november 13-15, 2017 | san luis obispo, ca www ...€¦ · mechanization in california wine grape...

www.sustainableagexpo.org November 13-15, 2017 | San Luis Obispo, CA

Mechanization in California Wine Grape Vineyards

Dr. S. Kaan Kurtural

Driving Factors for Mechanization and Precision

Management • Mechanization

– Timeliness of cultural practices

– Willing labor force

– Cost of labor ($15/h)

– Quality of life socioeconomic factors

– Proximity to population centers

– Land availability and cost

– Foreign competition

• Precision management

– Variability in vineyards

– Greater planting density

– Greater level of mechanization

– Greater level of monitoring

– Greater level of control

Evolution towards spatio-temporal management of vineyards

Uniform

vineyard and

soil management

vineyard and

soil management

Site-specific

vineyard and

soil management

Bulk or composite

vine and

soil sampling

Stratified random

sampling within

Fine grid

sampling or

sensing/scanning

From the Canopy to Crop Load

• Shoot system of the grapevine:

– Stems

– Leaves

– Clusters

• Collectively: Microclimate

– Length

– Height

– Width

– Leaf area

– Shoot density

– Leaf layer number

Climate within the Grape Canopy

• Microclimate is affected by:

– Amount of leaf area

– Distribution of leaf area

– Their interaction with above ground climate

Why? Berry composition

Vine health improvement

Fruit Maturity: The point at which fruit composition most closely matches that required to make the style of wine desired

Desirable Aspects

• Uniformly ripe fruit

• Sound fruit

• An abundance of flavor

– With correct composition

• Reaches peak at ideal time

– Avoiding inclement weather

– Winery logistics

• BUT…..

• YIELD IS PARAMOUNT

Optimum light environment in the fruit zone during set AND ripening

• Optimize diffuse or indirect sunlight within the canopy interior

• Minimize exposure of clusters to direct sunlight – particularly in warm climates

What can we do in vineyards mechanically?

• Dormant pruning *

• Suckering

• Shoot thinning *

• Leaf removal *

• Berry/cluster thinning *

• Harvest

Wine Raisin Table

Harvesting 90 35 -

Pruning

Pre-prune 65 5 30

Box-hedge 12 - -

Canopy Mgt

Leaf removal 45 - 10

Shoot thinning 7 - -

Hedging 100 100 100

Shoot positioning

Crop load Mgt

Cluster removal 7 - -

Dormant pruning • When?

– Depends on where you are – Dormant season – Incidence of rain

• Severity – Defines bearing surface – Capacity

• Costs: – Spur: $0.29/vine – Cane w/ tying: $0.48/vine – Mechanical w/ hand follow

up: $ 0.36/vine: – Box-prune single-high wire:

$0.07/vine

Types of equipment available

• Pre-pruners – Various manufacturers – Various materials of construction – May only do one plane of cut – Mostly adapted to VSP type canopies – Have to follow up with manual operations

• Combination pruners – Multiple planes of cuts – May be used for pre-pruning, as well as a finish and

precision pruner – Maybe used in many types of canopies including split-

canopies and California-sprawl

How do you set up a mechanical pruning head?

• Spur height – Sets the height of the

bearing surface • Commonly:

– 4 inches = Precision prune – 6 inches = Pruning + follow

up – 8 inches = Pre-pruning

• Bearing surface girth – Set the width and depth of

bearing surface • Commonly

– Sprawl: Completely removed – Width: 4 to 6 inches

• Ground speed

– T-top or VSP canopy

• 1.0 to 1.5 miles/h

– Single high-wire

• 2.0 miles/h

• Measure, and measure often!

Parts of a mechanical pruner

Shoot thinning

• When?

• During dormant pruning*

• Trunk suckering – 1” – 3” shoot length

• Cordon – 8” – 12” shoot length

• In FROST PRONE AREAS WAIT TILL ALL DANGER OF FROST HAS PASSED!

• Reduces shoot density, but impact on canopy density is often temporary if irrigation is unchecked

• Efficient method of crop thinning

• Assists in the establishment of spur positions

• Reduces pruning costs next season

• Cost per acre - $80 – $300/acre

Application – Manual/Mechanical

How do you set up a mechanical shoot thinner?

• Consider:

– Target shoot density:

• Count shoots

• Non-count shoots

– Cordon brush

– Rotary paddles

• 2 to 12 paddles

– Tractor ground speed

• 1 to 1.2 miles/h

Canopy gaps at veraison

Yield averages 2009-2011 (Syrah/1103 P)

Canopy Management

Berry wt(g)

Cluster wt (g)

Yield (T/A)

HP 1.33 a 189 a 7.0 b

5 shoots/ft 1.30 ab 151ab 8.3 c

7 shoots/ft 1.26 b 148 c 12.1 ab

15 shoots/ft 1.20 c 137 d 15.0 a

P 0.0191 0.0008 0.0006

Pruning weights

Red Wine Flavor Indicators

IBMP (green flavor)

B-damascenone (jammy, fruity flavor)

Labor operations cost

Variable rate mechanical shoot removal

Berry/Cluster thinning

• Pre-bloom thinning

• Post fruit set-thinning – Rule of thumb for post fruit-set cluster thinning

– If shoot is < 12” long remove all clusters

– If shoot 12” – 24 “ long retain one cluster

– If shoot > 24” long retain 2 clusters

• We are seeing most beneficial responses if applied – Berries b-b size

– Post veraison applications – self gratifying

Manual cluster thinning

Variable mechanical cluster thinning

Effect of cluster numbers on canopy variables and fruit composition

Clusters

g (cm2/cm)

D shoots

TSS(%)

TA(g/L)

1 per 32.1 3.7 8.1 23.2 a 3.43 a 8.0

2 per 23.8 2.7 7.8 21.9 b 3.34 b 7.7

> 2 per 27.0 3.0 8.3 21.2 a 3.29 b 7.6

P 0.1601 0.2691 0.7721 0.0001 0.0014 0.1332

Trend NS NS NS Linear

Linear

Kurtural et al. 2006

Leaf Removal

• Severity – Both sides of the canopy – Shade side of the canopy

• East side if rows N-S * • North side if rows E-W

– Cost • $80 to $250/acre

depending on • Trellis type • Hand vs. Machine • Timing • Canopy density

Types of equipment available

• Suck and cut type leaf removal implements – Mostly adapted to VSP trellis

– Damage to flower cluster and clusters

– Did not work well in sprawling canopies

• Air-blast type leaf removal implements – Mostly adapted to VSP trellis

– Did not work as well in sprawling canopies

– Little to no damage to flower cluster and clusters

• Roll-over type leaf removal implements – Adapted to VSP, sprawling and split canopy systems

– Selective

– Little to no damage to flower cluster and clusters

Leaf removal

Pre-bloom vs. Post fruit set Why Should I Even Care?

Treatment Berry mass (g) Skin mass (mg)

Berry/cluster Yield (T/A)

Control 1.36 a 55.0 a 125 10.1

Pre-bloom 1.27 b 51.7 a 117 10.0

Post fruit-set 1.28 b 45.0 b 114 9.8

Pr>F 0.0216 0.0020 0.2066 0.4996

Cook et al. 2015

Some economic data on mechanical leaf removal

Cook et al. 2015

Leaf removal Water deficits

Pre-bloom

Post-fruit set Regulated Deficit

Irrigation

Sustained Deficit Irrigation

Catechin/epichatechin monomer Total skin flavonols

Berry Skin Mass

Total skin anthocyanidins

Total skin flavonols

EGC (Extension subunits)

Mean Degree of polymerization

Total Skin PAs (by phoroglucinolysis) Conversion yield (Skin)

Berry mass

Yield (2014)

Leaf area:fruit ratio (2014)

At 200 GDD (EL stage 17)

At 644 GDD (EL stage 19)

At 0.8 of estimated ETc from anthesis (EL-Stage 19) until harvest (EL-Stage 38)

At 0.8 ETc from anthesis (EL-Stage 19) to fruit set (EL-Stage 28) with a Yl threshold of -1.2 MPa, 0.5 ETc from fruit set to veraison (EL-Stage 35)

Yu et al. 2016

Variable rate leaf removal application

Path forward… Can we do these practices at a variable rate?

• Precision viticulture is a

site-specific management

tool – Combines new information

technologies and production

experience to map variability

of production and quality in

order to:

• Optimize yield efficiency

• Berry composition

• Minimize environmental

impact

GEOSTATISTICAL ANALYSIS & MODELLING

OUTPUT

The Work Flow

GEOSTATISTICAL ANALYSIS & MODELLING

SENSING

• High Resolution DEM • NDVI • DuoLite • Electrical resistivity • Multiplex • Satellite images

• Grapevine physiological measurements

• Plant water status • Canopy

microclimate • Net gas exchange

• Soil measurements

FIELD MEASUREMENTS LABORATORY ANALYSIS

• Primary metabolism (wet chemistry)

• Secondary metabolism • Flavan-3-ols • Flavonols • Anthocyanins • Proanthocyanidins

Sensors in use

• Soil sensor Dual EM • Canopy reflectance

sensors • Crop estimation sensor

Terrain analysis of the site

GPS DATA (Elevation) Soil Wetness Index Slope

Grapevine water status

2 VERY DIFFERENT ZONES!

2 clusters = 70% variability

Clustering Lower Water Stress Higher Water Stress

Higher Water Stress

Lower Water Stress

Summarizing information: Season average

GOOD RELATIONSHIPS WITH SOIL AND

TOPOGRAPHY!

3D model of water status

3D model of soil wetness

Surface soil electrical resistivity

Water Potential Integrals

Higher

Water stress

Components of yield

Not a significant correlation between water status and yield!

Primary metabolism

Anthocyanins

3’4’5’ H Anthocyanin 3’4’ H Anthocyanin

Degradation?

Total anthocyanins

r = 0.53

Stem Water Potentials Integrals (MPa)

ρ = 0.56

Tannins

r = 0.41 *

Total Proanthocyanidins (+)- Catechin

Selective harvest by mechanical means

Kurtural et al. 2012

Moving forward

• Vineyard variability affects harvest composition

• Selective harvest can be a useful strategy when vineyard variability is too large to coalesce

• Water status allows to effectively discriminate between the harvest zones. Less of a need to take repeated measurements and can be easily modelled/sensed.

Moving forward

• We can achieve economies of scale with mechanical practices

• Equipment is available to do most cultural practices

• Precision and accuracy continues to improve

• Spatio-temporal management will alleviate variability

• Berry composition concerns remain however, resistance seemingly diminished

• Canopy size and crop estimation will be done with proximal sensors

november 13-15, 2017 | san luis obispo, ca www ...€¦ · mechanization in california wine grape...

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