains that otherwise have not heard of us, right and beyond the USDA, funding from NASA, just awareness from these other organizations, excitement from engineers, AI experts about solving plant disease problems. It's truly invigorating and exciting to me. That's where I see you going next. And I'm really excited about the future.

Craig Macmillan 26:51

There was one thing that you could say to grape growers on this topic, what would it be?

Katie Gold 26:58

Oh, that's such a great question. There's so much that I want to say.

Craig Macmillan 27:01

One thing, Katie.

Katie Gold 27:04

I would say your data is valuable and to be aware of how you keep track of your data, that the keeping track of your data, keeping your data organized, keeping, just having reproducible organized workflows will enable you to make the most out of these forthcoming technologies. It will enable you to calibrate it will enable you to train these technologies to work better for you, but your data is valuable, don't give it away to just anyone and to be aware of it.

Craig Macmillan 27:33

I agree wholeheartedly. And I think that applies everything from how much time it takes to leaf an acre of ground. And how much wood you are removing when you prune to when and how much water you're applying. Data is gold.

Katie Gold 27:49

Data is gold.

Craig Macmillan 27:50

It takes time and energy.

Katie Gold 27:52

Institutional knowledge. For example, my field research manager Dave Combs has been doing this job for over 25 years, I inherited him from my predecessor, and he trained our robot how to see disease in its imagery. And the goal of our robots is not to replace the expertise like Dave, but to preserve them right to preserve that 25 years of knowledge into a format that will live beyond any of us. So I see keeping track of your data keeping track of that knowledge you have, you know, you know, in your vineyard where a disease is going to show up first, you know your problem areas, keeping track of that in an organized manner, annotating your datasets. I'm starting to adopt GIS in a way just simply like, here are my field boundaries, even simply just taking notes on your in your data sets that are timed and dated. I think it's incredibly important.

Craig Macmillan 28:38

Where can people find out more about you and your work?

Katie Gold 28:41

Well, so you can visit my Web website or I've got a public Twitter page where you can see me retweet cool things that I think are cool. I tweet a lot about NASA I tweet a lot about Greek disease. If you want to see pictures of dying grapes come to my Twitter page, as well as Cornell regularly publishes things about me.

Craig Macmillan 28:57

Fantastic.

Katie Gold 28:58

So be sure to Google Katie Gold Cornell.

Cornell that's the key. Yeah, Katie go to Cornell or you might get an unwelcome surprise.

Craig Macmillan 29:04

And we have lots of links and stuff on the show page. So listeners you can go there. I want to thank our guest today.

Unknown Speaker 29:13

Thank you so much for having me, Craig. This has been wonderful.

Craig Macmillan 29:16

Had Katie Gould, Assistant Professor of rape pathology at Cornell agritech campus of Cornell University.

Nearly Perfect Transcription by https://otter.ai

In this week's Marketing Tip we will make it easy for you to regularly create content that entices, educates, and inspires your audience.

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.

If you've been following along with this series, you created a bank of powerful video and photo visuals last month. Today we're going to share how you can use those images on your brand's social media. If you missed the Tip, just search your podcast player for Sustainable Winegrowing podcast episode 194: The Power of Visuals: How Video and Photos Can Help Share Your Sustainable Story | Marketing Tip Monday.

I highly recommend taking a few minutes to link to today's show notes. We are sharing real life social media examples from 3 SIP Certified brands and while I will do my best to describe the images, it helps to see them.

Stay tuned to the end to learn how the talent behind our social media, Hayli, creates captivating Reels.

How to Use Your Brand's Presence

Regularly posting content on your social media keeps your brand in the eyes and minds of your followers.

It's a good idea to stay active on your business's social media accounts, but the idea of constantly creating fresh content can be daunting.

The good news is, there is an endless supply of content for your brand.

Have you heard of food disconnect? It's 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 people only see the finished product in the bottle.

What may seem day-to-day to you is unique and exciting to consumers. Most wine drinkers do not get to see punch downs, bud break, staff tastings, cover crops, barn owls, or bottling lines. It is all exciting!

Use your brand's presence on social media to give an intimate look at all of the care that goes into taking your customers' favorite wines from the vine to the tasting room.

Here are 3 examples from SIP Certified brands:

1. Enchant & Entice

Villa San Juliette (@villasanjuliette) created a video mash up showing exquisite views of the vines from the tasting room, beautiful Spanish inspired architecture, the crew harvesting grapes into bins, and a table of sumptuous food and wine pairings. Each of these videos could have started out as a standalone post then combined later into one video to tempt followers to pay them a visit this season.

Look at your past posts. Can you combine the images into one reel or carousel that showcases your brand?

2. Educate & Delight

Anyone who follows Bon Niche Cellars (@bonnichecellars) knows that they can always count on two things from their posts: learning something new and seeing adorable animals! This post does both. The image is a close up of an adorable, fuzzy white sheep with a black nose and long ears. The caption explains how sheep are part of their sustainability program from weed abatement to soil health.

Consumers love seeing and learning about animals. Talk about the gopher hunting owls, native bobcats, and friendly dogs at your property.

3. Express & Inspire

Foxen Wines (@foxenwines) uses their voice on social media to express their dedication to the social component of sustainability and thank the instrumental people behind their wines. The artfully captured photo shows a hazy sky with a farmworker walking away from the camera carrying a bin of freshly harvested grapes down the vineyard row. Part of the caption reads, "At the heart of our commitment to sustainability lies Social Equity."

Sustainability means taking care of our most valuable resource – the people. Talk about the organizations you donate to and how you care for your staff by providing competitive wages, comprehensive healthcare, and access to education."

Hayli's Tips to Create Great Instagram Reels

Have you noticed that the quality of Vineyard Team and SIP Certified's social media content has boomed this year? That's because our newest team member, Hayli, has passion and talent for creating content that is compelling and aesthetically pleasing.

We asked her for her top 3 tips to create captivating Reels – these are the short videos, often featuring text and catchy tunes that you see on Instagram. Here's what she said:

A Word on Reels

"While I love carousels, infographics, and even simple and beautiful photos, Reels bring content to life. Reels offer a unique way to showcase content and allow viewers to feel like they're right there with us, experiencing everything in real-time." – Hayli Macomber

1. Prep-work.

I always get multiple 5- to 15-second video clips during our in-person events. Capturing diverse moments is important.

For example, at a Tailgate meeting, I'll take videos of the presenter, panel discussions, the vineyard, attendees networking and enjoying coffee, animal visitors... even a scan of the packed parking lot! These pieces create the "story" later.

Tip: Get video from different angles and directions so the movement isn't repetitive.

2. Music.

Music plays a significant role in our lives, and Reels are no exception!

If I hear music in a Reel that catches my attention, I save the audio (at the bottom right of every Reel with audio, there is a small square image – you can click on it and save the audio for later).

It's also good to keep an ear out for trending audio and mix that in... while it's still trending, of course :)

Tip: To build a good audio collection, spend 10 minutes each week scrolling through Reels and saving audio.

3. Timing.

Music creates the flow of a Reel – I like to change from clip to clip with the beat.

It's also good to make sure none of the clips are too long in comparison with the others (i.e. one is 10 seconds and the next one is 3 seconds). If you have a longer video, try splitting it up – use the clips in different sections of the Reel.

Tip: In "Edit Video" (bottom left), use 2 fingers to zoom in on the video and audio. This helps transition from clip to clip at the perfect moment!"

There are Hayli's 3 tips. To check out our latest posts look for @sipcertified or @thevineyardteam on Instagram.

Coming Up...

Ready to get inspired by another Sustainable Story? In the next Marketing Tip, we tell the story of how Niner Wine Estate's sustainable Business practices involve their entire team to better their community.

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, download the worksheet, watch the videos, and you are ready to tell your Sustainable Story!

Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team.

References:

• *** Tell Your Sustainable Story Online Course ***
• 194: The Power of Visuals: How Video and Photos Can Help Share Your Sustainable Story | Marketing Tip Monday
• Get Sustainable on Social Media
• Marketing Tips eNewsletter
• Maverick Farming
• Niner Wines Estates protects the people and the planet
• Safe Pest Management: Wolff Vineyards
• SIP Smart Training online course
• Sustainable Story Worksheet | Print
• Sustainable Story Worksheet | Electronic
• What's your Sustainable Story?
• SIP Certified
• Vineyard Team

What makes Sour Rot so challenging for wine grape growers is that it is a disease complex. Hans C. Walter-Peterson, Viticulture Extension Specialist, Finger Lakes Grape Program, Cornell Cooperative Extension explains that Sour Rot comes in late season after ripening. Yeasts get into the berries and ferment the sugar out in the vineyard. Bacteria follow up, feasting on the alcohol, converting it into acetic acid – an unwelcome component in winemaking. And, the disease is spread rapidly by fruit flies.

In this interview Hans shares methods to reduce Sour Rot disease pressure by managing increasingly resistant fruit fly populations, leafing to encourage fewer berries at fruit set, the correct way to drop fruit, and timing antimicrobial and insecticide sprays to Brix to maximize effectiveness.

Cornell Cooperative Extension is trialing non-chemical control practices including UV light for sterilization and hormonal sprays plus a disease model is under development with Penn State University.

Resources:

• 17: New Discoveries about Sour Rot – Megan Hall (Podcast)
• 117: Grapevine Mildew Control with UV Light - David Gadoury (Podcast)
• 159: Under-Vine Vegetation to Control Vine Vigor – Justine Vanden Heuvel (Podcast)
• Alice Wise, Cornell Cooperative Extension
• Control of Sour Rot via Chemical and Canopy Management Techniques
• Hans Walter-Peterson, Cornell Cooperative Extension
• Hans Walter-Peterson ResearchGate
• Influence of timing and intensity of fruit zone leaf removal and kaolin applications on bunch rot control and quality improvement of Sauvignon blanc grapes, and wines, in a temperate humid climate
• Insecticide Resistance in Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is Associated with Field Control Failure of Sour Rot Disease in a New York Vineyard
• Managing Fruit Flies for Sour Rot
• Summer Bunch Rot (Sour Rot) Pest Management UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines
• Wendy McFadden-Smith, PhD., Ontario

References: Vineyard Team Programs:

• 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 - $50 OFF with code PODCAST23
• Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace
• Vineyard Team – Become a Member

Get More

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

Craig Macmillan 0:00

Here with us today is Hans Walter-Peterson. He is a viticulture extension specialists with the Finger Lakes Grape Program, part of Cornell Cooperative Extension. Thanks for being our guest today.

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 0:12

Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

Craig Macmillan 0:14

You've been doing a lot of work on a situation I'll call it called Sour Rot on grapes. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. Let's start with some basic definitions. What exactly is Sour Rot?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 0:24

So sour rot is pretty much what it sounds like. It's one of the late season rots that can afflict grapes comes in after ripening starts so much like Botrytis, bunch rot some of these other types of rots that that growers might be familiar with. So it's another version of that, but it comes along with the bonus of acetic acid, every rot kind of brings its own different compounds to the party. Sour rot brings one that really is not terribly welcome in winemaking, you know, essentially the the main component of vinegar. It's a particularly rough type of rot. We really are getting some more challenging years with it past several years. So my program has really started to focus in on what we can do to try to keep it under control.

Craig Macmillan 1:09

You know, I understand that part of the issue here. Is that sour rot is a disease complex. There's multiple actors involved in all of this. Can you tell us what some of those pieces are of that complex and how they interact to create sour rot?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 1:23

Yeah, it's probably the thing that makes sour rot a more difficult thing to manage than kind of the standard diseases, the regular diseases that most growers are used to dealing with like powdery mildew, downy mildew, because those are created those are developed by one type of microbe. So if you find the one thing that can control that one microbe, you've got a control measure. With sour rot it's a like you said it's a complex of multiple organisms that bring it about. So basically, there are yeasts, the yeasts get into the berries and take the sugar that's being developed in there, and they do exactly what we use yest for in winemaking takes the sugar and turns it into alcohol. So we'd get a fermentation starting within the berries out in the vineyard. The second part of it that happens then is that there are bacteria that follow up and also arrive in there most notably Acetobacter, but also some other things like Gluconobacter and Henseniaspora. This is some great work that was done by Wendy McFadden-Smith in Ontario a number of years ago. So they all kind of come in and feast on that alcohol and convert that alcohol into acetic acid. So thereby there's the sour of sour rot. The piece that comes after that, then is not just the sour rot. But then the thing that probably is really characteristic of it also, as with some of these other rots, but it spreads really quickly in a vineyard if the conditions are right. And that's mainly done by fruit flies. And it's not just the one that we've been hearing a lot about lately, the Spotted Wing Drosophila, Drosophila suzukii but it's also just your plain old Drosophila melanogaster, the ones you used in your your high school genetics classes, or college genetic classes and see on your fruit around the sink and stuff like that. Those fruit flies, for the most part, mostly fruit flies are a couple of other suspects in the mix, too. But they're the ones that spread it from berry to berry and cluster to cluster and block the block.

Craig Macmillan 3:13

Are they spreading the yeast, the bacteria are both.

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 3:16

All of the above.

Craig Macmillan 3:17

Okay, so that's it,

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 3:18

They're gonna freeride. So that's, that's the difficulty with it. If it was just, you know, like I was saying earlier, if it's something like black rot, or botrytis, where it's just one single causal organism, that's one story. And that's hard enough to control when you've got multiple types of organisms that aren't even directly related. I mean, yeast and bacteria are very different types of organisms, for example, we don't have a spray or a single thing that control that. And so that's the real difficulty with managing it year in and year out.

Craig Macmillan 3:48

So this just made me think of something. One way of thinking about disease complexes is if I can remove one of the elements, or two of the elements I can at least reduce if not prevent or treat the disease is that the case with sour rot if I had no bacteria, if I didn't have a yeast or something like that, can I get rid of one of them and and help with this?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 4:09

Yeah, that's that's a really good point. As I said earlier, you need the two micro organisms to cause the sour of the sour at the acetic acid development, but then you need a vector to move them through the vineyard. And that's the fruit flies. So if you can control the fruit flies, you have less chance for those microorganisms to move through the vineyard. If you create a less hospitable host for the microbes, there's less of them to be moved around by the fruit flies. So the management strategies that we're looking at are trying to come at it from both directions. Some of the original work that was done on this recently here at Cornell by a grad student, Dr. Megan Hall, who I believe you had on the show a while back.

Craig Macmillan 4:50

I had in the show, and I know her yes.

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 4:53

In Megan's original work here at Cornell. She basically found that it was somewhat more effective to control the fruit flies than to control the microbes that just the microbes by themselves could cause a certain amount of rot. But then if you're controlling the fruit flies, it just you don't get that explosive growth.

Craig Macmillan 5:10

The fruit flies in the gasoline.

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 5:12

Right. Exactly. Yeah. The microbes are the fuel. Yes. So that was the impetus of kind of saying, Okay, if you had a control just one thing, it's the fruit flies, because that's really where the explosive nature of the disease comes along. And it's a little bit easier to control a bug than it is microbes that are hiding inside the skins of berries and things like that.

Craig Macmillan 5:31

Where do the microbes come from? are they hanging out under the bark of the vine? Are they inside of shoots? Are they out in the environment and get blown on?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 5:43

They're pretty ubiquitous in the environment, talk about a lot about Native fermentations and yeast coming in from the vineyard. So there's so they're there. And the bacteria are as well, I don't know, it's some of the exact overwintering mechanisms. And if we know all about that, somebody probably does, I just don't, but it's my understanding is they're they're pretty native in our neck of the woods. They just, they're they're pretty much all the time.

Craig Macmillan 6:05

Are there environmental conditions that are particularly conducive to promoting Sour Rot. And then also are there environmental conditions that will prevent it or retard it?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 6:16

So the big thing that gets sour rot going is for some way for the microbes to get into the berries in the first place. Predominantly in grapes, we think about that as either being insects, birds, or water. Here in the east, obviously, we get rain throughout the growing season, including during the harvest season, we have high humidity days, plenty of times. And so those are the kinds of conditions where we see greater incidence of sour rot develop. When the vines take up water, or the berries take up water either through rainfall or just the atmosphere, and then the berries swell up, they can't handle all the water they have and they split or you have a very tight clustered variety, that just the berries start getting forced apart, and they just break by force. So those entry wounds however they're caused, is how it gets started. So we know here in New York that if we have a dry fall days, with not many days with dew points above 70, and all those kinds of things, we don't see very much sour rot develop, we might see a little Botrytis here and there. But for the most part, we don't see it. And a lot of that is because we just don't have the humidity to kind of build up the water in the berry to cause it split the years where we have it bad. On the contrary, that's that's when we see more water, more rainfall, more high humidity days, that's when we see more splitting and therefore more sour rot. Much like most other diseases, the warmer it gets, the faster it can progress. And the same thing with insects, the fruit flies at a at a lower temperature. It takes them longer for a next generation to develop. And so the warmer it gets, they get faster too. So yeah, so warm and wet.

Craig Macmillan 7:55

So cool and dry would be the opposite would be the desirable.

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 7:59

So that would be best.

Craig Macmillan 8:01

That actually that just reminded me of something. My experience has all been on the Central Coast California. This only happened once. And that was with some Pinot Noir that came in that had quite a lot of Botrytis damage. And the winemaker had us go through and sort then not simply sort out Botrytis and throw it away, but by hand sorted and then smell it for sour is something like Botrytis or a scar from powdery mildew or something like that. Is that Is that also a possible entry for the organisms?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 8:33

Yes, very often we see Botrytis and sow rot in the same cluster. Because it's the same thing. Botrytis is a very weak pathogen, it needs a place to kind of get established like a wound. And so same thing with sour rot. We do know that, like you're just saying powdery mildew scars can create micro fissures in the skin. And later on in the season, those can start to tear apart even if you can't see them, especially around the pedicel near the stem where the stem connects to the berry. They're going to be micro fissures that those micro organisms can take advantage of as well. So those conditions are pretty similar for for other kinds of rots as well.

Craig Macmillan 9:11

Are there cultural practices or preventative or prophylactic practices that growers can use that might help manage this?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 9:17

Yes, probably the biggest one that we know of and we're trying to get a little bit better handle on as far as how to use it for this purpose. So we know that if you pull leaves before bloom are right at the very beginning of bloom, you will reduce berry set you basically kind of starve the the clusters, the flowering clusters of carbohydrates and other nutrients and so they don't set as many berries. You have a looser cluster. Those clusters don't swell up they don't like I was talking before kind of force berries off, they dry out faster. All the good things we like about looser clusters pulling leaves at that very early, just pre bloom or very early bloom stage can reduce berries set pretty consistently year in and year out. out and help to reduce that cluster compactness aspect of rot development.

Craig Macmillan 10:05

I think it's the first time I've ever heard of a intentional shatter. Usually we're all we're all praying that we don't have what you're describing.

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 10:14

Yeah. Well, I mean, you think about table grape growers do this fairly often, they try to make more room on the cluster so that they can have larger berries, which consumers want. And so we're not worried about it. obviously, for consumer sentiment, we're worried about that for disease pressure, there's definitely a cost to it. You're reducing your yield as a grower from the standpoint of just how many grapes you're going to carry. But you also might be saving more yield later on in the year and not having to drop fruit before you send it off to the winery

Craig Macmillan 10:40

In your area. You've got wine grapes, obviously, but also there's a lot of Concord production there. And is it mostly for juice is that right?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 10:48

Mostly for juice, yep.

Craig Macmillan 10:49

I'm assuming this problem applies there as well.

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 10:52

Concords really don't get sour rot very much, partly because their clusters more open, they don't set a tight cluster. If you think like a Pinot Noir cluster, or Chardonnay, or Riesling, they're much more loose like that. They also have much thicker skins, so they tend not to split quite as easily, they can still split, but we tend not to see sour rot develop on them. And I, I'm not totally sure why that is. But part of it from at least on a production level, a lot of our Concord gets picked before it gets much more than 16, 17 Brix. We know with sour with sour rot, we don't see symptoms start to develop until you get to 13 or 14. And I think that's partly a result of just how much sugar is in the berry, but also the relation of sugar and acid because microbes can't tolerate a certain acidic level of environment also. And so this is kind of an educated speculation right now. But I think that's part of the reason we don't see it in something like Concord and Niagara and some of these these juice varieties is that we pick it at a relatively low Brix, as opposed to wine varieties where we're picking 20 Plus.

Craig Macmillan 11:57

Right, right, exactly, exactly. Continuing on the cultural thing. I one thing that growers do for both try to fend for grape powdery mildew. They may go through and they may drop infected crop when they first see it. This sounds like this gets spread around, can you crop drop with this and control the spread?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 12:17

The challenge with this is if and I've seen this happen in a couple of places. If you drop crop that's starting to rot and just leave it on the ground near the vines. What does it do when it's on the ground? It continues to rot. Right? It doesn't it doesn't stop and the fruit flies can easily go from the ground back up to the canopy and back down to the ground back up to the canopy.

Craig Macmillan 12:35

Find another Fissure or whatever.

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 12:37

Right, exactly. So another part of the challenge that is ideally you're not just dropping the crop and leaving it there in the vineyard, you got to kind of take it out so that it's not around that healthy fruit. Because otherwise those microbes will be back. You know, they get blown around on wind again or carried by fruit flies. And they'll find another fissure to get into.

Craig Macmillan 12:57

Can you cultivate it? Can you can you tell it under?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 13:00

You probably could. Yeah, we don't do that much tillage in our in our vineyard rows just because we have all the rain we maintain cover crops between the vineyards all year round. Otherwise we'd slide all over the place.

Craig Macmillan 13:11

Yeah, no, absolutely. Of course. Yeah. I've talked to Justine Vanden Heuvel about undervine cover cropping and things and I was like, This is crazy. Going to California perspective. That's nuts. And she was like, Craig, you have no idea how much water is in the ground. It would be a mess if we didn't which is which is really interesting. So okay, so that's not gonna work. Do we have anything in the chemical realm for prophylactic sprays?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 13:33

Prophylactics per se not so much what we've been looking at lately, a colleague of mine out on Long Island Alice Wise for about three or four years now we've been looking at a couple of materials that are designed to enhance the cuticle thickness around the berries basically as a way to try to see if we can prevent cracking. One of them was originally developed to reduce cracking and cherries.

Craig Macmillan 13:54

What materials are we talking about?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 13:56

So the material we've been working with is a combination of materials, some waxes and carbohydrates and some other things that kind of just bind to that cuticle around the berry and just thicken it up. Literally from everything I've seen, it works in cherries to prevent this cracking. We've been looking at two versions of these, this material they both developed at Oregon State actually one produces a thinner cuticle and other one produces a much thicker one. And we've tested them both. And we haven't seen any difference in sour rot from using these materials. Now we've had kind of some kind of weird years when we've been testing this, we've had a couple of years where we had a lot of sour rot and a couple of years where we had almost none. So it it hasn't been the best time to be testing this. But in the two years that we've had sour rot, it didn't seem to do very much in the way of reducing it to the point that you could justify spending, you know the time and effort to do it. The only other kind of sprays that we're looking at at this point are things like hydrogen peroxide and proxy acetic acid, then there's some there's some commercial products that are out there that contain one or both of those ingredients. And those are basically just antimicrobials I mean, they they burn whatever they touch. You know, same thing like when you get a cut on your arm, you put hydrogen peroxide on there it disinfects. So that's basically what we're doing for the microbes. And it works pretty well. The key always is coverage, because it has to hit it. As soon as that material hits, hits that grape hits a microbe, whatever, it starts to convert to water, basically those those materials, if you don't have good coverage, if you can't get the material to where the microbes are hanging out, it's not going to be terribly effective. And so that's the that's always the challenge with those kinds of things. But they they do work to the extent that they can reach.

Craig Macmillan 15:36

To some extent, yeah, and again, this is going to be another issue with cluster architecture. Obviously, this is terrifying. As I'm sure everybody in the state of New York and elsewhere, certainly not limited to New York, New York, as far as I know. Okay, now I've got it. It's getting started. Maybe I caught it early, maybe I didn't know what what can I do?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 15:59

The standard treatment that we have at this point is that either when you get to that 13, 14 Brix number or you start to see it show up, and most growers will wait until they see it show up. The standard practice is basically to start this combination of an antimicrobial and an insecticide to kind of keep it under control and try to keep it from getting to that explosive stage. The challenge with that is that fruit flies under the right conditions. And if it's above 70 degrees or so they're generation time is every six to seven days.

Craig Macmillan 16:33

Oh, wow.

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 16:33

New generation of these things at their at their utmost or at their best. Essentially, we need to be spraying every seven, eight days to try to keep this under wraps. What we've found, and this is more good news, what we found is that we are identifying a lot of populations of fruit flies here in New York, not just in the Finger Lakes, but in some other areas that we've been testing to where their fruit flies have quickly developed resistance.

Craig Macmillan 16:59

That's how they do it, isn't it.

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 17:00

And so what we've seen is that basically the fruit flies have developed resistance to a couple of these materials. We've tested them on a couple of different pyrethroids, a couple of organophosphates, a couple of other materials and found pretty high levels of resistance in the lab, at least, when we've tested them. It has pointed out to us very quickly that this is not a problem that that chemistry alone can solve. All right, there we go. Okay, that's kind of leading us in the direction of maybe not necessarily replacing chemicals completely. It'd be nice if we could, but at least supplementing some of these other cultural and non chemical practices like the leaf pulling, I was mentioning earlier to try to reduce the need for those sprays, if, again, if not eliminate it all together.

Craig Macmillan 17:42

And so what kind of research projects do you have going right now on this topic?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 17:44

We've got a few that we're that we're kind of looking at, again, kind of tackle this from a couple different directions, we're doing some a little bit more work on that leaf pulling aspect, we've done some work, my colleagues and some other people in around the country have looked at mechanical leaf removal at that pre bloom stage and found that it works pretty well as well. There are certainly hormonal sprays that can be used. We mentioned with like with table grapes, tuberculinic acid can be used to to kind of stretch the racus and give the berries more room basically. So it kind of reducing that cluster compactness. And one of the things that I'm particularly kind of interested in and excited about is the potential for UV light to play a role in this.

Craig Macmillan 18:25

I am curious about this UV light thing, I'm hearing more about it and I'm getting kind of excited.

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 18:31

UV light is basically just another sterilant that we use. So almost all of our wastewater treatment plants have UV light to sterilize the waters that's coming through the plant. So it does the same job that these hydrogen peroxide peroxy acetic acid materials do, but we don't have to worry as much about coverage. If we apply it right. One of the pathologists here, Dave Gadoury, has done a lot of work on using UV light to control different plant diseases in grapes, normally powdery mildew, which is very effective against, but one of the things that they found kind of along the way is that they were also reducing sour rot in this test plot that they were working in. And so if again, if you kind of think about it, you're if you use the right dosage and the right retention time and da, da, da, you're basically have an antibiotic material, but it's not a chemical. It's a physical one, I'm very interested in looking at the potential for UV light to not only control powdery mildew, which would be a lovely thing, which is, but also can we use it to minimize the sour rot incidents and those microbes that are causing it, as well. So we've got a small trial is kind of a proof of concept thing we've done last year, and now this year, if it works as well as it did last year, we're going to kind of try to expand that work a little bit further and try to see how do we incorporate that into a potential grower practice, you know, how, how often do you need to do it? What's the what's the light intensity? Do you have to do it a day or at night, which is one of the considerations you have to have. So There's a bunch of things that we still need to look at, to turn it to make it something that growers can be really rely on as a potential possible part of this solution. That UV thing is really kind of exciting to me. We also are a little further down the road, we're really trying to work on with some folks at Penn State and a couple of other places on developing a model based on climatic conditions that promote sow rot. So it just kind of can we predict when it's going to be coming, if we know that we're going to have five days of 80% humidity or whatever, there was actually just a really interesting study that's come out of Uruguay that I just heard about a couple of weeks ago at the GiESCO conference that was held here in Ithica, where they saw an impact on bunch rots, they were looking specifically at Botrytis, by having undervine cover crops, where they had those underground cover crops, they saw less Botrytis and less bunch rot than they did where they had like a weed free herbicide strip. So that's something I'd like to follow up on as well, I'd be curious about and then kind of the I won't even say sci fi because this stuff seems to come along so quickly. Now. We work with a couple of really wonderful pathologists and engineers here at Cornell, I was talking to a couple of them about this last year. And they said, I bet it'd be pretty easy to develop a sensor that we could stick out in the vineyard that could detect acetic acid far earlier than any nose could and just be like, Okay, here's your early warning. You know, it's kind of an early warning sensor, it's starting to develop, let's go find it and and try it, see if we can prophylactically take care of it early on. So there's just some some things that we're starting to bandy about as far as kind of further down the road. But I do think kind of the immediate thing that I would really like to are trying to put together is can we take the practices like UV light, loosening cluster architecture, changing cluster architecture in order to reduce that environment that's promoting sour rot? And then also try what can we do on the chemical end to reduce the need for those sprays?

Craig Macmillan 21:50

Right, right. So there's some stuff coming down the pike here, that's really good. That's really, really great. And thank you and everybody else who's working on this. How big of an economic impact is this for folks?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 22:00

It can be one of the most significant economic diseases in grapes. In 2018, we had a particularly bad year here. And I know some growers who had to drop almost half their crop of Riesling on the ground before the harvesters came through. And so if you think about a three to four ton average crop, that's a few $1,000 an acre that you're losing. So I mean, no diseases are good. But I mean, that's a pretty profound one. And again, as I was saying earlier, the thing that's so hard about it is that you've already put almost all of your work and money into that crop all the way from pruning to spraying and all the handwork and everything. And then in a bad week, to all of a sudden, just as somebody called it go to snark my favorite descriptions of sour rot seems like the perfect word for it. It's just it's a really kind of a, obviously financially, but kind of almost as much emotionally devastating feeling.

Craig Macmillan 22:57

If there's one thing, message piece of advice. One thing that you would tell growers on this topic, what would it be?

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 23:05

I'd say probably the biggest and easiest thing you could do right now, to reduce sour rot is that early leaf pulling, we just know that cluster architecture, it makes a big difference in how much rot develops, you might still get some, but it won't be nearly as profound and prolific as it would be otherwise, we have just as a very quick example of it, we have a hybrid variety here called Vignoles we use in all of our sour rot studies, because if you just say the words and it gets sour Rot. Some work that's been done by some colleagues of mine, and some folks at USDA, they basically come up with, they've created two loose clustered clones of Vignoles and so those clusters, obviously, are much less compact than the kind of the standard one. And the amount of disease that is in those clusters is drastically lower than what's in kind of the standard, the standard clone of Vignoles. It's one of those things that just kind of is really illustrative when you see it and just kind of realize that, you know, again, you can still find a few berries here and there that'll have it but you just won't see this entire two panel stretch that's just kind of wiped out by it or whatever doing that that leaf pulling to kind of open up the clusters, I think is probably the right now the biggest thing you can do.

Craig Macmillan 24:19

Interesting. Well then we're running out of time. I want to thank our guest, Hans Walter-Peterson viticulture extension specialist at the Finger Lakes grape program, part of Cornell Cooperative Extension. fascinating conversation, keep up the good work. I think a lot of people are depending upon you.

Hans C. Walter-Peterson 24:38

We're doing what we can see. It's becoming a bigger and bigger problem with climate change around here. We know we've seen it increasing in recent years. So yeah, it's it's one we'd really like to get our hands around better.

Nearly Perfect Transcription by https://otter.ai

Variety is the spice of life! It's crucial to keep this in mind when we look at monocrops like wine grape vineyards. The good news is, SIP Certified vineyards protect natural habitat and encourage biodiversity.

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.

Monocrops put a damper on biodiversity. They can deplete soils and put native plant and animal species out of a home.

The vineyard must be thought of as its own ecosystem inside of a larger ecosystem. That's why sustainable winegrowers emphasize biodiversity in their vineyards.

They preserve open space and keep portions of the property un-cropped, use native plants that beneficial insects love in their cover crops and landscaping, and maintain short- and long-term conservation plans.

Protecting and regenerating habitat ensures that future generations have a healthy, thriving planet to call home. Maverick Farming, a vineyard management company in Santa Barbara that manages several SIP Certified properties, made changes to their tillage practices and noticed several benefits to their habitat.

Habitat at Maverick Farming

By working with the natural environment, Maverick Farming has improved their soil health, increased the number of beneficial insects, established native grasses, and saved money. This helped to improve the habitat, and it freed up funds to spend on more sustainability projects.

Chad Foster, Operations Manager of Maverick Farming, says that what originally began as a way to be more effective with their budgeting, reducing tillage practices and allowing native grasses to flourish as cover crops have promoted root growth and better vine health in the vineyards they manage.

These reductions in tillage encourage beneficial soil microbes and insect populations to establish themselves in these vineyards. Chad notices an uptick in lacewing and ladybugs where the cover crops have been allowed to flourish.

The highly regenerative nature of native grasses makes them an excellent cover crop, as they reseed themselves when they get mowed down. This is a great example of how working with an environment's natural ecosystem can support a cultivated agricultural system.

In some blocks, disking and leveling are necessary due to vertebrate pests making grounds uneven, but Maverick decided to stop tilling just to till – their land didn't have much of a need, as there weren't many erosion issues. They no longer disc after harvest, and are able to take the money that was once spent on these efforts and either save it or move it to more pressing projects.

Kudos to You!

Your commitment to sustainability is something to be proud of.

Your brand goes above and beyond to track its progress and make improvements over time, all in the name of protecting the people and the planet.

Did you know that monitoring your progress toward a goal increases the likelihood of goal success? The effect is even larger when outcomes are made public, and when information is physically recorded (Harkin et al, 2016).

That's exactly what you do when you document your practices year after year through. If you aren't tracking your practices and want to, you can use the award-winning SIP Certified program to officially certify your property or as a self-assessment at no cost.

"What our General Manager and Winemaker have always liked about SIP Certified is that it's audited, documented, and it focuses on continual improvement. It's been a hallmark of how they do it and forms the basis for how they train their team." – John Gayley, Hospitality Team Member, Center of Effort

Kudos to you for recognizing and celebrating your sustainable wins, finding areas where you can make improvements, and looking back in time and see how far you've come.

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, download the worksheet, watch the videos, and you are ready to tell your Sustainable Story!

Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team.

References:

• *** Tell Your Sustainable Story Online Course ***
• Habitat: Maverick Farming
• Marketing Tips eNewsletter
• Maverick Farming
• Niner Wines Estates protects the people and the planet
• Safe Pest Management: Wolff Vineyards
• SIP Smart Training online course
• Sustainable Story Worksheet | Print
• Sustainable Story Worksheet | Electronic
• What's your Sustainable Story?
• SIP Certified
• Vineyard Team

If you want science-backed earth, water, biological, and mapping data about your land, look no further than the United States Geological Survey. Geoffrey Cromwell, Geologists at USGS at the California Water Science Center shares what this nonregulatory agency can do for growers and delves into two studies on California water basins.

The USGS's mission is to investigate Earth sciences and make all research data available to the public. Studies cover floods, climate, earthquakes, volcanos, species, and geology.

The Adeladia Area Hydrological Study located in San Luis Obispo County California, aims to understand how water moves in this atypical basin. Researchers are using stream gauges and monitoring wells to better understand how water flow changes seasonally and if there are differences in areas included in the project.

In Northern Santa Barbara County California, the San Antonio Creek Study is developing a holistic hydrological model to support the region's Sustainable Groundwater Management Plan (SGMA).

Resources:

• Evaluation of Groundwater Resources in the Adelaida Area of San Luis Obispo County, California
• Hydrogeologic Characterization of the San Antonio Creek Valley Watershed, Santa Barbara County, California
• San Antonio Creek Hydrogeology Studies
• Simulation of Groundwater and Surface-Water Resources of the San Antonio Creek Valley Watershed, Santa Barbara County, California
• United States Geological Survey
• Vineyard Team Library | Water

References: Vineyard Team Programs:

• 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
• Vineyard Team – Become a Member

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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

Craig Macmillan 0:00

Our guest today is Geoff Cromwell, he is geologist with the United States Geological Survey at the California Water Science Center. And today we're going to talk about you guessed it, water. Thanks for being on the podcast, Geoff.

Geoffrey Cromwell 0:12

Absolutely happy to be here.

Craig Macmillan 0:14

Before I met you, I thought that the US Geological Survey made maps that you buy on paper. I've had many of them. And turns out, there's a lot more going on with that group. First, what is the United States Geological Survey?

Geoffrey Cromwell 0:23

I also had a very limited view of the USGS even when when I started working, I also have had to do some background on my own. And I've learned quite a lot, having been with the survey of what different people do and really that overlap, then at these different intersections of science. The USGS is one of the bureaus within the Department of Interior. And so this is under the executive branch. And what is unique about the USGS, among other bureaus within Department of Interior, is that the USGS has non regulatory. And so the USGS, really the mission is to investigate earth sciences, collect data, interpret the data, and then make all those data publicly available that then other agencies, the federal or state, or local or any other entity can then make decisions or action decisions. Based on the interpretive science that the USGS puts out. There's a quote that I pulled that USGS does Science in the Public Interest, the mission is to supply timely, relevant and useful information about the Earth and its processes. And so the earth and it's processing things very, you know, brought up to go. So not only do we do mapping, so topographic maps, geologic maps, there's just a whole swath of data collection and just digital map information available, but for water, floods, climate two, there's a whole breadth there, there are currently five science missionaries for the USGS. There's the mapping group, there's the biological arm focusing on Ecosystem Science. So there's a group in San Diego that studies a lot of frogs, the reptiles down there, energy and minerals. And so where are the mineral resources for the country? What are the economic and then natural environment impacts of identifying and extracting minerals? In my mind when I think of the USGS, even as I'm in the water world, is earthquakes and volcanoes. So there's the monitoring of natural hazards? And what are the effects of life and property that could occur from these natural and natural hazards? Lastly, is the Water Resources area and that's what I'm involved with. And what the California Water Science Center is a part of in this is to evaluate and monitor and interpret water resources of the nation so that we do monitor and collect data on streamflow, groundwater, water quality, water use and availability. So just how much is there? Where is it? And can you drink it? Can you irrigate?

Craig Macmillan 0:31

It sounds like this would be the kind of thing where you mentioned working with different entities that sounds like you would be working with all kinds of different institutions and scientific groups you work with, with universities, you go up to grant funding, how is this funded? And what are some of the other scientists that are involved in this stuff?

Geoffrey Cromwell 3:21

The USGS doesn't, you know, operate independently necessarily. So we do collaborate and coordinate with other universities, definitely other science branches of the government to find the intersection of what needs to be learned. And in a particular area, it could be a biologic, or water or geologic and so my, my training and expertise is in geology, and, you know, identifying and mapping the subsurface in three dimensions and those a direct intersection of that earthquakes and hazards. And then what I do in my job is intersect the geology with the groundwater system. So you know, the rocks, there's the water on the surface of the water in the ground, and it all kind of flows above and through the materials in the subsurface, you know, I work a lot to with my colleagues to understand the dynamics of the subsurface, and that allows for better understanding of, of the groundwater and then other surface water and how human dynamics are affected by that. Normally, local water districts, we work with universities, we work with companies, all to find the answer for what we're what we're trying to learn.

Craig Macmillan 4:27

So how exactly do you do that? I mean, you can put flow monitors and streams and things on the surface. Obviously, groundwater is underground, we don't see it. What is your job like? What, what do you do? How do you find things?

Geoffrey Cromwell 4:40

You picked on you know, in some ways, the first step of a study is collecting data, or even go back a step. It's still what is the problem? And so we will coordinate in the Water World Water Resources world at the USGS we have, in general a different business model than other parts of the USGS like the natural hazards folks and for earthquakes and volcanoes, a lot of other sciences have funded directly by Congress. And so they are you know, there's a there are a line item in the in the Congressional Budget. But in the water world, we are primarily funded through cooperative programs. So we work with counties, the state, other federal agencies, such as Department of Defense on military bases, we work a lot with the California Department of Water Resources as a state agency. And then for a local study here in San Luis Obispo County, and we're working with the county, and they are a cooperator in that study. So the first part is to talk to the cooperators. And in talking to them, what are their needs? What are they uncertain about? What are their concerns? Are they worried about contamination from pollutants? Are they worried about wells going dry? Are they worried about future management of water resources? So especially in California, where drought is an ongoing issue? Future sustainable management is a big question. So how can we help these other agencies think about their water resources?

Craig Macmillan 6:01

Which reminds me something so we're talking about California, and I met you through sounds bespoke County, but I'm guessing that this this kind of work is happening all over the nation? I would think.

Geoffrey Cromwell 6:10

yes, these types of investigations are happening all over the country. And you can think about just the geography of the nation where it's hot, and where it seems to rain a lot more than other places are going to have different water issues. And so different investigations are occurring via for water chemistry, or groundwater availability or surface water resources. And if you look just in within California, it can be a microcosm of the whole country where Northern California in general surface water resources are more plentiful versus Southern California, where the primary water concerns are groundwater based.

Craig Macmillan 6:43

How does this work proceed? You said you get to identify a problem and you were trying to cooperators then what what kind of tools do you have to investigate a problem?

Geoffrey Cromwell 6:52

I think we use the study in San Luis Obispo County that you and I partner on, we will for service water monitoring, we have stream gauges that are placed on selected streams. And there are instrumentation there that allows for continuous monitoring to the stage or the height of the water. And then that gets translated into a total volume or discharge of water that's moving through streams and you can track seasonal cycles, that's a value for groundwater, we can usually see the groundwater. And so we will take individual tape down measurements of groundwater wells. So groundwater well is basically a hole in the ground with a steel or PVC casing. And you can one can drop down a tape, which will be either steel tape or an electronic tape that will signal what the Depth to groundwater is at that location. At that time. If you do this over a broad enough area and over, especially continuously, you know, with regular readings, you get a sense of how groundwater levels change seasonally and whether they change seasonally, the same amount everywhere. Or if there's different dynamics within that particular study area that are affecting how groundwater flows.

Craig Macmillan 8:03

You also use water chemistry, is that right?

Geoffrey Cromwell 8:05

Yeah, water chemistry, both surface water and groundwater. And this can tell a lot about the aquifer system. So the water level measurements and surface water measurements we just mentioned, those are useful for basically the ups and downs of groundwater and to get a sense of the direction that, especially for groundwater, where groundwater is moving in the subsurface, the water chemistry can inform a lot about not only the direction of groundwater flow, it can inform about any contaminants, or in the cases of, you know, something to think about often that comes up as the presence of nitrates in the subsurface. So that can be related to agricultural fertilizers. That's something that can be observed, but also can tell about which types of rocks the water is flowing through. And so that helps us understand the aquifer system, the different earth materials in the subsurface go stepping way back to my geology training here is we can use this water chemistry to help us identify which geologic units are in different parts of the aquifer. And that is going to help us inform how the groundwater flows through the system.

Craig Macmillan 9:08

Are there other tools I remember a helicopter with like some kind of antenna hanging off the bottom of it. And I never understood what that was. But I think that's part of your project, isn't it?

Geoffrey Cromwell 9:19

Now we're getting into the geophysical work.

Craig Macmillan 9:21

Okay, let's go for it.

Geoffrey Cromwell 9:22

Comon joke in geophysics is, What do you want the answer to be? I love geophysicist. But geophysical tools are a way to sense the different properties of materials in the subsurface. So that helicopter that was flying had a big hoop underneath it, and this was an airborne electromagnetic system. So this helicopter flies over over the terrain, and in the signal that gets bounced back provides information on the resistivity or the electrical properties of the materials in the subsurface and so then different electrical properties can get tied to different geologic materials. So this is another way for us to map and understand this subsurface geology. It also is very sensitive to changes in salinity, saline water versus freshwater will have a different electrical conductance electrical properties, that type of system can also be used to track you know, the presence of saline water in the subsurface. And so that's another another tool there. So, in this Adelaida study, we're really getting on all these different types of data collection that then can eventually be used to interpret and holistically evaluates the hydrogeologic character of the of the aquifer here.

Craig Macmillan 10:30

What you're referring to is the Adelaida Area Hydrological Study, which is a project with San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors, I believe they're funding it or funding part of it. And let's just use that as an example. Obviously, we are involved in it, but I think it's a good case study. Overall, the kinds of things that you folks do tell us about that project. How did it start? What is it and what are you doing?

Geoffrey Cromwell 10:54

Yeah, Adelaida hydrological study is in northern San Luis Obispo County. And this was a study partnership or in cooperation with the San Luis Obispo County flood control and Water Conservation District there are a cooperator here, the Adelaida area is the west part of the city of Paso Robles. And this is a, you know, a highland upland kind of rolling hills. It's even some more sort of steeper mountain type terrain. So it is not a classical eluvial Groundwater eluvial Basin aluvium would be unconsolidated sands and gravels and some finer materials that tend to erode off the hillsides that will fill the cemetery depressions. That's often where a lot of agriculture and people live with water is extracted from these groundwater basins because water is historically more readily available. But in the Adelaida area, this is a relatively small population of local residents, there is been a presence of agriculture for some time, many, many decades.

Craig Macmillan 11:55

More than a century.

Geoffrey Cromwell 11:56

The county asked us to do this study to evaluate the groundwater resources and learn what we can do to concerns from from landowners about a potential overuse of water, concerns at some local wells might be going dry. And so the county wants to understand the groundwater system. And so it's a bit just typical of USGS. What are the data? What are the interpretations and make that information publicly available that then the county or any other entity can then make decisions on what actions to take.

Craig Macmillan 12:25

But how did that proceed? We've talked a little bit about the kinds of data that you collect. But what's the actual what was the actual timeline like and what's the future timeline like?

Geoffrey Cromwell 12:33

Projects started, we got funded just before COVID. So it was end of the very early 2020, I believe. And we spent that that first year of with the county, we said that USGS would compile all available data that we could find. And so this particular area because of the small population, you know, relative perceive low impact. There hadn't been any hydrologic or geologic studies in the area, besides some some broad geologic maps and regional geophysical investigations. So this was really an unknown, I should say, publicly unknown, because you'll local farmers and local residents who've been there for decades or centuries, they know what what is in on their land, and you have a sense of of the world there. So we were trying to compile we can from what we would use, and maybe in a report to help us just understand as we're coming in, what's the geology? What are changes in land use? What groundwater information is there that might be available to help us think about, okay, how do we then collect new data? Where do we go? What do we do? So we compiled data for a year and evaluate and learn just what we could have the area. Now we're on our second phase of the study, which is collecting groundwater level data, and surface water data and water quality data for a period of just about two years. And so we're taking groundwater measurements every three months. And we have a series of just about 60, groundwater wells that were that were taking water levels from all around the Adelaida area. And we are being able to see seasonal shifts in in groundwater, as you know, recharge generally occurs in the winter months with with rainfall. And then we also see in some places where water levels might be increasing more versus others. And so that'll be as we're collecting this data will be interesting that as we get to the interpretation phase, what does that mean?

Craig Macmillan 14:25

One thing that I think is interesting, so like you said, there's a kind of the classical groundwater basin idea, which in my mind is kind of a big bathtub. So everybody pokes a straw into the same Slurpee, essentially, and then rain falls and it refills but these mountainous areas and the rolling topography is a little bit different in like, for instance, in in the scope of this area that you're studying is all the water below the ground. Is it all connected, or is it isolated from each other? Or could it be I know you're really in your study.

Geoffrey Cromwell 14:53

What is likely to occur where we have these geologic structures with hills and folds is that you know, although There's groundwater is present everywhere, what will be interesting to see is how the structure of the geology affects where groundwater flows and is present. So it's possible someone coming in one valley, a person in a nearby valley may or may not see the effects of that pumpage in their groundwater wells. And so we have groundwater monitoring wells has dispersed across the areas, we were able to find the hope of identifying then whether or not different areas are connected, what the effects are between the shallow and deeper systems of the of the aquifer, based on the geologic structures. So it's really is this dynamic and complex question that we're looking to to learn more about.

Craig Macmillan 15:44

This is an idea that I just thought of, because it comes up in the local conversation, and that is, when water starts to become scarce. The solution in some people's minds is to drill a deeper well, just very expensive in the kind of geology you're talking about. That doesn't necessarily sound like that would work. Is that accurate statement? Or? Or even in a groundwater basin? Is there a limit to kind of how long that straw can be and still be be affected?

Geoffrey Cromwell 16:13

That's interesting question that would be on a probably a basin by basin or area by area question. In general, though, the deeper you go, the more poor the water quality can be. And that's not to say that 100 feet is great and 200 feet, it's going to be hyper saline everywhere. But groundwater basin dependent area dependence, the fresher, more usable water was going to be closer to land surface. And so that gets into the question of water quality. And so just by digging, drilling a deeper Well, there could be other impacts or concerns that one might have in drilling deeper.

Craig Macmillan 16:50

Water is not necessarily water everywhere. Oh, this is a question that someone asked me does water have an age? Can you tell when it fell from the sky?

Geoffrey Cromwell 17:00

Yes, that is one of the neat things to learn from either water quality samples that we get. So we test for and we'll go into water chemistry, we'll sample for major and minor ions, calcium, magnesium, sodium, we'll measure for nitrates. And those types of constituents are useful for identifying the aquifer system, what rock are we in, and that will collect the stable isotopes, hydrogen and oxygen. Those allow us to tell from what elevation or area to groundwater recharge. So you expect water to be coming in the mountains and flow down and we should be able to see that indicator in those stable isotopes. And then the two age constituents we usually measure would be for tritium. And then we'll also be for carbon 14. So carbon 14 is probably one that most people are aware of, or heard of, right, you take clean organic materials, and you can get a sense of age back to think about 50,000 years old. So we can directly measure can estimate of groundwater age, many groundwater basins in California, oftentimes, the water can be 10,000 years old or so oftentimes, much more. Than tritium is neat, because tritium allows us to tell if water has been recharged since about 1950. So tritium was naturally occurring in the atmosphere. But in the 1950s, during all the nuclear tests, tritium within is released in the atmosphere in great abundance. And so if tritium is present in groundwater, above background levels, we are very confident that that water recharge since 1950, we have these age measurements of groundwater, that you within a study area, we get a sense of where recharge is occurring, and whether it's recent recharge, or old or older recharge, and so that can help understand that aquifer dynamics,

Craig Macmillan 18:39

That's fascinating. Just blows my mind. Future timeline. So you're well levels, stream gauges, chemistry, this radiological kind of stuff, you're in the middle of the data collection, what's going to happen after that?

Geoffrey Cromwell 18:54

We're in the middle of our of our data collection, like you said, we have about one more year of groundwater level measurements that we will take as part of the current the current agreement with the county and then the surface water will also continue for just about another year. And then we're going to have conversations with the county to hopefully take the the next steps. And that could include additional, you know, ongoing groundwater monitoring, surface water monitoring, always value in developing these long term records. And so being able to track seasonal cycles, ideally decades, right? Because then you can really see how things are changing. So there could be value in continuing this monitoring effort. And then the next step would be to put up an interpretive product. And so basically take the data that we've compiled in look at the how the aquifer system changes, look at the age of the groundwater, look at the flow paths and maybe you know, understand if there are structural controls to groundwater flow. The next phase of our project will kick in probably early 2025. In the conversation with the county and possible we could we could start sooner the era Boerne em that we mentioned before the helicopter with a big hoop flying under that, we're using that right now to help construct a geologic framework. And so that's product that we should be able to, we anticipate being able to put out next year or so. So there will be some interim bits in there. But one thing is very important in the USGS does is that all the data we collect is publicly available. So as we go out, and we take our groundwater level measurements, that will be out again in August in the Adelaida. area, within a couple of days, that data is online, it is accessible, it is viewable by the anyone in the world can can go to our website and look at this data. And so the transparency of that is valuable, just just that real time knowledge of the Earth system is I think, hugely important, valuable.

Craig Macmillan 20:48

These wells and the streams and whatnot, they're gonna oftentimes be on private land. So you're gonna have to find participants that will let you come in and take your measurements. How did you go about recruiting participants? And also, I would guess that you would want to have wells in particular spots of interests to help you with your mapping your data collection, how did how did that process work?

Geoffrey Cromwell 21:14

There's a lot of initial interest in the study itself. From the get go, there were there was a pool of several dozen interested landowners who were more than willing to provide access to let us just access their property and, you know, take these groundwater measurements, and allow us to, you know, install stream gaging equipment on there, you know, we spent the first part of of our data collection, part of our agreement there, identifying additional landowners. And so some of this was was word of mouth, we've been holding at least once a year, a community meeting specific to the Adelaida study. And so we've garnered more interest and think as we've explained more what the study is and purpose and the outcomes and the projected outcomes in terms of reports, we've gotten more interest in that sense. And sometimes we're just out knocking on doors and looking for it, like you said, there are some some geographic holes, if you will, of where we either we can identify the landowner or the land owner says no, which is fine. But also, we just haven't had luck contacting or reaching out or finding anybody in those particular spots. So we're especially interested always in deeper wells, so anything you have, if you only have hundreds of feet deep, more than a few, but a well, more than 500 feet deep, we'd love to come back. That'd be definitely a value to it to the study. But we've had very good conversations with landowners across the Adelaida area, and some have granted permissions and some said no, and, you know, we say thank you, we keep moving. So it is ongoing. And I think it's we the next community meeting, hopefully will be this fall before the end of the end of the calendar year. And we'll be able to share some of our next set of studies, you know, outcomes, what we've done, and hopefully talk to folks and continue to identify geographic areas that we can use more data in.

Craig Macmillan 23:00

Cool, that's neat. Individuals within communities recognize the value to themselves, but then they also recognize and feel like they have a responsibility to the rest of the community. And I think it's pretty cool that we're seeing folks step up to be participants. And I encourage people nationwide if they're, if you're listening, and to not be afraid, I can speak for the company that I worked for Niner wine estates were a participant. When I first heard about this, I jumped, I jumped all over it. I was like, This is so cool. But also I had questions about our own property. Our location is such that there's lots of other neighbors, both residential and agricultural, but also we have wells in different different spots. And we could just look around and see, hey, is the geology between these wells? Is it the same? Is it different? What can we learn from what you guys learn? So there was kind of a two fold piece to that. And I think that that's really important for communities to do. We got a couple of minutes left, you're also working on a project in Santa Barbara County in the San Antonio Creek area. Can you tell us just just a little bit about that? Because that's a different kind of project.

Geoffrey Cromwell 23:00

Yes. Let me go back to the last thing you said about about participants. Yes, this is free. We it's paid for by taxpayer dollars. But these are essentially free groundwater level measurements and free water quality if we take water quality. So like you said, there's there's there's value in knowing what's under the ground in your well your spot. And if you're interested, then we might be able to accommodate, obviously, constraints and things from the study public interest.

Craig Macmillan 24:28

That's right USGS is here for you. Well, it's true. I mean,

Geoffrey Cromwell 24:31

Yeah, no, I was gonna say we're, we're with the government. We're here to help word.

Craig Macmillan 24:35

Yeah, exactly.

Geoffrey Cromwell 24:37

We really, we really are.

Craig Macmillan 24:40

And you folks have been great to work with, by the way. I really appreciate it. Yeah. So just a little bit, a little bit about the San Antonio Creek project.

Geoffrey Cromwell 24:48

The San Antonio Creek project. This is San Antonio Creek is the groundwater basin in Northern Santa Barbara County. And so that's a Santa Barbara County is the county directly south of San Luis Obispo. San Antonio Creek is a coastal groundwater basin. So to the west is the Pacific Ocean. And then to the east is the other Highland and upland areas. And this is a project in cooperation with the Santa Barbara County Water Agency and Vandenberg Air Force Base, there was recent legislation. And at this point about almost 10 years ago in the state of California called SIGMA, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Part of SIGMA process was identifying groundwater basins of high and medium priority, those types of basins were required to by the state to develop groundwater sustainability plans to basically manage groundwater resources into the future. And this is one such basin, San Antonio Creek. And so our work USGS work here has been to provide this holistic hydrogeologic characterization of the groundwater basin. So looking at historical groundwater trends, current groundwater trends, identify the groundwater budget, so how much water is coming out how much water is coming in naturally, and then also to develop a miracle groundwater flow model. So that's pretty typical of a lot of our California Water Science Center availability projects is we we look at the geology look, the groundwater, okay, this is what's been happening. And then we feed that we develop a computer model of that. So the computer model is then a simulation of the earth as we can best understand it and model it in, which is neat, because then you can if you've modeled the historical system, then you can project into the future. And you can see like, Okay, what happens if the climate is drier? Okay, what if we're anticipating, you know, a two fold increase in population, we need to pump more for municipal needs? Or what if we're anticipating an increase in agricultural use is a tool to project changes, and then help identify how you can manage your water resources. So we develop those two products in San Antonio Creek, and I'll share both of those published sources with you.

Craig Macmillan 26:48

Yeah, that'd be great.

Geoffrey Cromwell 26:50

But since a creek is an agricultural basin, Vandenburg Airforce Base and the town of Los Alamos for the two municipal users, but primarily, you know, groundwater needs in the basin, this was for agricultural purposes.

Craig Macmillan 27:01

That is really interesting. And I liked this idea of looking ahead to the future, I think we need to be thinking ahead. And the way to do that is to get good quality data on what's happening now. And to get a sense of what may be happened in the past, if we can.

Geoffrey Cromwell 27:16

In San Antonio Creek, in the past, there's a long term record long term partnership there. And so we're very fortunate to be able to look at these decades long trends dating back to the mid 1900s.

Craig Macmillan 27:25

Oh, wow.

Geoffrey Cromwell 27:26

There were some that were very long term monitoring wells. And from that, you can learn a lot about that study. So this, I think that's very neat. If you're interested in learning more, this is a nice, compact little study here of investigation. We have ongoing work, keep updated.

Craig Macmillan 27:42

Cool. Well, we're getting short on time, is there is there one thing related to kind of this water topic in the USGS that one thing that you would tell people one thing you'd like growers to know,

Geoffrey Cromwell 27:53

The one thing for growers to know about the USGS is that the USGS is unbiased, it is nonpartisan, and most importantly, is that the data that we collect is publicly available not only allows people to access the data that's there, but it means that everyone can access it and then make decisions and see what the interpretive products are based off of here's the data. And so everything that USGS does is intended to be reproducible. It's intended to be shared, and it's in the public interest. And this is here, any number of datasets the USGS puts out, so if growers are interested in their local geology, local soils, local water, and local climate, and I'm sure there's many others there that people interested in, the USGS probably has a data set out there, or at least has historical records, you know, going to the USGS website, there's a lot of information on there, but you can find that data, you can also reach out to a local USGS office, and those are, we're all over the state many different capacities and one of us doesn't know the answer. We probably know someone who knows someone who knows the answer.

Craig Macmillan 28:58

And again, that would be nationwide. Nationwide, where can people find out more about you?

Geoffrey Cromwell 29:02

About me, the easiest would probably be to look at my contact on the Adelaida website, the Adelaidaa Area Project website and I'll share that with you Craig and I'm based out of our Santa Maria field office. This is in very northern Santa Barbara County. So I'm the Central Coast local California Water Science Center. We have our main project hubs are San Diego and Sacramento. And we do we do geology, we do groundwater. We do surface water, we do biology, we do modeling climate data collection, we touch a lot.

Craig Macmillan 29:29

USGS touches a lot of different things. I want to thank you for being on the podcast. Our guest today has been Geoff Cromwell, geologist with the United States Geological Survey, specifically the California Water Science Center. Thanks for being on podcast. This is great conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time to do it.

Geoffrey Cromwell 29:45

Loved to be here, Craig. Thanks so much.

Nearly Perfect Transcription by https://otter.ai

97% of people start their search for a local business online (Linkedin, 2019). When someone looks up your business, what do they find? Are your images and videos up to date? Do you show what makes your brand special? Does your imagery convince searchers to pay you a visit?

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.

Now, if you are thinking that you do not love the photos that show up when you google your business, it may be time to update your imagery!

Your property is booming with interesting visuals that will entice future customers. Here are 3 categories to inspire your imagery refresh.

1. Showcase Your Values

70% of consumers want to know what the brands they support are doing to address social and environmental issues (Certus, 2019). Show them how your brand protects the people and the planet!

If you've completed your Sustainable Story worksheet, half of your work is done. Grab your worksheet and your camera to create a visual version of your story.

Electronic Worksheet | Printable Worksheet

Here's how to show your Sustainable Story:

· Focus on one value per week. Share photos and videos throughout the week or compile them into one mega-post at the end of the week. This strategy gives you nearly two months of content for your social media, blog posts, and Wine Club communications.

· People love animals. Snap pics or videos of your wildlife visitors: bees, owls, butterflies, grazing sheep, or cattle. Your audience will love to see the diversity of creatures that call your property home.

· Feature your vineyard manager or winemaker. Ask them to explain what's sustainable about the task they're doing, and why it's important. Helping consumers understand specific sustainable practices and why they're important can increase their willingness to pay more for a wine (Kathleen Kelley, The Pennsylvania State University, 2021)!

2. Show Them a Good Time

Have you ever visited your favorite business's website only to realize the photos are outdated, or don't sufficiently capture the atmosphere you know and love? Good imagery helps people to mentally put themselves in the space, and can ease anxieties they may have over entering a new environment.

Here's how to replace outdated imagery to entice visitors:

· Show off your romantic fireplace, mood lit cozy chairs, or a seating area overlooking the vineyard! Winetasting is an experience. A comfortable and inviting atmosphere makes all the difference.

· Hosting an event? Guests wonder how to dress and if there will be seating. Share pictures of your guests having a good time at your next event to give valuable insights to future attendees!

3. Take Them Behind the Scenes

A day in the wine industry may feel ordinary to you, but it is absolutely fascinating to the average consumer!

"Food disconnect" is a term used to describe the average consumer's lack of knowledge about where their food comes from. When it comes to your brand, most people only see the finished product: what's in their glass. They don't know about all of the time and careful consideration that went into its production.

Here's how to show them:

· Walk your audience through the block-to-bottle process with photos and videos. Create a series that spans the year, and feature each process as it happens.

· Give a glimpse into a day in the life! Show topping tanks, washing barrels, scouting for pests, a busy tasting room floor, and walking through the vines. Your audience will love a behind the scenes look at one of their favorite wine brands.

SIP Tip!

Include the whole team in this project! Ask everyone to take pictures and videos of the things they find most interesting. You'll have tons of fresh, unique media to feature.

SIP Tip #2 (because it's too good not to share)!

Share your customers' photos. User generated content is about as authentic as it gets. Sharing UGC has many benefits: it gives social proof to your audience, makes the creator feel part of your community, and gives you unique content!

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, download the worksheet, watch the videos, and you are ready to tell your Sustainable Story!

Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team.

References:

• *** Tell Your Sustainable Story Online Course ***
• Marketing Tips eNewsletter
• Niner Wines Estates protects the people and the planet
• Safe Pest Management: Wolff Vineyards
• SIP Smart Training online course
• Sustainable Story Worksheet | Print
• Sustainable Story Worksheet | Electronic
• What's your Sustainable Story?
• SIP Certified
• Vineyard Team