August 29, 2008
Those who have invested in water saving technologies are breathing a little easier than those who have not as California water supplies get even more scarce.
Victor Hugo Roberts, owner of Victor Hugo Vineyards and Winery in Templeton, Calif., is one of those who invested in high tech soil moisture monitors to manage his irrigation. This is his third year using the technology.
“We are probably reducing our water usage 50 percent to 60 percent of what we used to put out before we went to the monitoring system,” Roberts says. “We may start sooner and irrigate more often, but we’re not using as much water. Instead of one long irrigation cycle during the week in the warmest part of the season, we might go with two lighter irrigation cycles and still use less water.”
Applying more water than the soil will hold in the root zone only moves water out of the area where the vines can utilize it and reduce water efficiency.
Victor Hugo Vineyards and Winery specializes in a wide selection of hand-crafted lots of wine. The vineyards consist of 78 acres planted to Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Viognier and five Bordeaux reds — Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.
Drought management strategies are implemented from the time the vineyards are planted. Vines are grafted on four different phyllexora and nematode resistant rootstocks also specifically selected for drought tolerance. This enables Roberts to use mild deficit irrigation to concentrate flavors and further improve wine quality. The use of soil moisture monitoring allows him to tweak the irrigation input even more. Roberts contracts the soil moisture monitoring service through Precision Ag, Inc. in Paso Robles, Calif.
“This technology is much more sophisticated than the neutron probe,” Roberts says. “We have constant access to soil moisture conditions which allows us to deliver water only when we need it. The ability to record temperature data along with soil moisture is just another bonus.”
The neutron probe is almost antiquated technology, according to Lowell Zelinski, independent PCA and owner of Precision Ag Inc. “Soil-based monitoring systems that use capacitance sensors provide much better data than the neutron probe,” he says.
Zelinski believes that capacitance-based soil moisture monitoring is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to schedule irrigation in vines, trees and many other permanent and semi-permanent crops.