Wine Grape Suitability TestBy Nick Becker

A small landowner at 325 NW Stringtown Road, Forest Grove, Washington County, Oregon has approximately 17 acres and she has decided to designated it to agriculture rather than developing on it. She wants to know what, if anything, will grow best and possibly return a yield on her investment. She has tried to lease the property in the past; however, no one was interested because the slope was, purportedly, too steep to excavate.

Build a Model & Repeat

Model defines area on property best suited for growing wine grapes, based on research.

Model can be classified/reclassified for additional crop types; test can be repeated.

Approach

Forage crop (hay, clover) adding lime/nitrogen to soilcost prohibitive?

Methods

Materials& Source Data

Metro 10M LiDAR DEM

USDA soils data

Classification based on outside research

Property boundary

Identify property

Tax lot boundary for 325 NW Stringtown Rd., Forest Grove, OR

~17 US Acres

Land Value $181,500

Building Value $70,100

Washington County Tax Lots

http://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/index.ssf/2011/05/the_dirt_on_willamette_valley.html

Pinot Noir grapes prefer...

to be South facing

planted on Moderate slopes

Provided by Data

Digital Elevation ModelSlope

Moderate slope[+0]

Low, high slope [+1}

Solar Radiation

90-270 degrees (SE, S, SW [+0] )

271-89 degrees (NW, N, NE [+1] )

Metro 10M DEM LiDAR Layer

http://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/index.ssf/2011/05/the_dirt_on_willamette_valley.html

Pinot Noir prefers...

Silt loams that are moderately drained.

Provided by Data● Soil Type (1919, 1982, current)

○ Laurelwood silt loam [+0]

○ Helvetia silt loam [+1]

○ Cornelius and Kinton silt loam [+2]

● Drainage

○ Poorly drained [+1]

○ Moderately drained [+0]

○ Well drained [+1]

USDA Soils Layer

“Brown and fertile Laurelwood is the region's key loess-type soil.”-- Oregonlivehttp://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/index.ssf/2011/05/the_dirt_on_willamette_valley.html

Certified Crop Advisor

cornell.edu

Cluster Sun Exposure and Quercetin in Pinot Noir Grapes

ajevoline.com

Sun Exposure on Vineyards

calwineries.com

Effect of Grape Bunch Sunlight Exposure and UV Radiation...

sciencedirect.com

Wine Soils II: Cornelius Gets Short Shrift

enobytes.com

Classification Sources

Assign lowest value to best conditions

Soil type + Slope + Drainage + Solar radiation

Raster Calculator

Total

ModelModel

Findings

Slope Map

Solar Radiation Map

Soils Map

Final Suitability Map w/o focal stats

Final Suitability Map w/ focal stats

Final Suitability Map w/ rows

- “Row length should be shorter than 1000 foot long. A 300-600 foot long row are common. “

- 15 ~400’ rows

- ~26,000 sq ft

- .6 acre for vines

- 1.2 - 6 tons of grapes (@2-10 tons per acre)

- 72- 360 cases of wine

http://www.winepros.org/wine101/viniculture.htm

http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/Viticulture

Considerations

After Completing Lab 6 ‘Suitability Test’

Weighted Overlay: Soils, solar, slope; Could not assign a percentage of influence to each raster, based on how much importance (or weight) each should have in the final suitability map. Is slope, soil, solar radiation of equal importance? 33%

Con/Majority Filter: Best area to place rows

Raster to Poly

Conclusion

The property at 325 NW Stringtown Rd, Forest Grove, Washington County, Oregon was determined to be highly suitable for growing wine grapes as determined by a classification of DEM based slope, aspect and solar radiation data as well as USDA soils data. A total of .60 acres are available for optimal growth. This test may be repeated with some adjustments to determine suitability for other local crop types. According to a source, the property can be excavated with a degree of success.

Thank you.Susan Kane-PhillipsGary PhillipsRebecca BoydChad LongBryan KilburnGreg Becker