March 2024

Grapevine flowering*

’TIS THE ‘SEASON’

Having welcomed spring this month, I’m reminded of a conversation I had a few years ago involving the word “season.” I was talking with a computer engineer about a sensor that had emerged from an NGRA-initiated research project. The developers were planning field trials in five or six vineyards representing different grape sectors and grape-growing regions across the country to see how the sensor performed throughout the season. Only two prototypes had been manufactured, so I asked my colleague how it would be possible to divvy them up across the test sites, hundreds of miles apart. “No problem,” he said, “we’ll rotate them from one to the next each season.” An awkward silence descended. Then I realized that he (a technologist) thought we were talking about seasons on the calendar (spring, summer, fall, winter), not growing seasons—two very different timescales!

It’s easy to forget, when you’re acquainted with a subject, that others may not “speak the language.” Before I became fluent in “viticulture,” I attended my first academic conference after starting my role with NGRA and sat through a mystifying presentation on the “hydraulic conductance of grapevine.” I didn’t realize until the Q&A, when someone asked the speaker about irrigation, that the talk had anything to do with WATER—a word she hadn’t used at all in her remarks. Remember, although I had worked in the wine industry for many years, I don’t have a science background. But I do have a master’s degree in English!

In this example, the hydrology expert might as well have been speaking in a foreign language. In fact, from my point of view, she was. And to the technologist I was talking to in the first example, I was. Both situations demonstrate why efforts to improve science communication are so critical. USDA, for example, has committed to plain writing and even verifies it via an annual audit every year. And under the leadership of now-retired extension specialist Tim Martinson, Cornell’s Viticulture and Enology program pioneered Research in Plain English, or RIPE, non-technical summaries of journal articles like this one.

We all have our part to play in improving the grape and wine industry, but we might not use the same words when talking about it. So, when possible, be explicit…and know your audience!

Which brings me back to the word “season.” Most of us think of this season as spring, but to a grape breeder, it’s “crossing season,” the most wonderful time of the year. So, to our friends working to develop new varieties to advance the sustainability, profitability and productivity of our industry, season’s greetings!

Donnell Brown

President

*ABOUT THE PHOTO

Spring brings grapevine flowering, which not only heralds a new crop, but the possibility of new grape varieties. In traditional breeding, grape breeders use the pollen from promising vines’ flowers to make crosses of vines with desirable traits. Read more about the process, as explained by the Cornell Grape Breeding program, the source of this photo.

AROUND THE U.S.

USDA FY2024 Funding Is Set

This month, the US Department of Agriculture was officially funded through September, the end of Fiscal Year 2024. USDA was included in one of six bills totaling $460 billion that President Biden signed into law on March 9, 2024. Of the total appropriations directed to USDA in FY2024, the research-related Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the government’s in-house scientific agency, received $1.746 billion and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), its extramural research funding arm, got $1.692 billion. Previously, in November 2023, the Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024, was signed into law, extending the Farm Bill and its important Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) through September 30, 2024, as well. Congress passed the remainder of this year’s federal funding last week.

FPS Moves Into Its Phase 1 Greenhouse

Foundation Plant Services has completed construction of Phase 1 of its Foundation Greenhouse, and the team moved the first grapevines into it this month. (Watch time lapse video of the move.) This 14,400 square foot greenhouse, completed in winter 2024, is designed to hold vines representing FPS’ core collection of industry-identified priority varieties. Intensive propagation efforts to secure material from its original Classic Vineyard have been underway since 2019. The indoor plants are duplicates of vines held in the Classic Vineyard, and serve to insure against loss of the outdoor vines. As FPS Director Maher Al Rwahnih explains, the move is “a huge accomplishment in our goal to protect the FPS grapevine collection from the threat of insect-vectored pathogens and helps ensure material will be available for many years to come.”

Propagation work continues, and more vines will join the core collection each month. But the Phase 1 greenhouse does not have the capacity for all priority selections. Phase 2 will be a screenhouse, equal in size to the greenhouse, enabling more selections to be protected, and the FPS collection can continue to grow.

ASEV Award Winners Announced

At the American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) national conference on June 17-20, 2024, in Portland, OR, several awards will be conferred on several deserving colleagues:

- Merit Award: Tony Wolf, Virginia Tech

- ASEV Extension Distinction Award: Mark Battany, University of California Cooperative Extension, San Luis Obispo County

- Honorary Research Lecturer: Andrew Waterhouse, UC Davis

- Best Paper Awards, selected from the prior year’s articles in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture (AJEV):

Viticulture: “Biological Control of Botryosphaeria Dieback of Grapevines in British Columbia, Canada,” by Jinxz Pollard-Flamand, Julie Boulé, Miranda Hart, José Ramón Úrbez-Torres
Enology: “Hydrogen Sulfide Formation in Canned Wines Under Long-Term and Accelerated Conditions,” by Austin Montgomery, Rachel B. Allison, Julie M. Goddard and Gavin L. Sacks

Click the links above to read the awarded open-access papers on the AJEV Online website. And congratulate all the award winners at the conference this summer.

Nominate a Rockstar for WBM’s Annual Leaders List

WineBusiness Monthly is now accepting nominations for its Annual Leaders listing . The listing recognizes “those brave enough to pave a new way forward, inspire generations to come, pioneer a new method, product or technology, start creative businesses and rally behind causes they believe in. From up-and-comers to established members of the industry,” WBM adds, “we’re looking for those that made a difference in the last year or are working to positively shape the industry in the future.” The deadline for nominations is May 17, 2024.

States Invest in Research

The annual reports of two state-level NGRA member organizations represent some of the broad-based, innovative grape research funded by state research dollars.

The 2022-2023 Annual Report of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation lists the 20 viticulture and enology projects that received nearly $700,000 last year. From insecticide and fungicide resistance to cold-hardiness, remote sensing and spray technology, the research, led by Cornell scientists and other experts, covers an impressive breadth of topics relevant to wine and juice grape growers in New York and beyond.

Similarly, the Washington State Wine Commission prioritizes grape and wine research and features many research-related milestones in its 2023 Annual Report . They include not only funded research highlights, such as a WSU-led grape mealybug mating disruption project but also research activities such as the NGRA-produced USDA-ARS Grape Industry Workshop. The Commission awarded nearly $1 million in viticulture and enology research grants to 19 projects in FY 2023, many of which will present findings at the WAVE Research Seminar next month. (See Upcoming Events below.)

Manoj Karkee Is New Director at WSU CPAAS

Near the end of 2023, Washington State University appointed Manoj Karkee, Professor in WSU’s Department of Biological Systems Engineering, as the new Director of its Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems (CPAAS), following the retirement of Qin Zhang, who had served as Director since 2010. CPAAS is working on a range of new initiatives designed to better serve Washington’s agricultural industry in the rapidly changing technological landscape including the widespread adoption/introduction of AI and robotic technologies to farming.

In this Q&A with Good Fruit Grower , Manoj shares some current research and his vision for the Center. “It’s more important than ever to engage with farmers and technology companies so we are not operating in a vacuum,” he says. “We are playing this role of engaging partners from various disciplines so we create a vibrant community of technology developers and other stakeholders focused on solving the challenges in the field.”

Work on Smoke Exposure Research

USDA’s Agricultural Research Service seeks a chemical engineer to work on developing smoke impact mitigation methods in the winery. Stationed at the Crops Pathology/Genetics Research Unit in Davis, CA, the incumbent will develop practical means to mitigate during winemaking (e.g., fermentation, processing, bottle aging) the chemical components associated with grape smoke exposure. Learn more about this brand-new position and apply by April 9, 2024.

Help NASA Understand Ag Data Use

NASA Acre s, NASA’s agriculture-focused consortium of which NGRA is a member, is working with Ag Data Transparent to develop simple, clear and transparent ag data use principles and agreements to address farmers’ concerns about sharing their ag data in research collaborations. They’re seeking farmer input on a survey to understand:

- What are the most valuable topics to farmers that NASA Acres and satellite data could support

- What and by whom ag data are collected

- Who determines how ag data are shared and secured

- The trust level with various agencies, institutions and companies in sharing their ag data

Click to weigh in.

Snag Some Gently Used Automation Equipment

Are you an extension agent, germplasm curator or viticulturist looking to automate vineyard trial plots? Or a forward-thinking farmer seeking to dip a toe in or upgrade your mechanization game? Scheid Family Wines is offering three gently used V-Mech units for sale that are designed for mechanized pre-pruning and/or shoot thinning, each located at their vineyard in Greenfield, CA. See photos, prices and contact details .

RESEARCH FOCUS

New Satellites Will Improve the View from Space

Landsat Next , a constellation of three identical satellites, is planned for launch in 2030 and will collect more data more often—with new and improved spectral sampling to support and advance emerging science and public service applications. The mission, a collaboration between NASA and the US Geological Survey (USGS), will fundamentally transform the breadth and depth of actionable information freely available to users. Landsat Next will ensure the continuity and quality of the longest space-based record of the Earth’s land surfaces—50 years and counting.

Landsat Next Defined

With three satellites in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 653 kilometers (406 miles), the Landsat Next “triplets” will provide higher spatial resolution observations on a new global grid system called the Worldwide Reference System-3. The satellites can make more frequent observations using this triplet constellation formulation, which has a 6-day revisit cycle of any location on Earth’s land and coastal regions. This temporal revisit capability is much more frequent than the current 16-day repeat cycle of both Landsat 8 and Landsat 9. Landsat Next’s shorter revisit time will allow for more frequent observations enabling an improved understanding of land and water surface dynamics such as vegetation and crop phenology, burn severity, water use and quality and more. Coupled with improved spatial resolution, it will enable the detection of smaller features, making it easier to characterize Earth’s land surfaces, surface waters and coastlines more accurately. Landsat Next will have pixel resolutions ranging from 10 to 60 meters.

Continuity of Multispectral Capability

Each Landsat Next Instrument Suite will image the Earth across 26 spectral bands. These bands will include refined versions of Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 heritage bands, 5 bands with similar spatial and spectral characteristics to Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites to allow easier merging of joint data products, and 10 new spectral bands to support emerging Earth surface change applications such as algal bloom detection, ice sheet monitoring, crop soil conservation, and surface emissivity estimation.

Emerging Applications

The sharpened spatial resolution, new spectral bands, and increased observations of Landsat Next will transform the ability to monitor and forecast landscape change. New and improved technologies have the capability to enable research and public services for fire monitoring and recovery, water resources management, agriculture development and evapotranspiration, ecosystem health, etc.—valuable data for resource management, environmental sustainability and climate resilience.

This news was provided via press release. For more information on Landsat Next, visit the USGS or NASA websites.

NIFA Publishes New Guide for Prospective Grantees

USDA-NIFA has published a new Application Development Guide to help prospective grantees develop their application packages.

Editor’s note: When we last visited, this online guide was under development, so offline. In the interim, check out this grants process overview as an alternative.

Funding Opportunities

Specialty Crop Block Grant Program

The SCBGP is accepting proposals via state departments of agriculture. Four mostly chilly states have deadlines in April—the last of the state block grants for the year. Check the list of deadlines.

Equipment Grant Program

This USDA-NIFA program strengthens the quality and expands the scope of fundamental and applied research at the food and agricultural sciences programs at universities and Cooperative Extension systems by enabling them to acquire a major piece of equipment that supports research, training and extension goals. The deadline to apply is May 3, 2024.

Research Facilities Act Program

This NIFA program assists qualifying institutions with the costs related to constructing, purchasing, updating, renovating or modifying agricultural research buildings to conduct research in the areas of agriculture and food sciences. The proposed agricultural research facility must expand the institution’s capacity for long-term impactful research and be the result of thorough strategic planning. The deadline to apply is May 13, 2024.

Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative

The intent of the AG2PI program, also from NIFA, is to support integration of diverse disciplines that can effectively harness the power of phenomics, genomics, engineering, genetic diversity and data science to improve production, sustainability and climate resiliency of crop (and also livestock) species. The deadline to apply is May 30, 2024.

Applying for a grant? Request a letter of support!

NGRA is pleased to provide letters of support for research projects that directly address our industry research priorities. Request a letter via our online request form at least two weeks prior to the grant deadline (or any internal deadline you may have). Requests are reviewed and approved by NGRA Research Committee leadership, so processing times may vary.

IN THE NEWS

Phenotyping Xylem Connections in Grafted Plants Using X-Ray Micro-Computed Tomography

March 22, 2024 | Plant, Cell & Environment

New research reveals in 3D the network of functional xylem vessels connecting the scion and rootstock in stem grafts and reveals extensive diagonal xylem connections between xylem vessels. Previously, graft unions were only viewable in 2D and it was unclear whether xylem vessels were functional or not. It’s an important advance in our ability to phenotype the graft interface in grapevine and other plants and will help define grafting success assays.

Computer Model Helps Grape Growers Adapt to Shorter Winters

March 18, 2024 | Phys.org

A new freely available web-based Cornell-developed computer model can help Northeast grape growers assess the threat of freeze events to any of 12 varieties they may grow. By selecting the variety and weather station closest to them, the app will predict within a few degrees of accuracy whether their vines—and especially buds—may have experienced freeze damage.

New Tools for Vineyard Ant Management

March 18, 2024 | Wine Business Monthly

Recent research and trials by UCCE IPM Specialist David Haviland combining polyacrylamide hydrogels with ant insecticides are expected to lead to new ant control products that could receive regulatory and label approval this year. It’s good news for grape growers seeking to combat ants’ role in mealybug dispersal in California, where the insecticide chlorpyrifos is no longer permitted.

How Artificial Intelligence Will Change the World of Wine, From Vineyard to Wine Glass

March 15, 2024 | Meininger’s International

At the Meininger’s Wine Goes Tech conference in Germany this month, 15 presentations were related to AI and associated technologies. Cornell grad student Fernando Romero Galvan spoke about his work with NASA, applying machine learning to satellite imagery to spot leafroll virus before symptoms show. Another talk demonstrated how a handheld tablet can be held up against a vine to show, via AI, exactly where a vine should be pruned, reducing reliance on experienced labor. And an AI sommelier dueled a live Master of Wine.

Leveraging Satellite Observations to Reveal Ecological Drivers of Pest Densities across Landscapes

March 15, 2024 | Science of the Total Environment

Satellite Earth observation data are used to spot trends in the movement of plants and animals worldwide, especially as it relates to climate change, but less so for agricultural insect pests. Using corn and its common pest, the Western Tarnished Plant Bug, this research showed that combining IPM data sets with satellite data can help understand the ecology of agricultural pests. Adding in advances in remote sensing technology, the authors say, could “potentially develop new pathways for predicting pest outbreaks across agricultural landscapes.”

Steam Shows Promise for Weed Control, Soil Health

March 11, 2024 | Western Farm Press

Two Extension specialists, one from UC and one from the University of Arizona, have developed a prototype steam applicator that injects steam into the soil to kill weed seeds and soilborne pathogens. Studies have shown that heating the soil to 140 degrees at a depth of two inches for more than 20 minutes kills 89% of weed seeds and reduces hand weeding times by 80+%. Trials of this prototype confirm those results.

Spotted Lanternfly Now Present in 18 States

March 11, 2024 | Wine Business Monthly

In a “UC Davis Viticulture & Enology Office Hours” webinar this month, North Coast IPM Advisor Cindy Kron reported that the spotted lanternfly has spread to 18 states but has not reached the West Coast, which offers “very suitable” conditions for it to thrive. Unlike other insects, SLF can lay eggs on inert objects such as stones, outdoor furniture, railway cars and vehicles. That contributes to the insect’s wide dispersal ability, she said, often via unwitting human transport.

LAMP As a New Tool for Testing Grapevine Red Blotch Virus

March 8, 2024 | Grape & Wine Magazine

Researchers at Oregon State University tested the LAMP assay, a more accessible tool for growers, alongside the lab-based PCR and qPCR tests for Grapevine Red Blotch Virus. At harvest, when 94% of the basal leaf samples were symptomatic, all three of these DNA-based tests were at or near 100% accuracy. PCR and qPCR successfully detected GRBV in 98% of samples at berry set and veraison, when only 31% showed symptoms. LAMP was at 49% and 78% at these respective stages.

Intelligent Sprayers to Improve Fungicide Applications and Save Money

March 7, 2024 | Sustainable Winegrowing with Vineyard Team

Intelligent or sensor-controlled sprayers have the potential to improve pesticide application efficiency and reduce labor and waste. Oregon State University’s Brent Warneke is testing LiDAR sensors that can sense a plant and adjust the amount of spray based on the coverage area needed. In this podcast, Brent also talks about the best time to use biologicals, the benefits of drones in farming, and simple ways to improve spray efficiency with an air blast sprayer.

Hansen: Mealybug Focus for Washington Vineyards

March 4, 2024 | Good Fruit Grower

The Washington Wine Commission is funding research to develop a mating disruption program for grape mealybug in Washington vineyards. “We believe mating disruption as an areawide strategy will provide the best chance for long-term, sustainable management of grape mealybug and, therefore, leafroll virus,” says Melissa Hansen, the Commission’s Research Director and an NGRA Board member. The project, led by WSU’s Doug Walsh, is in its second year. Early data indicates that when enough pheromone is deployed, mating disruption achieves complete shutdown of sticky traps.

ARS Develops Freeze Date Tool for Localities

March 4, 2024 | Tellus

USDA-ARS climatologists have developed a first-of-its-kind, publicly accessible Freeze Date Tool, a web-based zone map that pinpoints temperature changes down to the county level. Managed by the Midwestern Regional Climate Center at Purdue University, the tool displays freeze dates by trend, decade and growing season, and provides freeze date and growing season tables showing temperature changes from 1950 to the present. Data is currently available for the Midwest, North Central and Northeast regions.

Dr. Gan-Yuan Zhong: Changing the Grape Industry Through Plant Genetics

March 2024 | Locate Finger Lakes Business Journal

Gan-Yuan Zhong is Research Leader for the USDA-ARS Grape Genetics Research Unit (GGRU) at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, NY. He and his team work to identify the genetic mechanisms of high-yielding, good-quality, tasty grapes that are disease-resistant, cold-hardy and frost-tolerant. In a recent breakthrough, they uncovered the genetic basis for the foxy flavor inherent to Concord grapes—knowledge that can be used in future breeding to reduce or enhance the trait.

Precision Ag Requires Sensors and Models with Feedback Loops

March 2024 | HiRes Vineyard Nutrition Podcast

Isn’t chlorophyll the best indicator of nitrogen in your vineyard? Not necessarily, says UC Davis’ Alireza Pourreza in this podcast of the NGRA-initiated HiRes Vineyard Nutrition project. “Protein is the best predictor,” he says, but chlorophyll is what we can measure with a multispectral sensor—a more readily available sensor than the shortwave infrared technology needed to assess protein. “Chlorophyll still has a correlation with nitrogen,” but it’s inconsistent, he says. “(At) each individual stage there is a pattern, but that pattern doesn’t translate to another phenology stage.” Podcast host Oregon State’s Patty Skinkis calls the finding one of the project’s “aha moments.”

Spatial Variability of Grape Berry Maturation Program at the Molecular Level

February 29, 2024 | Horticulturae

Scientists in Italy have found a genetic basis of spatial variability in berry ripening. They compared ground-truthed NDVI data from multispectral images to transcriptomes of samples from high and low vigor locations in a Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard and found 968 differentially expressed genes. Spatial variability maps of the expression level of key berry ripening genes were consistently aligned with vigor, suggesting that transcriptome analysis may be a valuable tool for managing vineyard variability.

Authorities Identify Xylella Strain Infecting Vines, Almonds in Puglia

February 29, 2024 | Olive Oil Times

The Italian task force that monitors Xylella fastidiosa has identified the fastidiosa subspecies in Puglia for the first time. (Xylella fastidiosa pauca is the subspecies of the bacterium monitored there.) Xylella fastidiosa fastidiosa is well known in the US for causing the deadly Pierce’s disease in several crops, including grapevines. Current models predict a global expansion of Pierce’s disease in the next 20 years.

Spotted Lanternfly Reveals a Potential Weakness

February 20, 2024 | Tellus

USDA-ARS entomologists have discovered a trait that might help improve control for the spotted lanternfly: an attraction to vibration. Acting on reports that SLF seemed to be drawn to buzzing electrical power lines, they found in lab experiments that nymphs and adults navigated to 60Hz vibrations. Using vibration to entice the pests to gather could be a major step toward improving trapping methods.

Recent Smoke Research and What It Means for Industry

December 2023 | Grapegrower & Winemaker

Australian researchers have made advances in smoke research since the epic bushfires there in the 2019/20 growing season. “The biggest gap in our knowledge in 2020 was to understand what concentrations of smoke markers in grapes would translate into smoky wine,” they report. Having defined high and medium risk thresholds based on concentrations of smoke markers in grapes, “we can now answer that question for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Shiraz.”

PPQ Develops a Modeling Framework to Forecast Pest Risk

August 30, 2023 | USDA-APHIS Plant Protection Today

USDA’s Plant Protection and Quarantine and North Carolina State University developed the Spatial Analytic Framework for Advanced Risk Information Systems (SAFARIS), a web-based modeling system, in 2014. It uses historical and current weather data, pest biology, and other factors to create predictive models for plant pests, including climate suitability and spread mapping, and PestCAST phenology predictions, e.g., when insect pests will emerge after winter. They’re now building in new analytics to understand the long-term potential changes in pest establishment and impacts under climate change.

Biological Control of Botryosphaeria Dieback of Grapevines in British Columbia, Canada

Spring 2023 | American Journal of Enology and Viticulture – ASEV’S 2023 Best Viticulture Paper

In a first-ever study in Canada, scientists there found that locally sourced Trichoderma fungus shows promise as a biocontrol agent and pruning wound protectant for the trunk disease Botryosphaeria dieback in the field. They also found that conidial germination for indigenous Trichoderma happens more quickly and at lower temperatures, making it a promising solution for pruning under harsh conditions.

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