Page 63 - GrapevineMarApr 2022

Around The Vineyard

demonstration with a deck of cards: Stacked
together, the deck has only twenty-five square
inches of surface area. When separated as individ-
ual cards, the deck has a surface area of approxi-
mately 1,000 square inches. The spread-out cards
represent the pores in soil granules. Professional Certificates

The soil is dried, run through a sieve shaker that Delivered via Distance Education
separates the grains according to diameter using Viticulture • Winemaking
stacked sieves with different sized mesh screens,
and then viewed through a microscope. “Program combines
the theoretical with the
Sieve shakers separate soil grains according to practical aspects - real
their diameters and piled from largest mesh screen world solutions. I can’t
recommend it strongly
on top to the smallest mesh size on bottom. The enough for either a fu-
author recommends that all vineyards have a shak- ture or current grower.”
er and stereo microscope with camera attachment.
James Kasparek
Class of 2018
Dried soil sieve analysis can indicate soil degrada-
tion over the years if samples taken from the same
location. (Figure 2) 806‐834‐7137

grapesandwine.ttu.edu

Figure 2: Soil sieve analysis can indicate soil degra-
dation over the years. The author did hundreds of
sieve analysis tests and created this chart.

The soil grain porosity and permeability of the
soil controls the rate of movement of groundwater
through it. And how chemical elements such as iron
and phosphorous move with the water.

To illustrate this, imagine a hundred people stand-
ing on a soccer field spaced evenly apart on the
field. There are two other lines of people at both
ends of the field with one side constantly throwing
balls to those that are on the field. Now, you divide
all one hundred people into two teams, one team
is throwing and catching yellow balls and the other
team is throwing purple balls. Both teams want
to get their balls from one end of the field to the
other.

However, one team has more balls than the other

877-892-5332 The Grapevine • March - April 2022 Page 61

Grapevine Main Pages GV030422_Layout 1-1 copy.indd 61 2/24/22 3:34 PM