How Growers are Gaining Unprecedented Visibility Into Their Irrigation Systems

With Flow Vision, our latest product improvement, Lumo users will now get full visibility into the flow rate during irrigations and will be able to access

How James A. King Keeps Vineyards Running Smoothly -Lumo

For over twenty years, James has kept things running smoothly at dozens of vineyards, navigating droughts and labor shortages

Why Trust is the Key to Delivering on the Promise of Irrigation Automation

For irrigation automation to live up to its promise, growers must be able to trust their system.

Smart Irrigation Valves vs. Smart Irrigation Controllers for Automation - LUMO

Smart irrigation controllers require components to form a complete system. That means sourcing parts from different manufacturers and sourcing software from a developer and trying to install them so that they work harmoniously together.

Water Pumps for Vineyards Explained: What?s Powering Your Irrigation System? - Lumo

There are four common pump types for irrigation use. Each operates on a different mechanism for different purposes, mostly informed by the water source that you're pumping from.

Lumo detects major leak with smart irrigation valve's built-in flow meter.

www.lumo.ag uses sensors in its smart valve to track flow data and compare it to what we would expect given the design of the irrigation network up and downs...

It’s generally believed that farmers are slow to adopt new technology. Yet, while this adage may be true for more expensive and untested innovations, when a new technology is practical, affordable and can prove its value and reliability, farmers will indeed set aside their innate caution and readily invest.

Tyler Klick is a case in point. As the viticulturist and a co-owner of Redwood Empire Vineyard Management in Geyserville, CA, he decided to try an innovative smart irrigation technology developed by Lumo. Klick first installed Lumo smart valves on a few client vineyards last season. After seeing how they helped increase labor efficiency, reduce wasted water, and improve clients’ crop outcomes, he rolled it out to more than a dozen vineyards his company manages. “I’d love to get to a point where all of our clients have it installed,” says Klick.

Another Lumo customer took advantage of that automation capability to save on labor and energy costs. After installing Lumo smart valves in two blocks in 2023, this season Wente Vineyards deployed them across 100 acres on their Ernest ranch. Their goal was to automate irrigation cycles to run during non-peak hours, allowing them to take advantage of lower energy rates.

Wente’s Viticulture Manager, Hannah Lindner, says, “All our valves were manual before, and we had to send irrigation teams out to open and close each valve at the beginning and end of the day — a continuous job. With the Lumo smart valves, we have this micro-control, and we have confidence in the valves' ability to give us the quality we want from the vineyard.” Lindner also knows that if a leak occurs while everyone is sleeping, the Lumo system will send an alert.

Lumo’s founder and CEO, Devon Wright, explains that “Lumo gives the farmer confidence. You can’t have reliable automation without accountability. A system that opens and closes valves doesn’t meet the automation goal. A farmer needs to be confident that the right amount of water comes out without having to pay people to go make sure the pump is on and there are no leaks.”

Hannah Lindner, Viticulture Manager, Wente 

These are money-saving assists for farmers, but Lumo goes far beyond turning water on and off automatically. It enhances their visibility into irrigation issues that can be difficult to detect by eye. For example, determining how much water the system is emitting or whether filters are clogged. Farmers can use Lumo’s software to track flow rates on their mobile devices, making it easy to see if they dip below expectation. If they do, a team member can go out to flush the filters or resolve any other problems needed to return the performance to the desired rate. Relying solely on in-person oversight in the field might have delayed bringing a similar issue to light for days, resulting in the crop being underwatered. Other irrigation strategies include scheduling repeated irrigation patterns, such as half-hour on and half-hour off, for growers with sandier soil or hardpan so that no water is wasted.

In addition to increased labor, energy and water efficiency, growers like Lindner and Klick find that adopting Lumo’s more precise tracking of irrigation volumes improves yield and quality measures. At the same time, the data it collects lets them learn from each season and dial in their precision.

Installing Lumo smart valves takes as little as one-tenth of the time needed for other systems since there’s no need to trench in wires. It’s also three to five times more affordable than trying to piece together solenoid valves, sensors, telemetry units and software.

Lumo’s success in making precision irrigation easier to execute than ever for its customers has led to rapid expansion in the Livermore, Lodi, Napa and Sonoma County regions, establishing a solid client base that is, in turn, expanding its deployment of Lumo smart valves in their vineyards. These customers know that Lumo is committed to the grape-growing industry, and the company’s expansion into new regions in 2025 will reinforce that they’re here to stay.

To learn more about Lumo’s smart valves with 24/7 remote control, real-time alerts and block-level visibility, contact letsgrow@lumo.ag or visit www.lumo.ag

Irrigation comprises 70% of global freshwater use and is growing faster than any other water usage source. Combine that with the first megadrought (a drought that lasts at least 20 years) in the western US since the late 1500s, and the significance of that consumption gains critical importance. Wineries and vineyard owners facing these challenging conditions are altering their agricultural practices in response.

Devon Wright and co-founders of the Agtech startup Lumo, John Hinnegan and renowned water technology inventor, Henry Halimi, joined forces to develop a revolutionary solution to help growers protect this precious resource.

Lumo's first-of-its-kind smart valve gives growers new tools to optimize water usage by going beyond timers to manage irrigation flow. It is the first valve to have a built-in controller, the first to have a built-in flow sensor with the option for users to add a pressure sensors, and the first to be fully wireless and internet-connected. The sensors detect water flow rate and pressure, signaling the valve to open and close when needed to meet volume goals set by the grower instead of relying on timers or manual intervention.

Since Lumo’s smart valve captures data from the sensors and the flow of water through the valve, a vineyard manager can monitor real-time irrigation activity without being onsite. As governmental regulations lock in more restrictions and reporting requirements, growers can instantly generate compliance reports with this usage data.

Water savings are dramatic because vineyard managers can tailor irrigation to each block or sub-block, giving them precision control over the amount of water applied. They can also monitor for system leaks or clogs without being onsite and set parameters to trigger Lumo alerts when flows exceed the limits so they can take immediate action. The combination of sensors and software saves grape growers labor costs because they eliminate the need to visit the vineyard in person to confirm that irrigation valves are performing correctly.

Wright, Lumo’s CEO, says, “We are dedicated to combating water scarcity by streamlining irrigation. The Lumo smart valve gives growers control over their irrigation systems and makes a positive impact on both their bottom line and the environment. The future of irrigation is here, and Lumo is leading the way.”

Wine grape growers participating in early-stage trials have reported 20-30% water savings, and Lumo already has buy-in from notable wine producers. Clos du Val, Bohème, Price Family and Pine Ridge Vineyards (a Crimson Group brand that recently earned International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA) Silver Membership) have joined the early access program. Each will receive a portion of the 250 smart valves Lumo will manufacture in 2023 and a seat on Lumo’s Customer Advisory Board to help guide future direction. There are still a few seats left at that table for pioneering wineries. Interested parties should visit lumo.ag or email LetsGrow@lumo.ag. 

Visit Lumo’s Booth #A2821 at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, January 25-26, 2023 to see smart valve prototypes and a demo of the irrigation management software.

More and more farms are standardizing their use of Lumo across their entire operation. 

We’ve seen growers expand from a couple ranches to dozens. From 50 acres to over 2,000.

That kind of expansion is built on seeing significant returns on investment season after season. 

But everyone needs to start somewhere, so it’s only natural to ask: "If I want to see the highest return on my investment in Lumo, which ranches should I start with?"

Here’s a couple ways to think about it:

1. Highest Value Crops

Many growers start with ranches where their crop values are the highest because that’s where irrigating with precision pays the most. 

It’s part of the reason we’ve seen such good success in Napa and Sonoma with many of the best wine growers in the world, and it’s why we’re seeing increasing interest from berry growers on the Central Coast. 

If dialing in your irrigation precision can have a modest impact on yield, uniformity, or fruit size or quality, the investment is going to pay for itself many times over in a very short time, often the very first season.

2. Remote Ranches

The farther you have to drive, the more automation makes sense from a labor-saving perspective. 

When end-to-end automation is saving you a couple hours of drive time on every irrigation, it doesn’t take long to pencil out. Saving all that time, and money on fuel, makes the math work, even without any of the other benefits of greater precision, or reducing risk or pumping costs.

3. Ranches Where the Irrigation System is Underpowered

Another way folks see big returns is when their current pump and irrigation infrastructure is underpowered for the amount of acreage and the density of plants it’s intended to cover. 

We see this a lot on the North Coast where vineyards have expanded over the years, or vines have been replanted at higher densities, and the irrigation system wasn’t upgraded. When you’re limited to irrigating only when you have labor available during the day, it can take a week or more to get water down across the ranch. 

With Lumo, you can run the system around the clock, scheduling sets back to back, and can cut that time down considerably. Ahead of big heat events, that kind of speed matters. It can preserve yield and quality that you otherwise would’ve lost. 

When you can lose 30% of your yield in a day, Lumo can make a huge difference to your topline revenue, which translates to a massive return on investment.

4. Ranches Running Super Frequent, Labor-Intensive Irrigations

This is another one where we’re seeing more interest from berry growers because they’re running a pulse irrigation strategy, or spoonfeeding their berries, with many short duration irrigations/fertigations. 

And also where orchards are seeing great results when they need to run short, but frequent sprinkler schedules. If your irrigation team has to run around all day on ATVs constantly opening and closing valves, automation is going to make a ton of financial sense.

5. Ranches where you know there are issues and have had problematic blocks.

Finally, another area where growers see high ROI is when they’ve suspected their irrigation system hasn’t been performing as expected, but have had no way to quantify the problem. 

There are lots of flavors of this. 

• Pumps that are underperforming
• Situations where tanks have been regularly running dry during sets
• Instances where there’s a shared water resource and when everyone’s pumping at the same time there are huge dips in pressure
• Old infrastructure that’s declined further in performance than anyone realized, or where the irrigation system has been altered over time and no one really knows exactly what the baseline performance should be

Lumo brings all of these issues to light and makes it possible to quantify their impact. That typically leads to immediate changes in how long irrigations are running for and creates urgency around doing the necessary maintenance to the system to get performance where it needs to be. 

There’s been lots of situations where growers have invested in Lumo and been able to avoid ripping out a block because they realized the problem was system performance, not the plants. They were just consistently putting on way too much or way too little water. And once they got the visibility they needed, they made adjustments and production improved. 

In those situations, the system basically paid for itself on day one. 

If you're interested in learning more about where to start with precision irrigation automation and how the potential financial returns, you should check out one of our upcoming irrigation workshops.

When you’re weighing your irrigation automation options for your next vineyard development project, there are good reasons to consider putting Lumo in from the start.

1. Faster Vine Establishment

With Lumo installed, you’re never going to miss irrigations, which is especially important during heat events that can damage young vines. Everything will run automatically according to the schedule you set, even overnight and on weekends and holidays. 

You’ll eliminate the risk of under or over-irrigating because you’ll be tracking water volumes at a block level and you’ll receive alerts whenever there’s something up with your irrigation system performance. 

Nailing your irrigation upfront is critical to the longevity of your vines, ensuring their roots get properly established and improving the long-term productivity of your vineyard. 

With Lumo in from the start, you can be 100% certain your vines are getting the care they need to thrive.

2. Lower Labor Costs

Lumo automates your valves and pump, and catches issues as they happen, which saves you from having to send an irrigator out just to turn on water and check the lines. 

With the high demands of young vines, those savings add up quick. 

Trips to the ranch get reduced to only what’s required for repairs and maintenance, and even those trips are quicker and more targeted because they’re based on real-time declines in flow and pressure data. 

When a filter needs to be flushed, you’ll see a decline in flow, receive an alert, and can go flush that filter specifically to return your system performance back to normal.

3. Greater Design Flexibility

Putting in Lumo from the jump also saves you the cost of putting in manual hardware and can simplify your irrigation system design in ways that reduce material costs. 

Designing with Lumo automation in mind lifts the traditional constraints on block sizes and shapes, where valves can be located, and how many separate blocks are practical for irrigating.

Setting up different irrigation zones accounting for soil types and depths, water holding capacity, and for that narrow gravel streak running through the middle of the vineyard, makes a big difference for improving uniformity and directly impacts yield and quality down the line. Plus it will make your fertigations more precise.

Traditionally, this hasn’t been practical because when your irrigator drives out they’re just going to end up irrigating it all pretty much the same anyway. 

But with Lumo, you can easily schedule each soil type for slightly different amounts of water. You can schedule the gravel streak 3x per week, you can irrigate the heavier clay soil 20% less than sandy clay loam, and so on. 

Because you schedule it all from your smartphone or laptop, and it runs automatically, no combination of irrigation amounts or times is impractical.

4. A Bulletproof Record of Irrigation From Day One

If your vine take rate is low, one of the first questions you’ll get from the nursery is whether your vines were adequately watered. 

With Lumo in from the beginning, you’ll have a clear record of exactly when and how much water the vines received, and will be able to show definitively that under-irrigating or poor system performance wasn’t the cause. 

In addition, water totals per vine and block will be easily accessible and exportable at any time for any compliance or reporting requirements.

5. Set Yourself Up for Long-Term Success

The future of vineyard irrigation is efficient, precise and data-driven. 

Labor is only going to get more expensive and harder to find. Water is the same. Energy costs. Regulatory compliance. Climate volatility. Profitability. Pick your poison. Every reason to automate is getting stronger by the day. 

And Lumo is emerging as the clear choice for vineyards. Lumo is now installed at over 180 ranches in Napa, Sonoma, the Central Coast, Washington State and the Okanagan. And the Lumo system delivered over 650 million gallons of water with block-level precision in 2025 alone. 

More and more winegrowers are standardizing on Lumo because they’ve seen the power of the data.

They know Lumo is the precision irrigation platform of the future, the system that’s going to ensure they hit their irrigation plan across every block, every time. 

Less labor. More precise watering. Increasing take rates. Protecting your infrastructure. Just one of these alone can pay for the Lumo system and provide returns well into the future. 

Using Lumo for your next vineyard development project is the best way to ensure your vines get confidently established and that your vineyard is set up for long-term commercial success. 

Why wouldn’t you want to do that right off the bat?  

If you're working on a new vineyard development project and would like to chat about getting Lumo installed from the start, you can shoot us an email at LetsGrow@Lumo.ag or request a demo with our team.

Is there a hole in your irrigation execution? 

Are you glazed and confused by your irrigation system performance? 

Are irrigation issues costing you way too much dough? 

Do-nut fear, Lumo is here 

There are two really important things you need to know. 

1. Lumo's giving away free Krispy Kreme donuts at the Unified Wine Grape Symposium. Booth #1932. Jan 28th 10:00 AM & 2:00 PM and Jan 29th 11:00 AM. While quantities last. Do-nut miss it. 

2. That hole in your execution? That lack of visibility into system performance? Those climbing irrigation costs? Yeah, Lumo can help with those too. 

Nail Your Irrigation Plan. Every block. Every time.

With Lumo, growers can automate their irrigations from pump to plant, track pressure and flow at a block-level on every irrigation, and get automatic text alerts about leaks, clogs and any other issues that pop up in the field. 

The result is precise, efficient, fully automated irrigation execution. 

With full visibility into performance and volume-based control, growers are finally able to irrigate to plan with confidence and peace of mind.

Growers Go Nuts for Donuts…Er, Lumo

Of course, we’re very aware that you’ve heard all these promises countless times before. We’ve seen the unplugged automation controllers and timer systems gathering dust. 

But there’s a reason Lumo’s grown to over 180+ farms in just over three seasons, despite an incredibly challenging farm economy. And there’s a reason growers continue to expand their use of Lumo at a rate of 400% year-over-year. 

And that reason is simple - Lumo works. 

Just listen to what growers have to say:

“The best tool in my irrigation toolbox.” - Hunter Emch, REVM 

“Yield, crop quality, reduced labor - we're seeing real gains.” - Chris Mark, Vintality 

“One of the best things to hit the industry in 20 years.” - Ryan Decker, Clos du Val 

“We automated almost every irrigation set last season.” - Andrew Oliver, Antinori 

“It’s everything everyone else says they can do but Lumo actually does it.” - Tyler Klick, REVM

The First One’s Free - Exclusive Unified Offer 

Even better, we’re currently running a great promotion for Unified - buy four valves, get one free! 

The promotion is on now and can be redeemed up until March 20th, 2026. 

Go to Lumo.ag/first-ones-free to claim your free valve today. 

Or if you’re headed to the show, swing by for a donut and check out what the krème de la krème of precision irrigation systems has to offer. 

Lumo Partners with Wyatt to Expand and Improve Precision Irrigation for Winegrowers in Napa and Sonoma

“Over the years, we’ve evaluated countless irrigation automation solutions. Lumo is head and shoulders above the rest in its simplicity, ease of use, and ability to help growers irrigate to plan. Lumo is the new standard in vineyard irrigation and it’s a solution we believe we’ll see deployed across thousands of acres in Napa and Sonoma.”

That’s Tim Goetz, Irrigation Designer at Wyatt Irrigation, talking about why Wyatt and Lumo are launching a new strategic partnership to drive expansion and standardization across the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma.

The stats don’t lie.

In 2025, Lumo delivered over 650 million gallons of water with block-level precision across 150+ vineyards, including Treasury, JFW, Trinchero, Delicato, Antinori, Chateau Montelena and Clos du Val.

Between rapidly rising labor costs and shortages, soft market demand and increased water regulation, winegrowers today are under a ton of pressure to increase efficiency.

Improving their irrigation systems with Lumo’s proven precision irrigation platform is one of the highest return ways to improve fruit quality, while also reducing labor costs and system risks.

Wyatt has been working with Lumo for the past three seasons as design advisors and market experts to ensure Lumo is reliable, properly supported in the field, and truly drives better business outcomes for growers.

Wyatt has seen countless automation solutions come and go over the years, making the same promises over and over again. They’re keenly aware of the risks and have been cautious when vetting new technologies. They don’t take partnerships like this one lightly.

But Lumo’s traction in the region to date has been undeniable with growers expanding their use of Lumo by 4X in back-to-back years. Growers wouldn’t adopt and expand their use of a product at this rate if it wasn’t working in the field and producing tangible cost savings.

They also wouldn’t put up signs like this one which you may have seen around.

“It’s high time that winegrowers in Napa and Sonoma standardized on a single irrigation automation platform,” said Jay Pelm, President of Wyatt Irrigation Supply. “Doing so will lower the cost through economies of scale, deliver greater innovation through shared learnings, and ensure the solution sticks around and continues to drive value in the years to come.”

Lumo has worked side-by-side with many of the best winegrowers in the world to build a precision irrigation system that fits their needs like a glove. They’ve put a local team in place, built lasting relationships in the region, and are perfectly positioned to support continued growth.

“We are tremendously excited about working more closely with Wyatt and grateful for their ongoing support and expertise,” said Devon Wright, Lumo’s CEO. “Lumo would not be the product it is today without Wyatt, and formalizing the partnership can only mean bigger and better things for winegrowers in the seasons to come.”

Wyatt’s philosophy around selling products has always been simple: Do it right, and do it once.

If you’re looking to perfect your vineyard’s irrigation, the message is clear: Do it right. Do it once. Do it with Lumo.

To irrigate to plan across every block, or to upgrade your existing irrigation system to drive better performance and precision, go to Lumo.ag to book a free site visit from Wyatt and Lumo experts.

Santa Rosa, Calif., January 6, 2026—Lumo, the leader in precision irrigation technology for specialty crop growers, today announced a new strategic partnership with Wyatt Irrigation Supply, the most trusted leader in irrigation since 1982, to drive expansion and standardization across the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma.

Winegrowers today are reeling, facing unprecedented pressure from rapidly rising labor costs and shortages, soft market demand, and increased water regulation. To survive, winegrowers must adapt and invest in ways to improve fruit quality and vineyard efficiency.

Improving irrigation systems with a proven precision irrigation platform like Lumo is one of the highest return ways to improve fruit quality, while also reducing labor costs and system risks.

Wyatt has seen countless automation solutions come and go over the years, making the same promises to growers over and over again. They are keenly aware of the risks and have been cautious when vetting new technologies. 

“Over the years, we’ve evaluated countless irrigation automation solutions. Lumo is head and shoulders above the rest in its simplicity, ease of use, and ability to help growers irrigate to plan,” said Tim Goetz, Irrigation Designer at Wyatt Irrigation. “Lumo’s the new standard in vineyard irrigation and it’s a solution we believe we’ll see deployed across thousands of acres in Napa and Sonoma. It can’t happen soon enough.” 

Wyatt has been working with Lumo for the past three seasons as design advisors and market experts. They’ve made many recommendations to Lumo to ensure it was reliable and properly supported in the field, and that it would truly drive better business outcomes for growers.

This has resulted in rapid innovation and unmatched market traction, with Lumo now being used in over 150 vineyards including Treasury, JFW, Trinchero, Delicato, Antinori, Chateau Montelena, Clos du Val, and many more.

With 400% annual expansion rates in back-to-back years, it’s clear that the system is delivering real world results. Growers would not adopt a product at this rate if it wasn’t working in the field and producing tangible cost savings. 

“It’s high time that winegrowers in Napa and Sonoma standardized on a single irrigation automation platform,” said Jay Pelm, President of Wyatt Irrigation Supply. “Doing so will lower the cost through economies of scale, deliver greater innovation through shared learnings, and ensure the solution sticks around and continues to drive value in the years to come.”

Finally, the partnership will provide Wyatt access to an invaluable stream of standardized block-level data that they can use to improve their system designs, further optimize performance, and continue to build on their reputation as the most trusted irrigation partner in the region.

“We are tremendously excited about working more closely with Wyatt and grateful for their ongoing support and expertise,” said Devon Wright, Lumo’s CEO. “Lumo would not be the product it is today without Wyatt and formalizing the partnership can only mean bigger and better things for winegrowers in the seasons to come.”

Wyatt’s philosophy around selling products has always been simple: Do it right, and do it once.

If you’re looking to perfect your vineyard’s irrigation, the message is clear: Do it right. Do it once. Do it with Lumo. 

To irrigate to plan across every block, or to upgrade your existing irrigation system to drive better performance and precision, go to Lumo.ag to book a free site visit from Wyatt and Lumo experts.

About Lumo

Lumo helps growers irrigate to plan across every block, every time. With block-level data and accountable automation, growers are able to close the gap between the volume of water they would like to apply and the volume that actually gets delivered in the field. Assumptions get replaced by verified performance, issues get surfaced immediately through alerts, and irrigation teams get more done in less time. To learn more, check out Lumo.ag

About Wyatt Irrigation Supply

Since 1982, Wyatt Irrigation Supply has built its reputation by taking care of customers and standing behind what we sell. Our team brings decades of hands-on experience, with many employees spending 10, 15, even 30+ years in the irrigation industry. That depth of knowledge shows up every day in how we solve problems, support our customers, and help projects run smoothly. We choose products the same way we build relationships — with the long term in mind. Quality, reliability, and strong vendor support guide every product we bring into our stores. And if something ever goes wrong, we don’t point fingers. We fix it first and make it right. We think of ourselves as a family, and we treat our customers the same way. That approach has kept us here for more than four decades, and it’s why our customers continue to trust Wyatt Irrigation Supply year after year.

“Lumo has been the linchpin in the re-engineering of our approach to water management.” 

Michael and Kara Busselen, the Owners of Woodhawk Vineyards, farm 21 acres of world-class Cabernet Sauvignon for Silver Oak, situated 1,000 feet above sea level, overlooking the Alexander Valley and Russian River at the northern end of Sonoma County. They're also starting to make some of their own high-end Cabernet.

Michael and Kara in the vineyard.

Over the past couple years, they’ve evolved their irrigation strategy in collaboration with Fruition Sciences and Redwood Empire Vineyard Management, supported by data from a sap flow monitor they have installed in one of their blocks. 

The big shift in practice has been getting away from running relatively frequent, short-duration sets and moving toward running longer-duration irrigations less often. “Far fewer but far more strategic,” with the aim of improving the root architecture of the vines and, ultimately, increasing yield. 

The challenge, however, was that their water tank holding capacity was only 55,000 gallons and their four wells couldn’t recharge the tanks fast enough to keep up. They didn’t have the necessary infrastructure in place to deliver those long duration sets without running out of water. 

Capacity Constrained 

“The problem with the old situation, with the manual valves and the wells, was that we would run out of water in our tanks and not be able to sustain the length of watering that was desired to happen.

“We wouldn't know how many gallons we put on before the tank ran dry because we couldn't accurately track flow rates. We didn’t know when we ran out of water.”

Part of the solution was to dig a fifth high-producing well, 450 feet deep in the ground, on the west side of the property. “So now we’re filling the tanks faster and there’s less lag time with moving water from one side of the property to the other.” 

But that didn’t solve the lack of visibility into the volume of water applied. “That’s where Lumo comes in.” 

“Now, with the Lumo valves installed, folks sitting at REVM in Geyserville 15 minutes away, or folks sitting in France half a world away, can be watching what's going on. They can look at the weather forecasts, schedule watering, and then they can actually see that the watering successfully takes place and the cycle gets completed.

“We know we've actually given the water that we wanted to give to the blocks in the timeframe that we wanted to give it, because now we have enough water and we have visibility in terms of what's going on in the vineyard.”

“Lumo has allowed us to go from twice a week irrigations for each vine to once every three weeks, plus or minus, depending on what part of the growing season we’re in. We just didn't have that ability before, “ added Tyler Klick, Partner and Viticulturist at REVM, who manages the day-to-day irrigation execution at the ranch. “It gives us that visibility to know exactly what's happening, when and where. And if we need to allow recharge time, we can do that. Then we can still get the right volume on because we know how much is left to complete the full irrigation.” 

Precision, Labor and Yield

Lots of rain followed by perfect growing days and great fruit set has led to a record number of clusters.

“Success is the ability to deliver the right amount of water at the right time,” said Tyler. “And the other measurement is, did our irrigation cost line item go down over all. Is the ongoing cost less than what we were spending before?” 

“It's time in the truck and man hours and efficiency. We're saving all the drive time from folks going back and forth from Geyserville up here in their trucks to deal with all this stuff and trying to figure out what's going wrong and check the tanks, check this, check that. Now we've got it all dialed in. We've got a record of the whole thing and that's an environmental plus as well,” added Michael. 

“Water's just a huge issue, and it’s certainly not becoming less of an issue. Everybody wants to get the most out of the water they have. Everybody wishes they had more water, and getting more is incredibly expensive and bureaucratic. Sometimes you can’t get a permit to get more water. 

“And the other thing we have going on is climate change. Basically every season we see another day over a hundred degrees than the previous year. It continues to get warmer and warmer, and that really plays into the irrigation strategy. We can't not have the water where it needs to be when we're gonna deal with multiple hundred degree days in a row.

“Efficiency is critical. Every piece of this puzzle is critical for a business owner. 

“It’s essential to get your irrigation system dialed in, get the data, and squeeze the efficiencies out of the model. The goal is minimal cost and maximum return, which is called yield.

“If I get 2% more yield, over a couple of years I can completely erase the cost of the irrigation system technology upgrade. If we get the water to the right place and we get the yield up, then that line item becomes irrelevant. That's how little we need to affect the output in order to cover the cost.

“Lumo is the linchpin of what we've gone through the last few years, so that ultimately we can get the water where we need to, and we know exactly how much water we put on the vine.

“With Lumo and all the infrastructure improvements we’ve made, linked with all the weather data and the sap flow monitors and the consulting, suddenly this year we're looking at potentially the best yield on this vineyard than we've had in a very, very long time.“

Which works great for Woodhawk Vineyards, as they continue to farm for Silver Oak and produce their own Cabernet Sauvignon. With 170 cases of 2023 in the bottle, 280 cases of 2024 in the barrels, and 350 cases of 2025 on the vine, Woodhawk expects to release their 2023 debut vintage in early 2027. Anyone interested in joining the waitlist for these very limited-release Alexander Valley hilltop cabs should visit woodhawkvineyards.com to sign up for updates and release information.

And if you're looking for a way to gain block-level visibility and dial in your own irrigation precision, request a demo or contact us at LetsGrow@lumo.ag

“We successfully automated almost every irrigation set last season,” said Andrew Oliver, Vineyard Manager at Antinori.

“Lumo’s pump automation is an absolute game changer for our team,” agreed Hunter Emch, Northern Unit Area Manager at Redwood Empire Vineyard Management.

REVM and Antinori are two early users of Lumo’s Pump Automation product, a powerful new integration with its smart valve platform that automates irrigation scheduling and execution from end to end.

The solution has already been deployed at ranches ranging in size from 60 to 1,300 acres.

Real-time, block-level flow and pressure data from Lumo smart valves is used to verify performance, dial in precision, and keep critical infrastructure safe.

Over 150 ranches in Napa, Sonoma, the Central Coast, the Okanagan Valley and Washington State are already using Lumo’s precision irrigation system to close their execution gap, increase operational efficiency, and irrigate to plan. In July alone, Lumo’s system delivered over 150 million gallons of water with block-level precision.

Pump Automation has been the top requested feature from growers because it allows them to run their irrigation schedules at any time of the day or night without anyone on site, saving time, money and water.

Building it on top of the block-level visibility that smart valves provide allows for automated safety checks to prevent damage from dry runs or pressure spikes, and for next-level optimization, fine-tuning schedules and maximizing pump efficiency.

“Pump automation is critical to executing irrigations with high performance and precision across a wide range of ranches,” confirms Devon Wright, Lumo’s CEO. “Once you can control the pump, you can automate irrigations end to end whenever you want. Off-peak or overnight. Cycling on and off throughout the day. All without worrying about who’s on site.”

Lumo is quickly becoming the new standard for vineyard irrigation automation, improving profitability for growers through a mix of stronger yields and higher quality markers, lower costs on energy and labor, and protecting equipment and land from catastrophic events.

Michael Busselen, the Owner of Woodhawk Vineyards, said, “Lumo has been the linchpin in the re-engineering of our approach to water management.”

“We really appreciate the partnership with Lumo and the visibility their system provides. Having block-level flow data has allowed us to uncover inefficiencies we wouldn’t have otherwise caught and move toward volume-based irrigation. That shift is helping us fine-tune applications, reduce pumping costs, and improve overall water use efficiency across the vineyard,” said Hannah Lindner, the Viticulture Manager at Wente Vineyards.

Lumo developed pump automation at a rapid pace because the pull from the market has been overwhelming.

This kind of positive feedback from the growing community about an irrigation automation solution is uncommon and hard earned. The results speak for themselves.

REVM has now expanded their use of Lumo across over 25 ranches. They’re catching leaks earlier, running irrigations overnight and at off-peak times to cut their clients’ energy bill, and saving a ton of time driving around and coordinating logistics.

At Antinori, Andrew and his team were able to increase yields on their cab blocks by a ½ ton per acre last season. Their young vines are getting established faster with more frequent and longer lasting irrigations. They’ve improved water efficiency and distribution uniformity by catching low pressure issues and optimizing which blocks they irrigate together. And they were able to forgo a million dollar investment in a bigger pump and higher pressure mainline by doubling their pumping hours with automation and overnight irrigations.

Growers from Jackson Family Wines, Trinchero, Clos du Val, Pine Ridge, Treasury Wine Estates, Delicato, Silver Oak and Shafer would tell you similar stories—Lumo is driving tangible cost savings and improvements in irrigation performance and precision across the board.

With its pump automation product, it can now bring those benefits to every vineyard in Napa, Sonoma and beyond, regardless of your current irrigation infrastructure set up. You don’t even need a VFD.

If you’re looking to put your pump on autopilot and automate your irrigation scheduling and execution from end to end, check out Lumo.ag/pump-automation to book a demo today.

Santa Rosa, Calif., August 21^st, 2025—Lumo, the leader in precision irrigation technology for specialty crop growers, today announced the launch of Pump Automation, a powerful new integration with its smart valve platform.

Select growers on the North and Central Coasts are already using Lumo pump automation to fully automate irrigations from pump to plant on ranches ranging from 60 to 1,300 acres. With block-level irrigation data, advanced safety checks, and verified performance, growers are able to save time and achieve precision across a wider range of irrigation systems and setups than ever before.

With Lumo, growers are scheduling irrigations overnight and at off-peak times, without relying on overtime labor or pulling folks away from harvest. Real-time flow and pressure data from Lumo smart valves provides the feedback necessary to dial in precision, optimize which blocks to run at the same time, and minimize damage from dry runs and pressure spikes.

“Pump automation is critical to executing irrigations with high performance and precision across a wide range of ranches,” said Devon Wright, CEO of Lumo. “Once you can control the pump, you can automate irrigations end to end whenever you want. Off-peak or overnight. Cycling on and off throughout the day. All without worrying about who’s on site.”

With a tight labor market, soft demand, and scarce water resources, growers are continuing to look for solutions that can help drive labor efficiency and eliminate wasted water, while improving yield and quality markers. Pump automation helps address these challenges head on, reducing trips to the field to turn pumps on and off, catching issues before they cause costly damage to crops and critical infrastructure, and ensuring water gets delivered in exact volumes with ideal timing.

“We successfully automated almost every irrigation set last season on 60 acres of the ranch,” said Andrew Oliver, Vineyard Manager at Antinori, one of the first sites to implement Lumo’s pump automation product. “Running the pump at night freed up irrigator hours during the day. For the first time, I can say that these blocks were sufficiently irrigated, and last year’s canopy and crop proved that.”

“Lumo’s pump automation is an absolute game changer for our team,” agreed Hunter Emch, Northern Unit Area Manager at Redwood Empire Vineyard Management. “We're saving a ton of time by managing everything virtually. We can now run irrigations overnight, avoid peak times, and confidently move water exactly when and where it's needed without having to juggle labor or worry about infrastructure risks.”

Lumo’s precision irrigation smart valves have already been deployed at over 150 ranches in Napa, Sonoma, the Central Coast, the Okanagan Valley and Washington State, helping growers irrigate with greater operational efficiency and achieve block-level precision. Safe and reliable pump automation was the logical next step to continue to drive higher levels of performance, precision, and ultimately, profitability.

If you’re looking to remotely control your pump and automate your irrigation scheduling and execution from end to end, check out Lumo.ag/pump-automation to book a demo.

About Lumo

Lumo is the precision irrigation system growers use to irrigate to plan. With block-level data and accountable automation, growers are able to close the gap between the volume of water they would like to apply and the volume that actually gets delivered in the field. Assumptions get replaced by verified performance, issues get surfaced immediately through alerts, and irrigation teams get more done in less time. To learn more, check out Lumo.ag

In June, growers used Lumo to precisely deliver over a hundred million gallons of water.

That’s over two million bathtubs full.

Last week, the system delivered over 40+ million gallons as temperatures continue to rise.

From just an idea to delivering millions of gallons across thousands of devices and over a hundred ranches in a little over three years is just a mind-boggling pace.

It’s a testament to the market need for a solution that delivers both automation and block-level visibility.

It’s a testament to the hard work of countless growers who helped us understand the problem, gave us ideas for a solution, and helped shape the execution and implementation of that solution across thousands of acres.

And it’s a testament to the energy and persistence of the entire Lumo team—engineering solutions, working with partners, providing support in the field, helping irrigators get irrigations scheduled, automating pumps, reaching new growers and showing them how Lumo works in the field to deliver block-level precision day in and day out.

They said farmers would be slow to adopt a new solution, that they’d been burned before, tried to automate irrigation too many times to count.

But in practice, we’ve seen just the opposite. We’ve encountered a community that remains open-minded and optimistic, eager to support a product that works in the field. To provide feedback. To test new features. To demand the best from our product and our people.

With tight capital budgets, rising input costs, and a whole lot of uncertainty, the past three years haven’t been ideal for growing an agtech startup.

But that hardship has also created urgency. Farmers understand, now more than ever, that the truly risky thing to do is to continue to cling to the old ways of doing things. They know they need to embrace tools like Lumo if their operation is going to remain viable and profitable in the years to come.

We’ve gone from zero to irrigating millions of gallons of water every week at the peak of the season, because growers urgently need a way to irrigate with greater precision and better performance, that’s ultimately going to make a difference to their bottom line.

Many growers see Lumo as the future of their irrigation management. A life saver. A no-brainer. The linchpin in their water management plan.

And the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.

If you're looking to dial in your own irrigation precision at a block level, request a demo or contact us at LetsGrow@lumo.ag

X-ray vision into volumes. A spidey-sense for leaks. The ability to teleport from ranch to ranch.

Lumo gives irrigators superpowers.

Or, more practically, it’s a tool they can use to irrigate with efficiency and precision. It saves them time turning valves and walking the lines looking for leaks, and it gives them a more complete picture of their irrigation system’s health and performance.

With Lumo’s block-level data and accountable automation, irrigators can better protect their crops and critical infrastructure from damage, and achieve higher levels of irrigation precision across more acres.

Lumo does not replace irrigators. It makes them better. It gives them the ability to do more with less and deliver better results.

Five ways Lumo helps irrigators drive irrigation system performance and precision

1. Catch leaks as soon as they happen, not hours or days later.

Leaks are often only visible after the water’s been running for a few hours. And even then, an irrigator might be in a rush or not have time to inspect a whole ranch. It’s easy for a leak to go missed, wasting water, running your pump unnecessarily, causing damage to your crop and eroding your soil.

With block-level flow data and real-time alerts, irrigators can catch and fix leaks way faster and avoid all that wasted time, money and water.

2. Flush clogged filters before they lead to under-irrigation.

A clogged filter might reduce flow by 10 or 20, even 50%, which is in that sneaky range where it makes a difference but is hard to detect by eye.

Water’s still dripping. Just not at the right rate.

With block-level flow data, you see the drop immediately and get a heads up that the flow’s lower than normal. An irrigator can go out, flush the filter, and be back in business in no time.

Even better, because you know exactly how much less water a block received, you can then schedule another irrigation to make up the difference and get back to plan. No harm. No foul.

3. Figure out which blocks to run together based on performance.

Without objective performance data, irrigators are often left to guess about the ideal way to run their system. Or are stuck doing costly and time-consuming tests to figure out what works best.

With Lumo, it’s easy to see when you’re scheduling too many blocks at once, or when certain block combinations lead to pressure issues or uneven performance.

We’ve had multiple irrigators learn that their system can’t handle as many blocks at once as they thought, and have made the shift to scheduling smaller sets that achieve better distribution uniformity.

Real-time data gives irrigators the feedback they need to calibrate performance and dial in precision.

4. Respond faster to heat events by running the system overnight and on weekends.

One of the most stressful situations for an irrigator to be in is seeing a heat wave coming in the forecast and knowing full well that with the time they have each day there’s going to be no way for them to get enough water down on all the blocks they oversee.

With Lumo, that time constraint gets removed. Irrigators can schedule irrigations to run overnight or on weekends and still sleep soundly, knowing they’ll receive an alert if something does go awry.

By unlocking all 24 hours of the day, and all seven days of the week, you’re in a much better position to respond to heat events and make sure your crops receive enough water to prevent yield loss and preserve quality markers.

5. Spend less time manually operating and more time managing performance.

When an irrigator has to worry about turning water on and off, remembering which valves are open and which are closed, where they need to be and exactly when they need to be there to get the timing roughly right on all their irrigations – there’s little time left for actually improving system performance and ensuring irrigation plans get executed with precision.

With Lumo, they can automate their irrigation sets with accountability, remove a ton of that manual work and unnecessary driving around, and pay a lot more attention to making sure blocks receive the right amount of water at the right time.

With automatic alerts, they don’t need to spend so much time inspecting lines or checking filters, and can devote more time to making system improvements or completing other high priority tasks.

The shift from getting the job done to delivering better outcomes

Lumo transforms the role of the irrigator from someone who is primarily responsible for manual tasks (turning valves, checking lines, etc.) to someone who is responsible for delivering outcomes (irrigating to plan, quickly responding to heat events, achieving block-level precision, etc).

It’s a shift:

• From being reactive to being proactive
• From flying to blind to always having a bird’s eye view
• From always playing catch up to being on top of things
• From doing maintenance on a set schedule to doing targeted maintenance based on performance data
• From losing sleep over unknown and unquantified performance issues to having peace of mind that your system is performing as expected and irrigation plans are being executed precisely

With Lumo, irrigators are able to deliver more value back to the business in three key areas:

1. Better Crops

• Ensuring each block receives the planned volume
• Never skipping irrigations or cutting them short due to time constraints
• Responding faster and more flexibly to heat events
• More easily applying water ahead of and after fertigations to improve nutrient uptake

2. Lower Pumping Costs

• Scheduling irrigations around off-peak times to reduce energy costs
• Irrigating at night to reduce evaporative loss
• Planning sets to optimize performance
• Better utilizing existing pump capacity

3. Reduced Risk

• Receiving alerts about leaks automatically to prevent crop and infrastructure damage
• Catching irrigation infrastructure issues early
• Engaging in data-driven preventative maintenance
• Avoid blowing up your six-figure pump

Improving Irrigator Efficiency and Quality of Life

With Lumo, irrigators are able to cover more acres with greater precision in less time. Rather than spending their days driving to ranches, turning valves, and walking the lines, they’re able to focus on achieving and maintaining optimal irrigation performance and ensuring all blocks get the right amount of water at the right time.

Lumo makes the job of an irrigator less stressful and more valuable to the business.

It’s a powerful tool that gives them the ability to achieve block-level precision, better crop outcomes and greater peace of mind.

If you're interested in increasing your irrigator productivity and helping your field team level up, request a demo or send us an email at letsgrow@lumo.ag 

Imagine you want to put six hours of water on every block at your ranch.

Ranch has 20 blocks, system can handle 4 blocks at a time, so you need to run 5 sets.

If you’re doing that manually, an irrigator might only be able to run one set a day, especially considering any drive time, so it takes a whole workweek to do the whole ranch.

Now, imagine instead, that you could just... 

• open your phone
• say you want six hours
• select all your blocks
• set a limit on the min and max safe flow rate for your pump
• add any offset you might want (a buffer to let lines repressurize or a gap to minimize waterhammer, for instance)
• hit a button and be good to go. 

That’s it. That’s all.

Those irrigation sets would then run one after another and be done in just over a day, 30 hours or so. 

No trips to the ranch. No valves turned by hand. No waiting for a week for the last blocks to receive water.

Imagine how much faster you could respond to late season heat events. Imagine how much more productive your irrigator could be without having to turn on the water and open and close the system at the start and end of each day.

Now imagine you could do all that today.

Because you could.

That’s exactly what Lumo customers are doing with our new irrigation sequencing tool.

This isn’t a far off vision. It’s already a reality.

Our system can now automatically generate a safe and efficient schedule with groupings of blocks optimized for performance.

“Because we can now schedule irrigations back to back to back, we’re able to get through and irrigate an entire ranch a lot more quickly. With some of these systems, it can take a week to get through all the different blocks because you can only irrigate a certain number at a time depending on your pump. We’re getting those done in a fraction of the time,” said Hunter Emch, Northern Unit Area Manager at REVM

Or take another case. We’ve already had multiple irrigators this season discover that they were previously irrigating too many blocks at once and under-irrigating as a result of the system having too little pressure.

Now they’re able to schedule their irrigations with smaller sets, achieve better performance and irrigate to plan with greater precision, all while adding no more work whatsoever.

This is the power of having block-level flow and pressure data. It provides a foundation for building a truly intelligent irrigation system. 

One that’s capable of delivering your irrigation plan with efficiency and precision—automatically.

If you're interested in seeing our software in action or learning more about Lumo's precision irrigation system, request a demo or send us an email at letsgrow@lumo.ag