Page 64 - GrapevineMarApr 2022
P. 64
Around The Vineyard
and the other team can catch and throw them Not only should vineyards be taking close-up pho-
slower than the other team. Eventually both teams tos of leaves and grapes throughout the growing
will get their balls to the other end of the soccer season on specific plants, but microscope apps for
field, but one team will get their balls there faster. laptops are an indispensable tool for them also.
Now think of the balls as chemical molecules. Digging holes in one spot along a vine row through
the years can show changes in soil compaction and
The people on the field are like the soil or rock organic material.
granules making up the ground below us. As the
different chemicals move with the groundwater, Another tool that the author used frequently for
they released by the soil particles making up the determining an estimate of soil organic matter was
ground below us. These are chemical bonding sites a simple small hand torch. The sample was dried,
inside all the pores and crevices. For those that weighed, burnt with the torch flame, and then
are familiar with laboratory equipment such as gas reweighed again. It was a surprisingly accurate
or liquid chromatographs, this is also how these method since a muffle oven was not available.
instruments work and measure the chemicals in
samples run through them. The soil, leaves and grapes are sent by the vine-
yard for XRD analysis (X-ray Defraction), and this
Blocking the movement of water and chemical analysis usually comes with bonus electron scan-
compounds are immovable gas voids and water ning microscope analysis, depending on the lab
bubbles caught in the matrix of gas/air. This is a used. It gives a comprehensive break down of the
problem with well compacted vineyard soils after constituents.
multiple years of use. (Figure 3)
Soil analysis can be as simple or complicated as
you want. It all depends on what value you place
on analysis results that may help you produce
award winning wines year after year. There are a
multitude of labs both university-based and com-
mercially available to you. Make the lab account
managers your partners for the long haul.
Tests should not be single once-a-year snapshots
but conducted consistently 3-4 times a year to get a
Figure #3: Chemicals in soil caught and released baseline as to what your vineyard has in its arsenal.
by chemical bonding sites of the soil grains. The Analysis costs money. Do not treat it like throwing
different chemicals move through the ground at darts at a dartboard. It is more than that. Treat
different speeds, but they all do move with the them like life saving medical checkups. The next
groundwater flow. Different chemicals simply article in the series will be on in-house lab testing
move through the ground faster than others and nuances and best practices.
are locked up forever in soil grain pores and stop
moving and are not available to the root system.
Figure 4: Unmovable soil
gas/air pockets may act as
barriers to the movement
of water and nutrients.
This is a problem with well
compacted vineyard soils
after many years of con-
tinued use.
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