The month of February was quite dry. In our soil moisture example site above (located in the heart of the Russian River Valley), only about 0.9" of rain were recorded during that month, though we are staring at more rainfall now that March has arrived.

The soil moisture content charts (above) include individual levels (8" through 48" at 8" increments) in the lower chart while the upper chart shows average moisture content in the profile (all 6 sensors). We see that, in January, most levels were at saturation with the substantial rainfall that fell then (note how the curves "flat top"). The total/average profile moisture shows a similar pattern during January, where the relative moisture content hovered about 84%. We see how, since January, moisture content had dropped off by the end of February, breaking below saturation at most levels, including 40", though 48" still appears to be at saturation.

The rains in early March brought moisture levels back to saturation, which will then drain off to be at field capacity. There was sufficient rainfall received in just those few days to bring the profile back to full, which is what we hope to have occurred by this time of year.

With budbreak occurring, the dry February does not seem to have had any effect on the moisture conditions to start the season, thanks to the rainfall recently received. So, what will happen now? We'll keep monitoring.

if you want to do similar moisture monitoring, let us know. We have new, low-cost ways to remotely sense soil moisture. Email us or call us at 707-838-3805.

Its not too late to sign up for our custom pest and disease scouting services

The growing season is upon us and with it comes weed and insect pests and diseases. We've crafted a program of intensive monitoring of vineyards, which will involve spatial mapping of problematic pests and diseases, identifying on maps where the problems are occurring, so they can be treated locally and monitored for effectiveness of the corrections.

We can do weekly or bi-weekly scouting of your vineyards. In addition, we can do trap monitoring for important insect pests and vectors, and make specific, unbiased recommendations for control.

This level of scouting and reporting is unprecedented and we are excited to bring it to growers in the region. Starting around $50/acre per year, it is also cost-effective. 

Email Dan, our PCA, or call us at 707-838-3805.

A big step towards sustainability: Moisture monitoring services and irrigation guidance from an expert human viticulturist!

Moisture monitoring of both plant and soil, is essential for bringing out the best in any vineyard. Avoid excessive irrigation, find out if dry-farming is possible, and make a big step towards sustainable viticulture. And don't forget that, with our moisture management services, wine quality is almost always improved without any loss in productivity.

Water is our specialty. We can provide a full season of weekly plant and soil monitoring for as little as $400 per site per season.

We can also provide specific irrigation guidance, from an expert viticulturist, not a computer model!

Email us or call us at 707-838-3805.

Vineyard consulting and vineyard management taken from the standpoint of what is appropriate for YOU. Our goal is to help you create a product that provides value for you as a grower, you as a winemaker, or you as grower and winemaker. We never rubber stamp anything we do - everything is based on your needs, no matter if you are growing, buying, or both. The only thing constant is our attention to detail and committment to sustainable farming. We can do custom vineyard operations for you this year or manage your vineyard from A to Z. Call us for affordable, yet precise soil and plant moisture monitoring equipment and services. General or specific vineyard improvements? Mark Greenspan, Ph.D., CPAg, CCA, is eager to turn problems into solutions for our clients. No challenge is too great. Try us! 

We're seeing dry soils in the upper 12-18" of soil, but most sites have plenty of moisture down deep. Don't guess! Measuring soil and plant moisture has been a game changer for numerous growers. Give it a try. We can rent you equipment if you aren't sure or have a constrained budget. Call us and find out how affordable moisture monitoring can be. 

(707) 838-3805

We are pleased to announce the addition of John Camastro to our team. John will be performing hand and mechanical tasks in our managed vineyards as well as supervising operations. John has a degre form the University of Washington School of Fisheries with a BS in fishery science. He has been involved with construction and has run his own excavating company prior to joining us. We look forward to having John help us to farm more vineyards with an eye toward attention to detail and true sustainability.

This may be a VERY challenging year for water management. We're hoping for substantial rainfall going forward, but it looks like a dry year is coming regardless. We have systems to help you manage your vineyard water that are extremely cost-competitive to some of the complicated, and expensive solutions being offered. We have over a quarter century of experience in vineyard water relations and management and can offer thoughtful and cost-effective ways to handle the challenges coming at us. Come see us at the Unified Symposium in booth 644 (main floor) so that we can discuss it with you. You may be surprised at how effectively you can manage vineyard water without breaking the bank.

We hate limited time offeres as much as the next person, but there is good incentive to act right away if you are considering adding technology to your vineyard for irrigation or energy management. The NRCS' EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) deadline is November 15. Their program will cover nominally 1/2 the costs of your new equipment. Let us know if you are interested and we will connect you with the right person.

The IRS section 179 allows a business to depreciate 100% of the costs of equipment during the year it was purchsed *. That's a huge tax incentive! Current limits are $500,000 for the year, but it is scheduled to drop to only $25,000 in 2014, unless a change is enacted to restore it. Another great incentive to furnish your operation with weather stations, irrigation monitoring, pump control, water level sensors, etc. 

On another note, let us remind you of the optioni to lease (to own) your new equipment. Advanced Viticulture has partnered with Paramount Financial Group to offer leasing packages for Weather Stations, Soil Moisture monitoring, and other vineyard monitoring and control technologies. Leasing provides the means to get your vineyard equipped with state-of-the-art technology without the need for a large outlay of capital. Several packages are available and most have a $1 buyout feature available, so that you will own the eqiupment at the end of the leasing period. The process is seamless and easy. Give us a call or email to inquire about the leasing options and we will guide you through the easy process.

*Talk to your accountant about section 179 - we are not able to give tax advice.

It sure looks like we may be in for a second very dry year, or so the long-term forecasts and recent history tell us. We certainly wish for wetter weather so that our soil profiles can fill up for the upcoming growing season. But that may not happen. What will you do? Water management is our strong suit, so consider our services to help you decide how to manage your vineyard water needs under any conditions - wet or dry. Soil and plant moisture monitoring, irrigation advisory, and other cultural practices support are all offered by Advanced Viticulture to help guide you through the season. Come see us at Dollars and $ense in Santa Rosa and at the Unified Symposium in Sacramento this month. Let us show you our soil moisture monitoring technologies and how we can provide cost-effective solutions for vineyards. A phone call costs you nothing, but doing nothing could be a big mistake! 707-838-3805.

We are getting calls for real-time monitoring of not only pond and tank levels, but also for monitoring well water levels. Water reserves are almost assuredly going to be lower than they have been in a while. While we have a full soil moisture profile to start off the season, how long will that last and how much reserve to you have? As your local reseller for Ranch Systems products, we are able to help you in multiple aspects of water monitoring. And while soil moisture monitoring is our specialty, we can integrate water level monitoring, flow monitoring and irrigation control into the system. Be prepared for what is coming down the pike. Don't wait. Give us a call at 707-838-3805 and we can discuss what is possible.

Mark Greenspan was an invited speaker at the ASEV Water Use Efficiency Symposium, held in Austin, Texas on June 24, 2014, which preceeded their annual conference. He presented on employing current research and technologies to help determine the water needs of the vineyard. Focusing on vine water status measurements and continuous soil moisture measurements, he told the audience that they probably can irrigate their vineyards less than they think they need to, but that measurements are essential to avoid over-stressing their vines. A wealth of other domestic and international experts were on hand at the symposium and an article on the symposium can be found here: 

http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=134991

The Russian Riverkeeper Board of Directors and staff have selected Mark Greenspan as the finalist for this year’s Business Water Conservation Award. The award will be presented at this year's River Awards Gala on September 24th.

Mark was chosen because of all his work on vineyard irrigation efficiency and his 2012 Middle Reach Russian River Vineyard Irrigation Demonstration Project that provided valuable information on agronomic rates for irrigation with recycled water. These efforts help achieve one of the most important goals of achieving watershed resilience in the face of Climate Change by reducing water use and assisting with protecting high quality groundwater. 

Mark will be unable to attend the event, and the award will be accepted by one of Mark's associates. To quote Mark: "I would like to thank the Russian River Keepers for this honor. Our approach to precision water management provides for a very efficient use of water resources for wine grape growing. This benefits the grower in lower farming costs; benefits the winery in improved wine quality; and has the added benefit of water conservation. Grapevines are a very water-thrifty crop and we should be happy that they are a part of the landscape of this region."

Mark will be travelling to Chile at that time at the request of some of the Chilean growers. Mark will be speaking to growers on vineyard irrigation management and on state-of-the-art vineyards in the north coast. Mark hopes to gain some knowledge and experience from the Chilean growers and maybe even get a Wine Business Monthly column out of it! 

We offer state-of-the-art pest and disease scouting services for vineyards. Our scouting service includes WEEKLY vineyard inspections from the beginning of the season through harvest, providing a high-intensity, high-frequency alert system for your vineyard. Don't let disease get ahead of you ever again!

We have two PCAs on staff and we can also provide specific, independent, plant protection recommendations tailored to your vineyard and to the company where you typically buy your materials.

Pricing starts around $50/acre for the whole year and varies depending on site. A great value for your vineyard in obtaining a set of trained eyes on your vines throughout the growing season. Contact us for a no obligation, no pressure quotation. 

Although we have always considered ourselves to be practitioners of sustainable viticultural practices, we felt it important to become certified sustainable under the California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing, administered by the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance.

Sonoma County wine growers, led by the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission, are well on their way towards their goal of having 100% of their vineyards certified under this program. We are proud to be a part of this community of growers and just as proud to be complying with the California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing. We will continue to evaluate and upgrade our practices under this program. 

We Won an Award!

We're proud to announce that Advanced Viticulture was chosen as the "best" vineyard management company in the North Bay Businiess Journal's Wine Industry Awards ceremony, held on November 30, 2016 in Santa Rosa.

We are grateful to our clients who nominated us for this award and are honored to have received it this time around. Our vineyard manager, Alec Roser and his team have done some great work in vineyard development and management and this award belongs to them. Click here for an article on our company that appeared in the North Bay Business Journal. 

We'll be at the Unified Symposium! Come see us in booth 314, main floor

The Unified Wine and Grape Symposium continues to be the largest wine and grape trade show and symposium in North America. As we have done for numerous years, we will be there on the exhibition floor, ready to greet our friends, colleagues and clients as well as meeting new people. To us, this symposium is the unofficial start of the new vintage.

Come see us to talk to our viticultural team, including Mark Greenspan, our company President and former president of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture. Alec Roser will also be on hand to discuss the art of vineyard development and management.

We continue to sell and support various water management technologies, including soil moisture, plant moisture, weather stations and irrigation control. We've now got some new technologies available and some even newer ones we are now evaluating.

Talk to us about our brewed-to-order compost tea product, to improve your soil's health.

Talk to us about viticultural consulting, for general viticulture, irrigation management and pest monitoring and control.

We'll be in booth 314 on the main floor. We may have some free exhibit hall passes available - contact us if interested. 

Well, almost free. The Sonoma (Resource Conservation District) RCD has grant assistance funding available to work with a limited number of grape growers to conduct irrigation system evaluations in conjunction with soil and plant stress monitoring provided by Advanced Viticulture. The RCD is looking for interested candidates in the Mark West Creek, Mill Creek, Petaluma River, and Sonoma Creek watersheds. Please contact us if you are interested in this opportunity. Growers will be asked to contribute only 15% of the cost of the hardware and services.The grant funding will provide the balance of the cost.

A great opportunity to get some valuable insight into your own moisture management practices if you are in one of the watersheds listed. If you are interested, please contact Keith Abeles at Sonoma RCD at kabeles@sonomarcd.org or 707-569-1448 extension 112. Or contact us at Advanced Viticulture, JT@advancedvit.com or 707-838-3805.

If you are outside these watershed areas, give us a call anyway and we can discuss moisture monitoring and advising services for your vineyard too.

We've Moved!

To accomodate our growing services list and our increasing staff, we've moved our office to a larger space. Our new space has much more room for each of us, a full-size conference space, and a "lab" space where we can configure our field electronics before deployment in the field. We're all very excited!

When Advanced Viticulture started almost 12 years ago, it was just me and a desk in the corner of my bedroom (and an ATV in the garage). Since that time, we've moved three times, increasing our office spaces and enlarging our equipment yard. We look forward to hosting meeting with our clients here.

We're still at the same address; just at a different location within the complex. 930 Shiloh Road, Building 44, Suite E in Windsor (off of Shiloh Road). Hope to see you here soon! 

Springtime ushers in new hope for a great new vintage. As growers, we can only hope. But, we can also be proactive. As the vines wake up, their roots grow and reach out to explore and extract nutrients from the soil. Early-season fertilization will help some vineyards to achieve a full canopy with healthy, functional leaves. But, don't throw on fertilizers without some knowledge of the overall nutrient status of the vineyard, especially with regard to nitrogen. Excessive N fertilization or fertilization with N fertilizers to a vineyard that tends to be vigorous can be counterproductive. Take the advice of a good expert. You know who they are.

Also, consider promoting the microbial diversity of your soils by applying a good-quality compost tea to your vineyard. Compost teas are active cultures of microbes, bacterial and fungal, which aid in the cycling of nutrients in the soil and allow for better uptake of nutrients to the vine. You can brew your own compost tea or call us and we can custom-brew a batch for you and provide it to you fresh for injection through your drip irrigation system. At around $3/gallon, it's an economical and impactful component of your sustainable soil and vine management tool set. For more information, please contact us at JT@advancedvit.com or 707-838-3805. 

A pest or disease outbreak can be devastating to your growing season, costing you up to a complete loss of crop. Keep an eye on your vineyard for pest and disease outbreaks. If you need assistance with that, we can provide it. Vineyard inspections, either weekly or bi-weekly, throughout the growing season, we will identify the problems when they are still easily treatable. We can potentially save you not only your crop, but your reputation as a wine grower. Talk to us about our pest and disease monitoring and insect trapping services. For more information, contact our PCA, Dan Vyenielo at dan@advancedvit.com or call us at 707-838-3805. 

Don't let this happen to you! 

If your irrigation system uses an electric pump or pumps and is connected to a PG&E meter, you may be able to get your vineyard's irrigation system automated with a substantial portion paid by PG&E. PG&E's automated demand response (ADR) program asks that a participating grower's pump be shut off from 1 to 5 hours during the peak demand portion of the day, for about 15 days during the growing season. Growers participating in the program get an initial payment to cover the costs (up to 75%) of an irrigation automation system which, in addition to automated valve control, may include soil and plant moisture, weather, and other monitoring features. Additionally, growers are paid cash or bill credits for each temporary pump control event. Growers are given advanced notice of these temporary downtime events.

This is a great way to get a state-of-the-art irrigation automation and monitoring system installed in your vineyard at a fraction of its cost otherwise. We can help you with design and installation of a wireless system that requires essentially no disruption of your existing infrastructure.

This is an exciting program. Get involved while it is still available! Application is very easy and requires minimal paperwork, with which we can help you. Inquire with Mark (mark@advancedvit.com) or JT (JT@advancedvit.com) or call us at 707-838-3805. 

This winter was the wettest on record. I've had some growers ask me or joke "so we won't need to irrigate this year, right!?". Well, as most of you probably know, that is not the case at all. There is a finite amount of water storage in our soils, referred to as water holding capacity (WHC), defined per depth of soil, but also spanning the depth of the effective root zone. Beyond that WHC, any additional moisture will either run off, or percolate below the root zone. Soils in the north coast were essentially at field capacity in December of 2016, so all of that heavy rainfall did not contribute one drop of additional moisture storage to vineyard soils. It's really the spring rainfall that dictates how we manage vineyard water. Late spring rainfall forces us to combat that extra available moisture through vineyard management practices, such as delayed suckering and thinning, cover crop and floor management, and possibly less fertilization.

Next month, take a look at my article on the subject in the June issue of Wine Business Monthly, where I go into greater detail. In that article, I stress the importance of soil moisture management. There are new technologies that are bringing us the ability to automatically monitor vine water status (stress). I feel that some of the best are still to come, now being field-tested. We are participating in the testing of one of the devices and are also involved with another of them. Despite our increasing ability to monitor vine stress, the need for soil moisture monitoring is not reduced by any means. With knowledge of where root activity is occurring and where moisture continues to be available, soil moisture monitoring allows us to apply irrigation later into the growing season. Oftentimes, we've been able to dry farm vineyards previously irrigated. Also, continuous electronic soil moisture monitoring allows us to determine the depth of each irrigation and precisely how many days elapse for vines to extract that moisture. No modelling - just highly repeatable results from irrigation-to-irrigation and from season-to-season.

I gave a presentation recently at the Sonoma County Winegrower's Sustainability Field Day. Check it out by clicking here.

Mark Greenspan

For more information about soil moisture monitoring, contact Mark at mark@advancedvit.com or JT at JT@advancedvit.com or 707-838-3805.

No, we never get tired of promoting the use of soil moisture for vineyards. Having adopted them in 2010 after eschewing them for decades, we now feel that they are one of the most valuable pieces of information out there for growers. And they are becoming more affordable, at least with respect to the conveyance of this information to your computer screen, portable device or phone.

We're working as re-sellers for several different companies now and you will be pleasantly surprised at the affordability as well as quality of these systems for soil moisture monitoring as well as any other monitoring or control purpose. Be pleasantly surprised. Call us at 707-838-3805 or reach out to Mark at mark@advancedvit.com or JT at JT@advancedvit.com.

Oh, and by the way, those devices we installed in 2010 are still working just fine!

Please join us at the Advanced Viticulture Offices on Friday November 17^th from 10:00 to 11:30am for a USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) presentation on available technical and financial assistance for conservation work on vineyards through their Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

There are opportunities for qualified applicants of federal funding for vineyard projects available through the USDA NRCS Petaluma Field Office that demonstrate a conservation benefit. Projects often include (but are not limited to): irrigation system improvements, soil moisture monitoring, flow meters and weather station implementation, cover crop and mulching, wildlife boxes, hedgerow and insectary plantings, field borders and filters strips, and riparian area improvements.Fire recovery programs will also be discussed.

Brooke Pippi, NRCS Petaluma Field Office Engineer, will be presenting this information and has 10 years experience with assisting growers in Sonoma and Marin counties.Keith Abeles from the Sonoma RCD will discuss programs and services that they offer to growers, in the realms of water management and fire damage support.

We will also briefly discuss the PG&E ADR program, which will subsidize irrigation automation projects.

Advanced Viticulture will be showcasing products from water management technology partners they represent, but this will not be a sales-focused discussion.

Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to Advanced Viticulture by November 14th to attend this exciting discussion and opportunity!

RSVP or email questions and comments to paul@advancedvit.com

Thank you,

Low-cost weather and soil moisture monitoring with EnviroMonitor

We've been looking for an affordable telemetry solution for soil moisture monitoring. We have found it!  The Davis Enviromonitor system is your simple, reliable and inexpensive tool for crop monitoring.

• Mesh network to monitor many locations across a property, inexpensively.
• Connect soil moisture probes, such as Aquacheck, who are also partners of AV.
• Connect weather station sensors, irrigation sensors, and really just about any kind of sensor
• Telemetry nodes have an MSRP under $400 each and AV discounts ALL Davis Instruments equipment below MSRP.

A great way to monitor everything in your vineyard.

Advanced Viticulture is an authorized re-seller for Davis Instruments.