WLW Blog
Probing Questions
"How do you grow such beautiful grapes?" "Do you irrigate your vineyards?" "What is that metal rod sticking up out of that vine row?" All probing questions and each with a probing answer.
Besides wine grapes being planted in our vineyards, there are a number of probes also in the ground to tell us how dry the soil is. These capacitance probes are used to generate a vineyard irrigation schedule based on the amount of moisture in the soil. This technology makes it possible to view water needs from the plants perspective.
The probe is buried deep in the soil with a wire running up the vine to a radio transporter that sits above the vines on a pole. This transporter relays the detailed information to a computer every 15 minutes for continuous soil moisture monitoring.
Why do we do this? (Another probing question!) By knowing how much water is in the soil, we can properly identify the amount of water that is being absorbed by the vine's root system throughout the growing season. This helps to control vine vigor in the summer months and helps monitor the amount of water in the leaves and grape berries as we get close to harvest.
It is all part of the science and technology that we employ in the vineyards to grow the best grapes and make great wines.
Posted by WLW on May 12, 2008 4:33 PM | Permalink
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