We're under drought conditions here in California this year. Managing water resources in the vineyard is always important, but this time around it will be more critical than normal to use water efficiently. Early-season irrigations may be necessary in some locations to obtain a full canopy, but not so important in others. Once irrigation scheduling begins, we all need to apply water in the most effective and efficient way possible. We have found soil moisture monitoring to be the most precise way to determine optimal irrigation applications to achieve maximum efficiency. Coupled with plant water status measurements, we have a simple and proven means of arriving at fruit maturation with minimal water inputs. 

We install soil moisture probes in key locations that provide continuous measurements of the moisture profile and combine that with plant moisture status measurements and visual observations. You may have seen our soil moisture charts before (we post them here in our newsletters). We will interpret those for you, instructing you on how to interpret them yourself (if you want to), study them in the context of plant moisture status, and come up with brief, but specific, irrigation recommendations for you on a repeated weekly cycle. We do this for the entire growing season.

Don't rely on a computer model or automated advisory system. Our hand-made advice comes from expert viticulturists with over three decades of combined experience including Mark Greenspan, Ph.D. who is known internationally for his work in vineyard water. We believe our services are best described HERE, by clients who have leveraged the results. Cost? Well like all things there are volume discounts, but our monitoring AND consulting services can be retained for under $50 per week per monitoring location for an entire season.

Email Paul for questions and comments about the service, technology and specific application to your vineyard. Or call us at 707-838-3805.

Tools of Our Trade: 

Pressure Bomb

• Measures leaf water potential 
• Biophysical stress measurement

Decagon/METER* Leaf Porometer

• Measures stomatal conductance
• Good indicator of beneficial stress
• Identifies range for optimal water use efficiency

Aquacheck* soil moisture probe (6 sensor)

• Identify where and how much water is stored in your soil
• View where root activity is occurring
• Visualize when moisture becomes sufficiently depleted that irrigation is necessary
• Know how far irrigation applications percolate in your soil
• Precisely identify the irrigation schedule - no guesswork

* Advanced Viticulture is an authorized reseller for METER/Decagon products (including the porometer), Aquacheck soil moisture devices, and several different data telemetry manufacturers including Ranch Systems, WiseConn and Davis Instruments. 

Drought Water Management