262: A Vineyard Research Site to Study Soil Health

Winegrowing regions in Washington State have many unique challenges from salty soils, to low organic matter, to nematodes. Devin Rippner, Research Viticulture Soil Scientist with USDA-ARS and his colleagues at Washington State University are developing a research vineyard to study soil health building practices.

They are testing a variety of management strategies including adjusting irrigation volume to correct for salt build-up, mowing for weed management, compost applications and synthetic fertilizers, and different cover crops. The team is tracking the cost of each practice and will ultimately evaluate wine quality in the coming years.

Taking a deeper dive into the future of soil sampling, Devin explains X-ray CT imagery. He has used this technology to evaluate the structure and organic matter from soil columns and aggregates. X-ray CT imagery has also been used to evaluate the impact grape seeds have on tannin flavor profiles.

Resources:        

• 80: (Rebroadcast) The Goldilocks Principle & Powdery Mildew Management
• 90: Nematode Management for Washington Grapes
• A workflow for segmenting soil and plant X-ray CT images with deep learning in Google’s Colaboratory
• Devin Rippner, USDA ARS
• Functional Soil Health
• Healthy Soils Playlist
• Red Wine Fermentation Alters Grape Seed Morphology and Internal Porosity
• Soil Health in Washington Vineyards
• Vineyard soil texture and pH effects on Meloidogyne hapla and Mesocriconema xenoplax
• Washington Soil Health Initiative

Vineyard Team Programs:

• Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate
• SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet  
• Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year
• Vineyard Team – Become a Member

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