April 13, 2018
CapitalPress.com
21
Vineyards track weather, soil differences
and elevation related to grape-grow-
ing suitability.
Wilkins said by understanding
and mapping the measured char-
acteristics across the 10 monitored
sites, “we can better understand the
quality of soils and the micro-cli-
mate at each site, and better inform
best practices for quality wine grape
production.”
The Idaho wine industry previ-
ously lacked such data as well as
a template for gathering and dis-
playing it, he said. Findings can be
viewed on plot graphs or lists.
One of the mast-mounted sta-
tions is at Bitner Vineyards in the
Sunnyslope grape-growing area,
where owner Ron Bitner in 2017
documented conditions that differed
notably from his neighbors’. He saw
his 35-year-old vineyard sustain
serious damage in January — 10
straight days of bitter cold knocked
out vines, though a two-foot blan-
ket of snow kept roots alive — and
again in a late-May freeze. A neigh-
bor’s vineyard at lower elevation
was damaged more, and a nearby
vineyard at a higher elevation was
damaged less.
Researchers so far have found
fairly significant differences in heat
units and growing-degree days at
monitored sites within one to two
miles of each other, Wilkins said.
Close-together sites can vary enough
in slope, soil composition and other
factors to make for unique growing
conditions.
Brad Carlson/For the Capital Press
Ron Bitner, of Bitner Vineyards west
of Caldwell, Idaho, with his weather
monitoring station.
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Scientists track weather, water
and soil data from monitoring sta-
tions at 10 southwest Idaho vineyard
sites stretching from Kuna northwest
to Parma.
The Sunnyslope Soils and Weath-
er Network is the first regional en-
vironmental-monitoring system for
Idaho’s vineyards, leaders said. On-
site instruments record hourly read-
ings of air temperature at vineyard
canopy height, precipitation, rela-
tive humidity, vapor pressure, wind
speed and direction and solar radia-
tion. Probes set between 15 and 75
centimeters deep measure soil mois-
ture and temperature. The system
also provides derived measures of
growing-degree and frost-free days,
wind run and evapotranspiration, a
multi-factored measure of a plant’s
water-use efficiency.
Primary investigator David
Wilkins, associate professor of geo-
sciences at Boise State University,
said the study, begun two-plus years
ago, aims to make it easier for grape
growers to determine which vari-
etals to grow, and where.
“They didn’t have any of these
data before at the vineyard-site
scale,” he said. “These vineyards
now have readily available climate
and soil data to inform their vineyard
management practices.”
Researchers aim to better charac-
terize the diversity of soils, climate
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By BRAD CARLSON