Sustainable Winegrowing

While many growers are familiar with the Western Leafhopper, they may not know as much about the Virginia Creeper Leafhopper. Houston Wilson, Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist in the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside and Director of UC Organic Agriculture Institute has been studying the Virginia Creeper Leafhopper and potential biological controls.

Leafhoppers are pierce and suck feeders. The insect removes small amounts of plant material causing a stippling effect on the leaf. This damage reduces the photosynthetic capacity of the vine and can reduce yields.

The Virginia Creeper Leafhopper was recently introduced into the North Coast of California where it was discovered that it has no biological controls. Additionally, its life stages are different from the more well-known Western Leafhopper so growers must utilize different management practices to control the pest.

References:

• February 18, 2022 | Avoiding Winter Kill in Young Vineyards Webinar
• Cal-West Rain
• Houston Wilson
• Landscape diversity and crop vigor influence biological control of the western grape leafhopper (Erythroneura elegantulaOsborn) in vineyards
• Review of Ecologically-based Pest Management in California Vineyards
• SIP Certified
• UC IPM Leafhoppers

Consumer demand for transparency and sustainability of their food system is leading to more and more agrochemical restrictions to address concerns for pollinators, noenicitinoids, and drift. Additionally, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investors are putting pressure on the chemical industry to improve their metrics. Pam Marrone, Founder and CEO of Marrone Bio Innovations outlines the market, status, and potential for biologicals in this excerpt from our 2020 Sustainable Ag Expo.

Bringing a new pesticide to market can cost upwards of 300 million dollars and takes an average of 21 years. These challenges have big companies looking at new technologies like biologicals. Bringing a biological to market costs five to 10 million and can be accomplished in three to four years.

Growers are seeing that using an integrated solution creates a better final product. Biologicals offer new modes of action, the ability to spray up until harvest, and short reentry times. Plus, they can allow growers to improve soil health and reduce greenhouse gasses.

References:

• 87: Developing New Winegrape Varieties
• 94: Effective Vineyard Spraying (Rebroadcast)
• 122: Preserving Agriculture Land to Combat Climate Change
• Pesticidal natural products – status and future potential
• Marrone Bio
• SIP Certified
• Sustainable Ag Expo
• Tailgate | 1/14/2022 | Salinity 101 - Science and Management of Increasing Salinity in a Drier Climate

Maintaining agricultural land can be a solution to climate change. Renata Brillinger, Executive Director at California Climate & Agriculture Network (CalCAN), and her team are working to incentivize sustainable practices like composting, cover crops, and solar pumps at farms. They promote four grant programs that help farmers and ranchers have a positive impact on the planet and their bottom line.

The first is to prevent urban sprawl by funding easements to maintain working farmland. The second is to increase on-farm water use efficiency which also reduces energy consumption. The third is to reduce methane emissions in livestock operations by collecting dry manure. And the fourth is to fund healthy soils programs to improve the organic content in soil and reduce the need for synthetic inputs.

As of December 2022, there are more than 200 million dollars in grant funding coming online. It is important that farmers apply for funding not only to execute their own projects but to ensure that these programs continue to be funded in the future.

References:

• 28: Understanding Soil Health
• California Climate & Agriculture Network (CalCAN)
• CalCAN Newsletter
• California's Healthy Soils Initiative
• SIP Certified
• State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP)
• Top 5 Soil Health Resources

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Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources.

Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.

David R. Montgomery defines regenerative agriculture as leaving the land better off and more fertile as a consequence of cultivation. David studied geology at Stanford University before earning his Ph.D. in geomorphology at UC Berkeley. Today he teaches at the University of Washington where he studies the evolution of topography and how geological processes shape landscapes and influence ecological systems.

In this research, he has defined three principles to build soil fertility; minimal disturbance, cover cropping and growing a diversity of crops. David has studied the success of these principles in agricultural systems around the world, from subsistence farmers to large commodity crops in North America. Healthy soils support more crop growth, have less erosion, and even look and smell healthier.

The author of three books, David is a wealth of information on how soil life impacts plant productivity.

References:

• 91: Carbon Sequestration (Podcast)
• @dig2grow (Twitter)
• Dig2Grow.com
• Floor Management for Soil Health
• Dirt the Erosion of Civilizations
• Growing a Revolution
• Sustainable Ag Expo
• SIP Certified
• The Hidden Half of Nature

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Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources.

Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.

Imagine improving both the efficiency and safety of your team with autonomous drone vineyard spraying. That is exactly what David Goldfarb and the team at Clos de la Tech are trialing in their vine rows. Although this technology has been used in Japan for a number of years, it is new to the United States. Initially, they looked to drones as a way to scout for pests. Spraying was limited due to the small capacity of the machines. Then an advancement inspired by COVID stadium sanitation standards changed the game. A tethering system was created to attach the drone to a full-sized tank with a lightweight hose.

Since FFA standards are still being written for drone spray applications, trials were conducted with water. The Clos de la Tech team found that coverage could be more than sufficient and they look forward to testing this technology more in the future.

References:

• 51: Effective Vineyard Spraying
• Clos de la Tech
• Drone Technology to Spray Vineyards Gains Popularity
• Pesticide Application Technology at Cornell
• SIP Certified
• Sustainable Ag Expo
• Waste Not, Want Not!: Recent advances in technology for the precise spraying of pesticides (Video)

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Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources.

Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.

The first pillar of any successful IPM (Integrated Pest Management Program) is to know the pest you want to manage. Emily Symmes, Entomologist and Technical Field Manager at Suterra, addresses the basics of vine mealybug (VMB) in grapes in this expert from the 2020 Sustainable Ag Expo.

VMB are phloem eaters, piercing the trunk, canes, and berry clusters and vectoring leafroll-associated viruses. In high populations, they will weaken the vines and can cause vine decline and death. Their rapid development time and often overlapping generations make using selective pesticides challenging because multiple lifecycles are active at one time. Adding to the management challenge, VMB spread easily by machinery, workers, and birds.

Proper species identification is vital to understand biologies and seasonal cycles of the VMB. Monitoring should be managed with both pheromone trapping and scouting throughout the year. Pheromone traps are most effective when placed at the vineyard entrance since VMB come in on machinery. Additional traps can be placed in the center of the block. Visual scouting should include looking for active VMB under the bark, in leaves, and in clusters, as well as signs of their existence including honeydew and ants.

Listen in to learn more about VMB identification and management.

References:

• 26: Controlling Mealybug Vectors of Grapevine Viruses
• 49: Stopping the Spread of Red Leaf Viruses
• An Important First Step in Biocontrol: Don't Kill the Good Insects
• Biology and Management of Mealybugs in Vineyards
• SIP Certified
• Sustainable Ag Expo
• Sustainable and Organic Control of Vine Mealybug in Vineyards: Two Growers, Two Approaches
• Suterra
• UC Pest Management Guidelines Vine Mealybug
• Vine Mealybug vs. Grape Mealybug Identification

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Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources.

Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.

UV lamps have been used in the medical field, food processing, and sterilization for 75 years but application on plant disease management only began in the 1990s. UV light is a natural component of sunlight. The most harmful wavelengths like UVC are screened out by our ozone layer. DNA damaging UVB does reach the surface, however, most organisms can utilize blue light to repair the damage.

David Gadoury, Plant Pathologist at Cornell University, is part of a large team of international researchers testing this technology on a variety of crops. Because there can be significant differences in environments, pest pressure, and times of year crops are impacted, it is important to trial this methodology globally. Powdery mildew microorganisms live in a sunlight-filled world so they use the sun's natural blue light to repair UV damage.

More recently, scientists found that UV light for pest management is much more effective when used at night when microorganisms cannot employ the repair process. So far, trials have found that UV light is most effective against powdery mildews. In the best treatment scenarios, control is on par with the best available fungicides. And now, UV light treatments are being paired with autonomous robots, providing potentially even greater efficiencies to growers.

References:

• 2: The Goldilocks Principle & Powdery Mildew Management
• 79: Grapevine Fungal Diseases
• CleanLight
• David Gadoury | mailto:[email protected]
• Light and Plant Health
• Robots armed with UV light fight grape mildew
• SAGA Robotics
• SIP Certified
• Sustainable Ag Expo

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Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources.

Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.

When it comes to vertebrate pests, an integrated pest management plan is important for any crop, including vineyards. Roger Baldwin, Cooperative Extension Specialist with in the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at the University of California at Davis explain the various ways growers can manage vertebrates including rodenticides, traps, beneficials, burrow fumigants, exclusion, and, exciting new opportunities with chemical repellants.

How can values, beliefs, and attitudes around irrigation improve water efficiency? That is exactly what a recent California Department of Water Resources (DWR) grant project aimed to discover. Grant recipient, Vineyard Team, worked with 59 growers over three years to conduct irrigation-related behavior interviews, Distribution Uniformity evaluations, and determine if continued interaction (nudges) with the grower would increase the adoption of irrigation best management practices in vineyards.

Every participant received a free DU and personalized report of recommendations so the researchers could track which improvements, like replacing plugged emitters, were implemented. Participants were divided into two groups, some with no contact beyond the initial DU test. The other half received regular nudges through phone calls and email calls to see if they had questions and to provide technical information.

Listen in to learn how nudges change irrigation efficiency.

References:

108: Using Satellite Data for Irrigation Scheduling

101: Sub-surface Micro-irrigation in Vineyards

Drip Irrigation Systems: Common Problems and Fixes

Irrigation Best Management Practices

Irrigation System Maintenance Tips - English

Irrigation System Maintenance Tips - Spanish

Irrigation Playlist – YouTube

SIP Certified

Sustainable Ag Expo

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Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources.

Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.

Plant SAP analysis gives farmers insight into how the plant can take up and mobilize nutrients. Traditional tissue testing is usually done at the top of the plant, sampling only the youngest leaves. SAP Analysis is actually a pair of tests, comparing nutrients in young and old leaves to see what is being taken up today and how the nutrients are moved around. Test results compare levels in young and old leaves across 24 different nutrients. One important comparison is Nitrogen efficiency, so the farmer can see how much Nitrogen is actually being taken up by the plant and calculate a cost analysis. Learn more about SAP Analysis and also some fascinating research about the relationship between silica, iron, and aluminum in grapevines.

References:

• 72: Soil Microbes and Nutrient Availability
• 113: Microbial Inoculants for Soil Health
• Jenny Garley on LinkedIn
• Making Nitrogen & Potassium Fertilizer Decisions in the Vineyard
• NEWAGE Laboratories
• SIP Certified
• Sustainable Ag Expo

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Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources.

Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.