Source: WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
HIGH-RESOLUTION VINEYARD NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1023501
Grant No.
2020-51181-32159
Cumulative Award Amt.
$4,746,620.00
Proposal No.
2020-02626
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 30, 2020
Project End Date
Sep 29, 2025
Grant Year
2021
Program Code
[SCRI]- Specialty Crop Research Initiative
Project Director
Keller, M.
Recipient Organization
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
240 FRENCH ADMINISTRATION BLDG
PULLMAN,WA 99164-0001
Performing Department
Horticulture
Non Technical Summary
This Coordinated Agricultural Project in the SCRI focus areas Plant Production and Production Efficiency (50%) and Technology (50%) seeks to enable grape growers to make data-driven nutrient-management decisions for spatially heterogenous vineyards and diverse production markets. We propose to develop grower-friendly decision-aid tools for vineyard nutrient management to optimize inputs and business profitability via improved vineyard productivity and fruit and product quality, while minimizing adverse impacts on the environment. The tools-- remote sensors that determine grapevine macronutrient and micronutrient status coupled with modern plant tissue sampling protocols--would give growers near real-time in-field access to spatial and temporal metrics for vine nutrition variability. Importantly, these tools would enable growers to act upon these measures via variable rate synthetic or organic fertilizer application. Crop yield and quality impacts for all grape sectors--fresh, wine, juice, raisins--would be included. Thus the project objectives are to 1) develop non-destructive, near-real-time tools to determine grapevine nutrient status across entire vineyards; 2) determine efficiency and suitability of precision vineyard nutrient management; 3) define grapevine nutrient ranges based on environment and production market; and 4) estimate economic impact and feasibility of vineyard nutrient management, extend knowledge to stakeholders, and advance understanding of grower decision making. Anticipated project deliverables include 1) non-destructive sensing tools to measure vine nutrient status; 2) more precise, region-specific plant tissue sampling procedures and guidelines for more precise nutrient management; and 3) website and durable extension publications outlining best nutrient management practices and economic impact of improved nutrient management and sustainability.
Animal Health Component
60%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
60%
Developmental
10%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2051139202030%
1021139106070%
Knowledge Area
102 - Soil, Plant, Water, Nutrient Relationships; 205 - Plant Management Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
1139 - Grapes, general/other;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering; 1060 - Biology (whole systems);
Goals / Objectives
Grapes are grown on almost 1 million (M) acres and have a combined production value of about $6.6 billion in the US (www.nass.usda.gov). In 2018, US production exceeded 7.5M tons, with 4.7M tons used for wine, 1.2M tons for raisins, 1.1M tons for fresh market, and 0.5M tons for juice. Regardless of grape market or production region, vineyard nutrient management is critical to sustainably reach product-specific quality standards. While non-destructive nutrient sensing tools exist for grain crops, their adaptability to grapevines has not been studied. Despite the advancement of agricultural sensors to detect various aspects of crop status, there is no means of non-destructively measuring mineral nutrient status in grapevines. In addition, the current, basic tissue sampling protocols lack precision or relevancy for the diverse production goals of the grape industry. The standard practice is for growers to manually collect leaves or petioles once or twice during a growing season, combine them into a single sample for vineyard blocks of up to 50 acres, and mail the samples to a lab for analysis. This situation results in significant management inefficiencies, sub-optimal crop quality, and adverse environmental impacts, all of which could be avoided with near-real-time sensing tools and improved vineyard nutrition guidelines that this project seeks to develop. The project objectives are to:1) Develop non-destructive tools to measure grapevine nutrient status;2) Determine the efficiency and suitability of precision vineyard nutrient management;3) Define grapevine nutrient thresholds based on environment and production market;4) Estimate economic impact and feasibility of nutrient management decisions, extend knowledge to stakeholders, and advance understanding of grower decision making.
Project Methods
This Coordinated Agricultural Project consists of four Objectives that will be pursued to achieve our overall project goal. Objectives are broken down into Tasks that will be distributed between investigators at six universities and two federal research laboratories. Each Objective will be completed by an intersecting set of key personnel that comprise a Focus Group. Each group will be led by a Co-PD who will be responsible for integrating activities with those of other Focus Groups. Project participants will interact through emails, monthly conference calls, and annual project meetings with the Project Advisory Panel.Objective 1 - Sensors/Engineering: This objective will determine the usability and adoptability of existing sensor products for use in the detection of nutrient status (N, P, K, Mg, etc.), ideally before deficiency symptoms become apparent, in grapevines.A key element of our approach is to advance from oversampled, high-cost, high-spectral-resolution sensing toward a set of targeted wavelengths that growers can implement in a cost-effective manner, at high accuracy and precision. Both over-the-row and aerial platforms will be developed that provide grapevine nutrient status in near-real-time and at high spatial/temporal resolution across spatially heterogenous vineyards.Objective 2 - Precision Management: The project will generate vineyard nutrient maps from the sensor data collected in Objective 1 and integrate them with soil, canopy, and yield maps. These maps will enable 1) testing spatially-guided sampling protocols to reduce grower time and effort; and 2) creating fertilizer application maps, using data fusion and spatial statistics. Variable-rate applications of synthetic or organic fertilizers wil then be evaluated to develop best-practice recommendations for high-resolution vineyard nutrient management. Local variogram kriging of all spatial data, including new nutrient sensor data, will be used to predict sensor measurements to a common vineyard grid to investigate relationships between data layers.Objective 3 - Plant Nutrition/Product Quality: Nutrient supply will be manipulated in both commercial vineyard trials and pot experiments to 1) ground-truth and validate sensor technology and precision management approaches developed in Objectives 1 and 2; and 2) optimize tissue sampling and define nutrient ranges and thresholds that impact plant productivity and fruit quality for each grape market. Vine productivity and pre- and postharvest product quality will be assessed, and results will be integrated into Objectives 2 and 4. Multi-year nutrient supply studies will be conducted in five states (California, New York, Oregon, Virginia, Washington), employing multiple varieties of wine, table, raisin, and juice grapes typical for each region to accomplish these goals. Additional field trials will be conducted by the project collaborator in Argentina (Mendoza region), where Mg deficiency is particularly prevalent. To ensure these new methods will be readily adoptable if successful, spatial sampling protocols described in Objective 2 will be applied to these datasets.Objective 4 - Social Science/Extension: Using data from Objectives 2 and 3, economic impacts of vineyard nutrient management will be evaluated and economic feasibility models will be developed for improved nutrient management plans. Working with extension leaders and other stakeholders across the US to connect with growers and processers will help to identify factors that influence their nutrient management decision making. Stakeholder feedback from surveys and regional technical meetings will be used to refine project focus and translate current and project-generated information into educational products and programs. Efforts will be conducted at the local to national scale through the National Viticulture and Enology Extension Leadership group, a working group of extension professionals across the US grape production regions, in collaboration with the National Grape Research Alliance.Experimental designs will vary greatly depending on the type of experiment being proposed. Field trial design and analysis will follow the guide for on-farm vineyard trials published by the PD and collaborators. In general, results from replicated and repeated (over space and/or time) field and pot experiments conducted in Objectives 1-3 will be analyzed using appropriate ANOVA procedures using factorial designs to test interactions of treatment factors and/or repeated measures analysis where required. Standard post-hoc means separation statistical analyses will be conducted on response variables. Correlation analysis will be used to test associations between key plant response variables, and between weather-related variables and plant responses. For design, operation and installation of electronic equipment and sensors, Objectives 1 and 2 will use the standards published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (www.asabe.org). Downsizing of high-resolution spectral data to operational solutions for nutrient assessment will follow advanced high independent-to-dependent variable ratio approaches. For electronic data storage Objectives 1 and 2 will use and adapt the standards developed by the International Consortium for Agricultural Systems Applications and distributed by the DSSAT Foundation (www.dssat.net).

Progress 09/30/23 to 09/29/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Grape growers, crop consultants, vineyard management company personnel, winemakers, extension specialists Changes/Problems:Several Co-PI changes were necessary due to retirements of key project personnel. These changes were approved by NIFA and have not affected our overall approach or project progress. No adjustments seem necessary. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?To date, this project has provided direct training to 11 graduate students, 5 post-doctoral scholars, and 1 international visiting scholar. In addition, 4 international visiting students were trained as part of their internships at universities participating in the project. Each PI in the study has trained one or more of these individuals in their respective labs and programs. These students, staff, and PIs have presented their research results at conferences since the inception of the project, thereby sharing their results with academic peers. In addition, results of the project have been shared widely with industry audiences through numerous grower meetings, workshops, and field days. The outcomes to date consist primarily of providing student and staff training and mentoring on areas related to grapevine physiology, mineral nutrition, engineering, and food science. Professional development for industry at this stage has largely been provided as a suite of possible tools that one can use for monitoring and managing vineyard nutrition. As we develop new sensors and methods, those will be shared with the industry and extension and research community. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The target audience of this project includes grape industry members, including growers, processers, consultants and other field service providers, as well as extension educators. We reached this target audience by first developing a project website (https://highresvineyardnutrition.com) and social media outlets, including X, Instagram, and LinkedIn, as each demographic of our target audience may use different online and social media. We also developed and published a podcast series that is informing our audience about the project and keeps them updated regularly. Two podcast seasons were developed and published online, with 11 episodes per season and each episode ranging from 30-40 minutes in duration; a third season is under development. Each podcast has a transcript to allow accessibility for hearing-impaired audiences. The podcast is easily accessible and preferred by the stakeholder audience and has greater reach than written materials. To date, we have over 4000 IAB downloads with listeners from 52 nations. The top five listening locations are as follows: US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Germany. During 2023-2024, we offered three train-the-trainer events as online tutorials for Extension agents and consultants, training 234 individuals on the MyEV platform. Individual PI efforts were made in their home states and regions to reach local industry members. Such efforts included workshops, field days, and seminars at industry meetings that covered other related information but introduced the project to the industry, as project results are being accumulated. Materials were also shared through written forms, including newsletter and news articles about the project. This phase of outreach is focused on raising industry awareness of the project, particularly those who are not directly linked to the PIs or their research programs. Nevertheless, lessons learned through the project, such as vineyard nutrient budgets and nutrient mapping approaches, are already being shared with stakeholders at industry meetings and through industry magazine and newsletter articles as results are being accumulated. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The plans to accomplish the goals are again listed under the main objectives for reference: Develop non-destructive tools to measure grapevine nutrient status: Our goal of identifying the most efficient and accurate/precise solutions that are scalable to vineyard levels remains true for the final reporting cycle as well. In 2025, we plan to finalize strategies to develop non-destructive tools to measure grapevine nutrient status (Objective 1) and to determine the efficiency and suitability of precision vineyard nutrient management (Objective 2). In addition to identifying a minimal set of spectral bands that achieve accurate and precise nutrient estimates, we will focus on including canopy structure, shoot growth, and leaf orientation information to enhance the spectral models. Spatial, 3D data collected during 2023 and 2024 will be used to develop models that are expected to minimize the effect of leaf angle on spectral reflectance and improve the reliability of nutrient estimation. This will be achieved by collaborative efforts at in-situ and airborne scales and ground-based spectral sensing at leaf and canopy levels, coupled to field-measured nutrient ground truth data (Objective 3). In addition, we will continue to investigate the impact of N on grape leaf tissue structure and on vine canopy structure and consequently the impact of this structure variation on the NIR reflectance characteristic. Furthermore, we are working on a robot with a LiDAR sensor, which will map vineyards and record each vine's location and estimated nutrient concentration. Such a technology will facilitate the mapping of nutrient variation across vineyards, thus facilitating variable rate application of nutrients at the plant level. We will work closely with our extension partners (Objective 4) to assess the cost-benefit of the various sensing solutions, at a variety of scales, from the plant to the vineyard level. Determine the efficiency and suitability of precision vineyard nutrient management: Our plans remain aligned with the plans outlined in the original proposal with the measure, model, manage approach and expected deliverables. We will continue to work with the engineering team (Objective 1) to scan vineyards and with the vine nutrition team (Objective 3) to process data obtained from vine tissue sampling in different grape types (wine, table, raisin, juice) and at different growth stages. In 2025, remote sensing models will be deployed in larger research vineyard blocks and cooperating commercial vineyards to refine nitrogen and potassium prediction maps. To validate the maps, four in-field tissue sampling strategies developed by the project will be compared for accuracy and cost-effectiveness for growers. We will also apply variable-rate fertilizer management based on current sensor and software development. All sensor data, spatial mapping, validation points, and data translation will continue to take place in the MyEfficientVineyard software. Define grapevine nutrient thresholds based on environment and production market: To accomplish our goal to define nutrient thresholds in different grape products and growing environments, we will analyze and publish the data collected from numerous on-farm trials in CA, OR, NY, VA, and WA conducted from 2020 through 2024 (some trials were of shorter duration). The trials compared varying nutrient levels in vineyards of wine, table, raisin, and juice grapes. The research focused on nitrogen as a priority, given the pivotal role that N plays in driving vine productivity and altering fruit quality. Phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium were examined in those production systems and locations where these nutrients have recently been a problem. Analysis of data from measurements of vine responses to varying nutrient supply will continue; this includes vine vegetative and reproductive output, measurements of leaf blade and petiole nutrients for all macro- and micronutrients needed by vines, measures of nutrients in other select tissues including whole shoot, fruit, and dormant season pruning wood in some cases, and assessments of fruit quality parameters. Wine production from grapes obtained in field trials in VA and WA will be finalized in 2025, and wine quality will be assessed based on chemometrics and sensory analysis. The diverse nutrient manipulation experiments also serve as test beds for the development of new sensors based on unmanned drone flights and ground-based equipment in collaboration with the engineering and sensing team members of the project (Objective 1). We will determine tissue nutrient sufficiency thresholds from these experiments based on both vine productivity and fruit quality responses unique to each type of grape under investigation, and to each region. We will also finalize the development of vineyard nutrient budgets for macro- and micronutrients, which will enable growers to apply fertilizers based on annual nutrient removal from a vineyard. Estimate economic impact and feasibility of nutrient management decisions, extend knowledge to stakeholders, and advance understanding of grower decision making: We will continue to develop season 3 of the podcast with project results. We plan to release season 3 in winter/spring of 2024/2025 and continue publishing until the final episode is released. We will continue to develop new episodes as project results become available (https://extension.oregonstate.edu/podcast/hires-vineyard-nutrition-podcast). The team will continue to develop and deliver outreach events, including seminars, workshops, and field days for the 2025 season to share results widely with the grape community. Project members will generate content to share results of their research efforts on the project website (https://highresvineyardnutrition.com) and via social media outlets, including X, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Efforts are already in place to develop durable outreach publications from the project, including methods for tissue sampling and nutrient monitoring. These will be used to develop a curriculum that may be used by extension specialists when developing local workshops and trainings for their growers. We will continue to develop and refine the econometric model using previous years and new field-level data generated in 2024. In addition, any potential economic results that can be derived from survey responses will be identified and integrated into the model. In 2025, we will quantify industry impact from the project by holding focus group meetings with key stakeholders in each US grape production region to understand their current adoption, willingness to adopt, or barriers to adopting new methods and technologies for vineyard nutrient management. This information will assist with final product development from this grant and future research directives.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This project is developing grower-friendly decision-aid tools for vineyard nutrient management to optimize inputs and business profitability via improved vineyard productivity and product quality, while minimizing adverse impacts on the environment. The tools (remote sensors that determine grapevine nutrient status coupled with modern plant tissue sampling protocols) will give growers near real-time in-field access to spatial and temporal metrics for vine nutrition variability. They will enable growers to act upon these measures via variable rate nutrient application. Impacts on crop yield and quality for all grape sectors (fresh, wine, juice, raisins) are measured. Long-term impacts of this project are 1) grape production will become more sustainable with lower environmental impact and more consistent annual production; 2) growers will optimize vineyard nutrient management by grape type and market; 3) fruit packers and processors will improve their market competitiveness; and 4) consumers will have a more consistent supply of healthy and affordable fresh grapes and grape-derived products. Activities and accomplishments are summarized by objective. Develop non-destructive tools to measure grapevine nutrient status: In 2024, aerial (UAV-based) and ground-based collection of vine reflectance data using multi-spectral, hyperspectral, color, and 3D cameras continued in CA, NY, and WA. The dataset includes images from different growth stages of wine, table, and juice grape varieties in vineyards in CA, OR, NY, and WA. Advanced machine learning predictive models using leaf spectral data to estimate multiple key mineral nutrients separately or simultaneously were developed by incorporating canopy structure, shoot growth, leaf orientation, chlorophyll content, and other information. The models are being validated and improved using the ground-truth nutrient content data measured in vine tissue samples (Objective 3). The team also identified the most responsive wavelength bands from hyperspectral data to facilitate the development of cost-effective nutrient sensors. The models were used to create nutrient maps for vineyards to enable growers to use precision farming management to reduce spatial variability in vine nutrient status (Objective 2). This work contributes toward a decision-aid tool that will make vineyard management more environmentally and economically sustainable. Determine the efficiency and suitability of precision vineyard nutrient management: Spatial nutrient sensor data are being translated into actionable variable-rate vineyard nutrient management. This theme is dependent on and closely integrated with the sensor/engineering (Objective 1) and plant nutrition (Objective 3) themes. Activities during 2024 supported and tested the development of potential nutrient sensors which are being integrated with other spatial viticulture data, such as soil and yield maps. One critical function is to bridge sensing technology and vine nutrition information by validating high-density sensor data with low-density in-field tissue nutrient analysis to generate sensible high-density nutrient maps. Using cooperating commercial vineyards as a target audience, validated nutrient maps are being layered with other vineyard information in the MyEfficientVineyard (MyEV) web-based spatial-data software for growers. The MyEV tool is now being used internationally in many major grape producing regions. Currently, there are 1118 unique farm accounts in 34 countries and MyEV users have generated and mapped 4353 spatial datasets. These metrics have doubled in the past year. In 2024, the broader Efficientvineyard.com website with the project educational materials had over 5500 visitors, a 20% increase over the previous year, and 8100 page views. Overall, Efficientvineyard.com demonstrates excellence in providing innovative solutions, educational support, interactive training, user-friendly experience, and community engagement. These strengths contribute to its effectiveness as a comprehensive resource for enhancing vineyard management practices and fostering professional development within the viticulture sector. Define grapevine nutrient thresholds based on environment and production market: Of the 17 project on-farm trials with wine, table, raisin, and juice grapes in CA, OR, NY, VA, and WA, 12 were continued in 2024, focusing on nitrogen and potassium supply. These trials serve as test beds for ground-truthing during sensor development and validation (Objective 1); to test precision vineyard nutrient management approaches (Objective 2); to develop enhanced tissue sampling protocols (Objective 3); and to provide data for socioeconomic analysis (Objective 4). Tissue and soil samples were collected at different growth stages to analyze macro- and micronutrients. Plant growth, yield, and fruit composition data were collected from all field trials, and experimental wines were made with grapes from VA and WA. The wines are being tested for nutrient impacts by chemical and sensory analysis. The field trials found few fertilizer rate effects on yield components and fruit composition, but there was a tendency for tannins to decline with increasing N supply and, in some trials, for titratable acidity to increase with increasing K supply. The yeast-assimilable N was more responsive to small amounts of foliar fertilizer applied during early ripening than to larger doses of soil fertilizer applied earlier in the year. Vineyard nutrient budgets based on fruit removal at harvest and leaf fall at the end of the growing season show variability depending on the variety, location, and vintage, but the losses in leaves are non-negligible and will be taken into account for future nutrient management plans. Moreover, our novel approach of sampling young shoots in spring is showing promise as an early indicator of vine nutrient status for in-season fertilizer recommendations. Estimate economic impact and feasibility of nutrient management decisions, extend knowledge to stakeholders, and advance understanding of grower decision making: Starting in spring of 2023 and continuing through 2024, key project personnel presented progress from their focus groups during quarterly project meetings to foster collaboration across focus groups and provide a continuing dialog with the stakeholder advisory panel. The first train-the-trainer session was delivered to project staff to encourage use of the MyEV platform for data acquisition, visualization, and vineyard management (Objective 2). Recognizing that certain tools and applications available from our team were not highly integrated served as a first step towards further refinement of outreach programs and tools. Field days to disseminate lessons learned to grape growers and other industry stakeholders were held across the nation throughout the year. A series of podcasts was recorded, interviewing researchers and key industry stakeholders; season 1 was released in winter/spring of 2022/2023, season 2 in winter/spring of 2023/2024, and recording for season 3 is ongoing. All podcasts are hosted on LibSyn and are available with a full written transcript at https://extension.oregonstate.edu/podcast/hires-vineyard-nutrition-podcast. To date, economic modeling has focused on leaf tissue N to gain insights into the effects of changes in N on grape yield at harvest. Data were obtained from multiple varieties and vineyard locations in CA, OR, NY, and WA (Objective 3). Weather data (daily temperature and precipitation records gridded across the contiguous US) were obtained from Oregon State University's PRISM group. The results highlight the variable responses of grape varieties and vineyard locations to changes in N levels, stressing the importance of tailored nutrient management based on grape variety and vineyard site. Further modeling will identify additional nutrients and weather variables that influence yield.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Trivedi, M.B., T.R. Bates, J. M. Meyers, N. Shcherbatyuk, P. Davadant, R. Chancia, R.B. Lohman, and J.E. Vanden Heuvel. Box sampling: A new spatial sampling method for grapevine macronutrients using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite images. NASA Space4Ag conference at Cornell, Aug 19-21, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Chancia R., T. Bauch, N. Raqueno, T. Bates, J. van Aardt. A comparison of VNIR range sensors for assessing canopy variability in vineyards. IEEE Systems and Technologies for Remote Sensing Applications Through Unmanned Aerial Systems (STRATUS) conference. Syracuse, NY  May 20-22, 2024.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Bates, T., Gunner, N., Walter-Peterson, H. Finger Lakes Grape Program MyEV Training Webinar, April 1, 2024.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Bates, T., Gunner, N. Learn MyEV: An Open-access Vineyard Visualization Tool, Training Webinar, February 28, 2024. https://media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/1_z0jh726j
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Bates, T., Gunner, N., Walter-Peterson, H. Finger Lakes Grape Program MyEV Training Webinar, February 16, 2024.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bates, T., Gunner, N. Learn MyEV: An Open-access Vineyard Visualization Tool, Training Webinar, November 28, 2023. https://media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/1_br7ofwy1
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Bates, T., Chancia, R., Trivedi, M., Gunner, N. Hi-Res Vineyard Nutrient Management. Lake Erie Grape Growers' Conference, Fredonia, NY, March 14, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Bates, T. Spatial Vineyard Data to Make More Informed Vineyard Management Decisions. Unified Wine and Grape Symposium, From Data to Decisions Session, January 24, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bates, T. Efficient Vineyard: Spatial-data driven variable-rate vineyard management. Sustainable Ag Expo, The Vineyard Team, San Luis Obispo, CA, November 9, 2023.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Bates, T. Keeping Track of Farm Block Information in MyEV, February 14, 2024. Tutorial Video, https://www.efficientvineyard.com/blog/keeping-track-of-farm-block-information-in-myev
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Bates, T., Gunner, N., Russo, J. Lake Erie Regional Grape Program Tech Tuesday, In-Person Training, February 13, 2024.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Bates, T., Gunner, N., Russo, J. Lake Erie Regional Grape Program Tech Tuesday, In-Person Training, January 16, 2024.
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Peanusaha S., A. Pourreza, Y. Kamiya, MW. Fidelibus, M. Chakraborty. Nitrogen retrieval in grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) leaves by hyperspectral sensing. Remote Sensing of Environment, 302, 1 March 2024, 113966. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2023.113966
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Pourreza A., M. Chakraborty, P. Farajpoor, S. Peanusaha. Nitrogen monitoring in specialty crops of California; Case studies in almond and grape. Poster presentation at the EARSeL (European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories), Valencia, November 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Farajpoor P., A. Pourreza, MW. Fidelibus, A. El?Kereamy. Multi-trait modeling for grape nutrient retrieval by proximal spectral sensing. Oral presentation at the SPIE Autonomous Air and Ground Sensing Systems for Agricultural Optimization and Phenotyping IX, PC1305302, April 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Farajpoor P., A. Pourreza, MW. Fidelibus, A. El?Kereamy. Advancing Grapevine Nutrient Sensing through a Deep Learning-Based Multi-trait Analytical Approach. Oral presentation at the ASABE (American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers), July 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Atif, B., Asad, A., Paudel, A., Khanal, S., Shcherbatyuk, N., Davadant, P., Karkee, M., Keller, M., Schreiner, P., & Kalauni, S. Nitrogen assessment in grapevine leaves using ground-based hyperspectral imaging. Washington State Grapevine Society Annual Meeting, Grandview, WA, November 16-17, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Atif, B., Asad, A., Khanal, S., Shcherbatyuk, N., Davadant, P., Karkee, M., Keller, M., Schreiner, P., & Kalauni, S. 2024. Machine learning technique for grapevine nitrogen estimation using hyperspectral imaging. Honoring Undergraduate & Graduate Scholars Symposium (HUGSS 2024), Heritage University, Toppenish, WA, April 5, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Atif, B., Asad, A., Khanal, S., Shcherbatyuk, N., Davadant, P., Karkee, M., Keller, M., Schreiner, P., & Kalauni, S. 2024. Ensemble hyperspectral bands selection for assessing nitrogen status in grapevine leaf blades. Washington Advancements in Viticulture and Enology (WAVE), Richland, WA, April 11, 2024.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Atif, B., Asad, A., Paudel, A., Khanal, S., Shcherbatyuk, N., Davadant, P., Karkee, M., & Keller, M. 2024. Feature selection for assessing nitrogen status in grapevine leaf blades using ground-based hyperspectral imaging & mapping nitrogen variation in the vineyard. CPAAS & AgWeatherNet Open House, Prosser, WA, July 12, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Jachym S., N. Shcherbatyuk, P. Davadant, M. Keller. 2024. Nitrogen management may affect carbon isotope ratios in grape juice. WineVit by Washington Winegrowers Association, Kennewick, WA, February 5-7.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Keller M. 2024. Optimizing vineyard nutrition. WAVE Connect, Washington Advancements in Viticulture and Enology, Richland, WA, April 11.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Shcherbatyuk N, P. Skinkis, T. Bates, M. Karkee, P. Schreiner and M. Keller. High-Resolution Vineyard Nutrient Management: Project Highlights. WineVit by Washington Winegrowers Association, Kennewick, WA, February 5-7.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Shcherbatyuk N, P. Skinkis, T. Bates, M. Karkee, P. Schreiner and M. Keller. High-Resolution Vineyard Nutrient Management Project. Washington State Grape Society Annual Meeting, Grandview, WA, November 16-17, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Atif, B., Asad, A., Paudel, A., Khanal, S., Kshetri, S., Shcherbatyuk, N., Davadant, P., Karkee, M., Keller, M., Schreiner, P., & Kalauni, S. 2024. Feature selection for nitrogen assessment in grapevine leaf blades using ground-based hyperspectral imaging at leaf and canopy level. American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Annual International Meeting (AIM) 2024, Anaheim, CA, July 2831, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Shcherbatyuk N., P. Skinkis, T. Bates, M. Karkee, and M. Keller. Cutting-Edge Vineyard Nutrient Management: Project Spotlight. American Society for Enology and Viticulture National Conference. Portland, OR, June 17-20, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Davadant P., N. Shcherbatyuk, L.A. Kalcsits, J.F. Harbertson and M. Keller. 2024: Optimizing nitrogen supply for winegrape quality in dry regions. American Society for Enology and Viticulture National Conference. Portland, OR, June 17-20, pp. 61.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Shcherbatyuk N, High-Resolution Vineyard Nutrient Management 2020-2025. VIT TECH. An educational series for the Walla Walla wine grape industry. Walla Walla Community College Enology & Viticulture Center and virtually, July 31, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Davadant P., M. Keller. 2024. Foliar nitrogen application at v�raison: what goes to the fruit stays in the fruit. WineVit by Washington Winegrowers Association, Kennewick, WA, February 5-7.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Shcherbatyuk N., P. Davadant, M. Hansen. 2024. Of balance and bounties. Good Fruit Grower 75: 10-11.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Pazos J, R. Doyle, P. Davadant, N. Shcherbatyuk, M. Keller and J.F. Harbertson. 2024. Effect of soil and foliar nitrogen applications on Syrah fruit and wine tannin concentration and composition. American Society for Enology and Viticulture National Conference. Portland, OR, June 17-20 pg. 100.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: M. Mershon, D. Acimovic, T. Wolf, M. Ac-Pangan, E. Chang, J. Lahne, A.C. Stewart. 2024. Vineyard nitrogen applications boost yeast assimilable nitrogen and major amino acid constituents proline, glutamine, and alanine in Chardonel grown in Virginia. In Vino Analytica Symposium, Davis, CA, July 9-12, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mershon, M., D. Acimovic, T.K. Wolf, M.D. Calvert, E. Chang, J. Lahne, A.C. Stewart. 2024. Impact of Vineyard Nitrogen Management on Wine Chemistry and Sensory Characteristics in Virginia Chardonel. Institute of Food Technologists, Chicago, IL, July 15-16, 2024.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mershon, M. Modest Differences in Juice Yeast Assimilable Nitrogen Concentration and Composition Influence Wine Chemistry and Impart Limited Sensory Differences in Virginia-grown Chardonel. May 1, 2024. Master of Life Sciences in Food Science and Technology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mershon, M., D. Acimovic, T.K. Wolf, M.D. Calvert, E. Chang, J. Lahne, A.C. Stewart. 2024. Impact of Vineyard Nitrogen Management on Wine Chemistry and Sensory Characteristics in Virginia Chardonel 12th Annual Poster Competition. Department of Food Science & Technology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. Apr. 26, 2024. Poster. (Award - Presenter, Graduate Student Megan Mershon won 1st place in the VT FST Dept. Poster Competition for MS students)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Fidelibus, M.W. 2024. Evaluate Sunpreme on Different Trellis, Rootstocks, and Nutrient Scenarios, San Joaquin Valley Grape Symposium, Easton, California, January 10, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Fidelibus, M.W. 2024. Potassium management in vineyards, Lodi Grape Day, Lodi, CA, February, 6, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Kalauni S, Schreiner RP, Skinkis P. 2024. Evaluating Impact of Potassium Fertilization on Vine Nutrient Status, Productivity and Fruit Composition in a Western Oregon Vineyard. Oregon Wine Research Institute Grape Day, Corvallis, OR. April 2, 2024 (poster).
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Skinkis P. HiRes Vineyard Nutrition Podcast. Oregon State University Extension Publishing. https://extension.oregonstate.edu/podcast/hires-vineyard-nutrition-podcast
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Fidelibus, M.W. 2024. https://www.growingproduce.com/fruits/grapes/keys-to-managing-potassium-in-vineyards
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Fidelibus, M.W. 2024. Grapevine mineral nutrition, " Viticulture and Enology, On the Road, Paso Robles", Presentation, via zoom, April 5, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Fidelibus, M.W. 2024. Table grape mineral nutrition, Viticulture and Enology, On-the Road, Kern County, Bakersfield, CA, April, 10, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Fidelibus, M.W. 2024. Nutrient management for profitable grape production, 2024 UCCE Northern San Joaquin Valley Vineyard Irrigation and Nutrient Management Workshop, Lodi, CA, May, 4, 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Kalauni S, Schreiner RP, Skinkis P. 2024. Evaluating Nitrogen, Potassium, and Magnesium Fertilization Effects on Vine Nutrient Status and Productivity in Western Oregon. American Society of Enology and Viticulture 75th National Conference, Portland, OR. June 19, 2024 (poster).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Kalauni S, Schreiner RP, Skinkis P. 2024. Evaluating Impact of Potassium Fertilization on Vine Nutrient Status, Productivity and Fruit Composition in a Western Oregon Vineyard. LIVE Certified Annual Meeting, Newberg, OR. March 21, 2024 (poster).


Progress 09/30/22 to 09/29/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Grape growers, crop consultants, vineyard management company personnel, winemakers, extension specialists Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?To date, this project has provided direct training to 11 graduate students, 4 post-doctoral scholars, and 1 visiting scholar from Japan. In addition, 4 visiting students from Europe and South America were trained as part of their internships at American universities participating in the project. Each PI in the study has trained one or more of these individuals in their respective labs and programs. These students, staff, and PIs have presented their research results at conferences since the inception of the project, thereby sharing their results with academic peers. In addition, results of the project have been shared with industry audiences through numerous grower meetings, workshops, and field days. The outcomes to date consist primarily of providing student and staff training and mentoring on areas related to grapevine physiology, mineral nutrition, engineering, and food science. Professional development for industry at this stage has largely been provided as a suite of possible tools that one can use for monitoring and managing vineyard nutrition. As we develop new sensors and methods, those will be shared with the industry and extension and research community. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The target audience of this project is grape industry members, including growers, processers, consultants and other field service providers, as well as extension educators. We reached this target audience by first developing a project website (https://highresvineyardnutrition.com) and social media outlets, including Twitter (now X), Instagram, and LinkedIn, as each demographic of our target audience may use different online and social media. We also developed and published a podcast series that is informing our audience about the project and keeps them updated regularly. Season 1, with 11 episodes of 30-40 minute duration, was released in winter/spring of 2022/2023, and season 2 will be released in winter/spring of 2023/2024. The podcast is much more approachable and has greater reach than written material; to date, we have nearly 2000 downloads with listeners from 28 nations. The top six listening locations are as follows: US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and France. The first project-wide train-the-trainer event was held in June of 2023 as a live online tutorial. Individual PI efforts were made in their home states and regions to reach local industry members. Such efforts included workshops, field days, and seminars that covered other related information but introduced the project to the industry, as project results are being accumulated. Materials were also shared through written forms, including newsletter and news articles about the project. This phase of outreach is focused on raising industry awareness of the project, particularly those who are not directly linked to the PIs or their research programs. Nevertheless, lessons learned through the project, such as vineyard nutrient budgets and nutrient mapping approaches, are already being shared with stakeholders at industry meetings as results are being accumulated. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The plans to accomplish the goals are again listed under the main objectives for reference: Develop non-destructive tools to measure grapevine nutrient status: Our goal to identify the most efficient and accurate/precise solutions that are scalable to vineyard levels remains true for the next reporting cycle as well. In 2024, we plan to continue with strategies to develop non-destructive tools to measure grapevine nutrient status and to determine the efficiency and suitability of precision vineyard nutrient management (Objective 3). In addition to identifying a minimal set of spectral bands that achieve accurate and precise nutrient estimates, we will focus on including canopy growth, canopy structure and leaf orientation information to enhance the spectral models. This will be achieved by collaborative efforts at in-situ and airborne scales and ground-based spectral sensing at leaf and canopy levels, coupled to field-measured nutrient ground truth data (Objective 2). To incorporate leaf orientation and instantaneous sun position into modeling, 3D point cloud information will be integrated into the modeling. In addition, we will continue to investigate the impact of N on grape leaf tissue structure and on vine canopy structure and consequently the impact of this structure variation on the NIR reflectance characteristic. We will work closely with our extension partners (Objective 4) to assess the cost-benefit of the various sensing solutions, at a variety of scales, from the plant to the vineyard level. Determine the efficiency and suitability of precision vineyard nutrient management: Our plans remain aligned with the plans outlined in the original proposal with the measure, model, manage approach and expected deliverables. We will continue to work with the engineering team (Objective 1) to scan vineyards and with the vine nutrition team (Objective 3) to collect vine tissue samples at different phenological stages. Sensor data will be matched with tissue nutrient analysis to develop non-destructive sensing technology. In 2024, remote sensing models will be deployed in larger research vineyard blocks and cooperating commercial vineyards to develop nitrogen and potassium prediction maps. To validate the maps, four in-field tissue sampling strategies will be compared for accuracy and cost-effectiveness for growers. We will also start to apply variable-rate fertilizer management based on current sensor and software development. All sensor data, spatial mapping, validation points, and data translation will continue to take place in the MyEfficientVineyard software. Define grapevine nutrient thresholds based on environment and production market: To accomplish our goal to define nutrient thresholds in different grape products and growing environments, we will continue to conduct numerous on-farm trials in California (table, raisin), Oregon (wine), Washington (wine, juice), Virginia (wine), and New York (wine, juice) where varying nutrient levels are applied in replicated trials. These field trials will continue for a fourth growing season in 2024. The research focuses on nitrogen (N) as a priority, given the pivotal role that N plays in driving vine productivity and altering the fruit environment and berry growth and metabolism. Nitrogen is being examined in all regions. Potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg) are being examined in those production systems and locations where these nutrients have recently been a problem. While phosphorus (P) supply was originally planned to be examined in potted-vine trials, we located a vineyard in eastern Washington where vine P has been historically below the current recommended sufficiency level for the region. We therefore added a new, on-farm trial to examine P in a commercial vineyard. Vine responses to varying nutrient supply are being studied in all field trials and include assessment of vine vegetative and reproductive output, measurements of leaf blade and petiole nutrients for all macro- and micronutrients needed by vines, measures of nutrients in other select tissues including shoot tips, fruit and dormant season pruning wood in some cases, and assessments of fruit quality parameters. Wine is also being produced from grapes obtained in field trials in OR, WA, and VA, and wine quality is being assessed based on chemometrics and sensory analysis. Our nutrient manipulation experiments also serve as test beds for the development of new sensors based on unmanned drone flights and ground-based equipment in collaboration with the engineering and sensing team members of the project (Objective 1). We will determine tissue nutrient sufficiency thresholds from these experiments based on both vine productivity and fruit quality responses unique to each type of grape under investigation, and to each region. We also intend to develop vineyard nutrient budgets for macro- and micronutrients, which will enable growers to apply fertilizers based on annual nutrient removal from a vineyard. Estimate economic impact and feasibility of nutrient management decisions, extend knowledge to stakeholders, and advance understanding of grower decision making: We will publish the second season of our podcast series in winter/spring of 2023/2024 and continue to develop new episodes as project results become available (https://extension.oregonstate.edu/podcast/hires-vineyard-nutrition-podcast). The team will continue to develop and deliver outreach events, including seminars, workshops, and field days for the 2024 season to share results with the grape community. Project members will generate content to share results of their research efforts on the project website (https://highresvineyardnutrition.com) and via social media outlets, including Twitter (now X), Instagram, and LinkedIn. We will continue to develop and refine the econometric model using new field-level data generated in 2023 and 2024. In addition, any potential economic results that can be derived from survey responses will be identified and integrated into the model.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This project develops grower-friendly decision-aid tools for vineyard nutrient management to optimize inputs and business profitability via improved vineyard productivity and product quality, while minimizing adverse impacts on the environment. The tools (remote sensors that determine grapevine nutrient status coupled with modern plant tissue sampling protocols) will give growers near real-time in-field access to spatial and temporal metrics for vine nutrition variability. They will enable growers to act upon these measures via variable rate nutrient application. Impacts on crop yield and quality for all grape sectors (fresh, wine, juice, raisins) are measured. Long-term impacts of this project are 1) grape production will become more sustainable with lower environmental impact and more consistent annual production; 2) growers will optimize vineyard nutrient management by grape type and market; 3) fruit packers and processors will improve their market competitiveness; and 4) consumers will have a more consistent supply of healthy and affordable fresh grapes and grape-derived products. Following is a summary of activities and accomplishments for each of the four project objectives. Develop non-destructive tools to measure grapevine nutrient status: During 2023, aerial (UAV-based) data collection using multi-spectral cameras, hyperspectral cameras, color cameras, and 3D cameras continued in research and commercial vineyards in CA and NY. Similar sensors were used to collect data using a ground-based platform in commercial vineyards in WA and OR, and a spectrometer was used with a ground-based platform to collect vine reflectance data in a research plot in CA. The team also explored the potential of using small satellite constellation imagery from Planet Labs, which showed that the dataset is rather expensive; partnering with growers who may already be using such data could be a viable alternative. Based on the insightful discussion during the last annual project review, the team expanded the data collection effort to acquire vine canopy structure data including canopy volume, shoot counts, and shoot length. Models developed in 2022 for estimating nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous content in vines are now being improved by incorporating canopy structure, canopy growth, and leaf orientation information. The dataset includes images of different phenological stages of different wine, table, and juice grape varieties in vineyards in CA, OR, WA, and NY. The models are being validated using the ground-truth nutrient content data measured in vine tissue samples (Objective 3). Determine the efficiency and suitability of precision vineyard nutrient management: The main goal of the precision management project theme is to translate spatial nutrient sensor data into actionable variable-rate vineyard nutrient management. Several data processing and analytics steps are required to convert raw sensor data into usable information for more informed management decisions, and growers need research-based knowledge and access to affordable spatial-data processing tools for successful precision viticulture implementation. This theme is dependent on and closely integrated with the sensor/engineering (Objective 1) and plant nutrition (Objective 3) themes. Activities during 2023 supported and tested the development of potential nutrient sensors which are being integrated with other spatial viticulture data, such as soil and yield maps. One critical function is to bridge sensing technology and vine nutrition information by validating high-density sensor data with low-density in-field tissue nutrient analysis to generate sensible high-density nutrient maps. Current activities test various sampling methods in data validation which are both accurate and cost-effective for growers. Using cooperating commercial vineyards as a target audience, validated nutrient maps are being layered with other vineyard information in the MyEfficientVineyard (MyEV) web-based spatial-data software for growers. Spatial nutrient management prescription maps are being integrated with variable-rate fertilizer spreaders/sprayers, and precision management will be evaluated through vine health, nutrient status, and return on investment. Define grapevine nutrient thresholds based on environment and production market: The 17 on-farm trials that were established in CA, OR, WA, NY, and VA in 2020 or 2021 were continued in 2023. These trials serve as test beds for ground-truthing during sensor development and validation (Objective 1); to test precision vineyard nutrient management approaches (Objective 2); to develop enhanced tissue sampling protocols (Objective 3); and to provide data for socioeconomic analysis (Objective 4). Nitrogen supply is being manipulated in 10 of the grower-cooperator trials, K is being manipulated at two sites, and P and Mg at a single vineyard. Tissue and soil samples were collected at different phenological stages from the field sites to analyze macro- and micronutrients. Plant growth, yield, and fruit composition data were collected from all field trials, and experimental wines were made with grapes from trials in OR, WA, and VA. The wines will be tested for nutrient impacts by chemical and sensory analysis as appropriate. The field trials found few fertilizer rate effects on yield components and fruit composition, but there was a tendency for tannins to decline with increasing N availability. The yeast-assimilable N was more responsive to small amounts of foliar fertilizer applied during early ripening than to larger doses of soil fertilizer applied earlier in the year. Vineyard nutrient budgets based on fruit removal at harvest and leaf fall at the end of the growing season show variability depending on the variety, location, and vintage, but the losses in leaves are non-negligible and will be taken into account for future nutrient management plans. Moreover, our novel approach of sampling young shoots in spring is showing promise as an early indicator of vine nutrient status for in-season fertilizer recommendations. Estimate economic impact and feasibility of nutrient management decisions, extend knowledge to stakeholders, and advance understanding of grower decision making: Starting in spring of 2023, Co-PDs coordinated and presented progress from their focus groups during quarterly project meetings to foster collaboration across focus groups and provide a continuing dialog with the stakeholder advisory panel. The first train-the-trainer session was delivered to project staff to encourage use of the MyEV platform for data acquisition, management, and visualization. We recognized that certain tools/applications available from our team were not highly integrated, and this was a first step towards further refinement of outreach programs and tools. Field days to disseminate lessons learned to grape growers and other industry members were held across the nation throughout the year. A series of podcasts was recorded, interviewing researchers and key industry stakeholders; season 1 was released in winter/spring of 2022/2023. Recording for season 2 is ongoing. All podcasts are hosted on LibSyn and are available with a full written transcript at https://extension.oregonstate.edu/podcast/hires-vineyard-nutrition-podcast. Economic modeling focused on tissue N to gain insights into the effects of changes in N on grape yield at harvest. Data were obtained from multiple varieties and vineyard locations in OR, NY, CA, and WA. Weather data (daily temperature and precipitation records gridded across the contiguous US) were obtained from Oregon State University's PRISM group. The results highlight the variable responses of grape varieties and vineyard locations to changes in N levels, stressing the importance of tailored nutrient management based on grape variety and vineyard site. Further modeling will identify additional nutrients and weather variables that influence yield.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Skinkis P., 2023: Evaluating vineyard nutrition across climates through the HiRes Vineyard Nutrition Project. American Society for Enology and Viticulture Eastern Section Industry Workshop, Austin, TX, June 7-9, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Kang C., N. Shcherbatyuk, P. Davadant, M. Karkee, Q. Zhang and M. Keller. 2022: Grapevine nitrogen content using proximal hyperspectral imaging. Washington State Grape Society Annual Meeting, Grandview, WA, November 17-18, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Keller M. 2023: Viticulture research, state-level industry development and emerging trends. Arizona Viticulture Summit, Biosphere 2, Oracle, AZ, March 6-7, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Keller M. 2023: Cool vs. warm years: nutrition and irrigation management. WineVit by Washington Winegrowers Association, Kennewick, WA, February 6-9, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Keller M., P. Skinkis, R.P. Schreiner and T. Bates. 2023: Redefining vineyard nutrition diagnostics with the HiRes Vineyard Nutrition team. Eastern Viticulture and Enology Forum Webinar by Cornell AgriTech, Virginia Tech, and Penn State Extension, April 11, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: R.P. Schreiner, T. Tian, S. Kalauni, D. Rippner & E. Gillispie, 2023. Managing nutrient inputs and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in vineyards. American Society for Enology and Viticulture, Napa, CA, June 26-29, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: S. Kalauni & R.P. Schreiner, 2023. Influence of nitrogen, potassium and magnesium vineyard applications on vine nutrient status and productivity. American Society for Enology and Viticulture, Napa, CA, June 26-29, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Shcherbatyuk N., P. Davadant and M. Keller. 2023: Vineyard nutrient budget and sampling protocols. IVES Conference Series, GiESCO Congress. Ithaca, NY, July 17-20, 2023, 5 pp.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Shcherbatyuk N., P. Davadant and M. Keller. 2022. A new look at vineyard nutrient budgets and sampling protocols. Washington State Grape Society Annual Meeting. Grandview, WA, November 17-18, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Davadant P., N. Shcherbatyuk, R. Doyle, J. Harbertson and M. Keller. 2023: Impact of soil-applied and foliar-applied nitrogen on grape composition. WineVit by Washington Winegrowers Association, Kennewick, WA, February 6-9, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bates, T. and Gunner, N. MyEV Spatial Data Software Workshop. Hi-Res Vineyard Nutrition Project (6/21/2023).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bates, T., Chancia, R., Gunner, N., and Keller, M. Spatial Data Processing to Inform Variable-Rate Dry Fertilizer Applications in Vineyards. ASEV-ES Conference, Austin, TX. (6/9/2023).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bates, T. and Gunner, N. MyEV Spatial Data Software Workshop. Lake Erie Regional Grape Program. Portland, New York (5/11/2023).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bates, T. and Gunner, N. MyEV Spatial Data Software Workshop. Business, Enology, Viticulture New York Conference. Syracuse, New York. (3/30/2023).
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Shcherbatyuk N., P. Davadant and M. Keller. 2023: Optimizing grapevine nutrient budgeting for long-term success. WSU Viticulture and Enology Extension News, Fall 2023: 4-5.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Asad, A. B., Kang, C., Khanal, S., Karkee, M., Zhang, Q., Keller, M., & Shcherbatyuk, N. (2023). Nutrient Assessment in Grapevines using Ground-based Hyperspectral Imaging. In Proceedings of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, Annual International Meeting (AIM 2023) (pp. 812, July 2023). Omaha, NE.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Hatch, T. & Acimovic, D., 2023.HiRes Vineyard Nutrient Management Project: Virginia Trials. Virginia Vineyard Association Summer Technical Meeting. Charlottesville, VA, July 19, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bates, T. Vineyard Data: Lo-Tech and Mid-Tech Approaches. Business, Enology, Viticulture New York Conference. Syracuse, New York. (3/30/2023).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bates, T. and Chancia, R. Precision Vineyard Nutrition. Lake Erie Regional Grape Program Winter Grower Conference. Fredonia, New York. (3/16/2023).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bates, T. Precision Viticulture and the Hi-Res Vineyard Nutrition Project. New York State Horticulture Society Meeting, Rochester, New York. (2/27/2023).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bates, T. and Gunner, N. MyEV Spatial Data Software Workshop. Lake Erie Regional Grape Program. (2/7/2023).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bates, T. Introduction to the MyEfficientVineyard Spatial Data Management Software. New York Wine and Grape Foundation. (12/14/2022).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bates, T. On-Farm Experimentation in Precision Viticulture. Montpellier Vine and Wine Sciences International Seminar. (10/13/2022).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: R. Chancia, J. van Aardt, T. Bates 2023. Towards Zonal Prediction Maps for Vineyard Nutrition: A Comparison of Practical Options. American Society for Enology and Viticulture Eastern Section Annual Meeting. Austin, TX  June 7-9, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: R. Chancia, J. van Aardt, T. Bates 2023. HiRes Vineyard Nutrition. Lake Erie Regional Grape Program Winter Grower Conference. Fredonia, NY  March 16, 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Fidelibus MW. 2023. Determining nitrogen requirements of grapevines. Central Coast Winegrape Seminar. Salinas, California, 7 March 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Fidelibus, MW. 2023. Performance of Sunpreme raisin grapes. Grape Day at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, 8 August 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Zhuang, Shijian (for M.W. Fidelibus), 2023. Grapevine Nutrition. San Joaquin Valley Winegrape Growers Tailgate. Parlier, California, 12 April 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Fidelibus M.W., 2022. Raisin and Table Grape Nutrition. California Department of Food and Agriculture/ Fertilizer Research and Education Program meeting. Parlier, California, 25 October 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Yuto Kamiya, Alireza Pourreza, Sirapoom Peanusaha, Matthew W. Fidelibus, 2023. Grapevine nitrogen retrieval by hyperspectral sensing at the leaf and canopy level. Presented at the GiESCO Conference 2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Alireza Pourreza, 2022. Grapevine Nitrogen Retrieval by Remote Sensing. Seminar, Technical University of Munich, Germany, 11/10/2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Alireza Pourreza, 2023. Digital Agriculture for Specialty Crops. UC Davis, Plugged-in Virtual Event CAES Webinar, 3/30/2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Alireza Pourreza, 2023. Digital Agriculture for Precision Nutrient Management. EDORER Master Class Webinar, 8/3/2023.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Fidelibus M., A. Pourreza, 2023. Grapevine Nitrogen Retrieval by Remote Sensing. Grape Day, Kearney REC, UC ANR, 8/8/2023.


Progress 09/30/21 to 09/29/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Grape growers, crop consultants, vineyard management companies, winemakers, extension specialists, scientists Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided direct training to 8 students, including 1 undergraduate student and 7 graduate students. In addition, this project includes 5 post-doctoral scholars who are being mentored and trained and 1 visiting scholar. Most Co-PIs have trained one or more of these individuals in their respective labs and programs. The students, staff, and Co-PIs have presented their research results at conferences since the inception of the project, thereby sharing their results with academic peers. In addition, results of the project have been shared via presentations and posters with industry stakeholders through numerous grower meetings, workshops, and field days. The outcomes to date primarily include providing students and staff training and mentoring on areas related to grapevine physiology, mineral nutrition, engineering, and food science. Professional development for industry at this stage has largely provided a suite of possible tools that one can use for monitoring and managing vineyard nutrition. As we develop new sensors and methods, those will be shared with the industry and extension community. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our target audience is predominantly grape industry members, including growers, processers, consultants and other field service providers as well as extension educators. We reached this target audience by first developing a website and social media outlets, including Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, as each demographic may use different online and social media. We also worked on a podcast series that will inform our audience about the project and keep them updated regularly. The podcasts will be more approachable and have greater reach than written material. Individual Co-PI efforts were made in their home states and regions to reach local industry members. Such efforts included workshops, field days, and seminars that covered other related information but introduced the project to the industry, as project results are being formulated. Materials were also shared through written forms, including newsletter and news articles about the project. This first phase of outreach is focused on raising industry awareness of the project, particularly those who are not directly linked to the Co-PIs or their research programs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The plans to accomplish the goals are again listed under the main objectives for reference: 1) Develop non-destructive tools to measure grapevine nutrient status: In the upcoming year we plan to continue developing non-destructive tools to measure grapevine nutrient status and determining the efficiency and suitability of precision vineyard nutrient management. We are trying to determine a minimal set of spectral bands that achieve accurate and precise nutrient estimates. This will be achieved by collaborative efforts at in situ and airborne (UAS) scales and ground-based spectral sensing at leaf and canopy levels, coupled to field-measured nutrient ground truth data. We are also integrating 3D and spectral sensing to incorporate leaf orientation and instantaneous sun position into spectral analysis. We are investigating the impact of N on vine canopy structure and the impact of this variation on the NIR reflectance characteristic. Our goal remains to identify the most efficient and accurate/precise solutions that are scalable to vineyard levels. As for precision vineyard nutrient management, we will evaluate especially silicon-range solutions, since these are more affordable and operational in terms of long-term sensing solution (Si being a ubiquitous detector material). We will work closely with our extension partners to assess the cost-benefit of the various sensing solutions, at a variety of scales, from the plant- to the vineyard level. 2) Determine the efficiency and suitability of precision vineyard nutrient management: We will continue working with the engineering team to scan test vineyards and collect vine tissue samples at bloom and veraison. Sensor data will be matched with tissue nutrient analysis to develop non-destructive sensing technology. Initial hyperspectral sensing models, developed from this work, have been deployed in larger vineyard blocks to give predicted vine nitrogen and potassium maps. To validate the maps, four in-field sampling strategies are being compared for accuracy and cost-effectiveness for growers.For the 2023 growing season, hyperspectral sensors and prediction models will be deployed in cooperating commercial vineyards for spatial vine nutrient mapping and application of in-field tissue sampling protocols for validation. All sensor data, spatial mapping, validation points, and data translation will take place in the MyEfficientVineyard software. 3) Define grapevine nutrient thresholds based on environment and production market: We will continue to conduct numerous on-farm trials in CA (table, raisin), OR (wine), WA (wine, juice), VA (wine), and NY (wine, juice) where varying nutrient levels are applied in replicated trials. Our approach relies on identifying vineyards where low nutrient status was known to exist and replicated experiments with different rates of the limiting nutrient (fertilizer) were begun in 2021, carried into 2022, and will continue in 2023. The research focuses on nitrogen (N) as a priority, given the pivotal role that N plays in driving vine productivity and altering the fruit environment and berry growth and metabolism. Nitrogen is being examined in all regions. Potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg) are being examined in those production systems and locations where these nutrients have recently been a problem. We also located a vineyard in WA where P has been historically below the current recommended sufficiency level. We therefore added a new, on-farm trial to examine P in a commercial vineyard. Overall, sixteen on-farm trials and five potted vine experiments are being conducted as part of this project. Vine responses to varying nutrient supply are being studied in all field trials and include assessment of vine vegetative and reproductive output, measurements of leaf blade and petiole nutrients for all primary nutrients needed by vines, measures of nutrients in other select tissues including shoot tips, fruit and dormant season pruning wood in some cases, and assessments of fruit quality parameters. Additional parameters are being investigated in specific trials, including measures of vine water status, gas exchange, sunlight interception, root growth, and colonization by mycorrhizal fungi. Wine is also being produced from most of the wine grape experiments, and wine quality is being assessed based on known chemometrics and sensory analysis. Our nutrient manipulation experiments also serve as test beds for the development of new sensors based on unmanned drone flights and proximal (on-ground) equipment in collaboration with the engineering and sensing team members of the project. We will determine tissue nutrient sufficiency thresholds from these experiments based on both vine productivity and fruit quality responses unique to each type of grape under investigation. 4) Estimate economic impact and feasibility of nutrient management decisions, extend knowledge to stakeholders, and advance understanding of grower decision making: We will publish the podcast series in fall 2022 and continue to develop new episodes as project results become available. The team is working on developing outreach events, including seminars, workshops, and field days in the 2023 season to share results with the grape community. Project members will generate content to share results of their research efforts on the project website and social media outlets.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This project is developing grower-friendly decision-aid tools for vineyard nutrient management to optimize inputs and business profitability via improved vineyard productivity and fruit and product quality, while minimizing adverse impacts on the environment. The tools--remote sensors that determine grapevine nutrient status coupled with modern plant tissue sampling protocols--will give growers near real-time in-field access to spatial and temporal metrics for vine nutrition variability. They will enable growers to act upon these measures via variable rate synthetic or organic fertilizer application. Impacts on crop yield and quality for all grape sectors--fresh, wine, juice, raisins--are measured. Long-term impacts of this project are 1) grape production will become more sustainable with lower environmental impact and more consistent annual production; 2) growers will optimize vineyard nutrient management by grape type and market; 3) fruit packers and processors will improve their market competitiveness; and 4) consumers will have a more consistent supply of healthy and affordable fresh grapes and grape-derived products. Following is a summary of research and accomplishments for each of the four project objectives. 1) Develop non-destructive tools to measure grapevine nutrient status: Aerial spectral images were collected in California (CA) and New York (NY) at times coinciding with tissue sample collection for nutrient analysis. Vine-level nitrogen, potassium, calcium, and boron prediction maps for vineyard imagery was implemented into the MyEV (www.efficientvineyard.com) platform, to coordinate with the tissue sampling efforts. A multi-sensor field campaign was organized and carried out in August 2022 at the NY study vineyard. In CA, per leaf hyperspectral data from potted vines to measure leaf spectral signatures of vines varying in nitrogen or magnesium status in parallel with tissue samples has been analyzed by means of an unsupervised clustering technique. In WA and OR, ground-based canopy images were taken in three commercial vineyards with varying nitrogen or potassium treatments at times coinciding with tissue sample collection. Data analysis at all sites is in progress. 2) Determine the efficiency and suitability of precision vineyard nutrient management: Tissue samples were collected at bloom and veraison 2022 for nutrient analysis in field plots that were established with vine nutrient deficiencies in NY. Also, tissue sampling strategies testing in NY (cool/humid) and WA (warm/dry) to validate and translate sensor data was continued in 2022. Preliminary results of 3 different algorithms were presented at the annual project meeting and their error percentages in relation to lab data were compared. The MyEV platform is being adapted to use for nutrient mapping, and currently the in-field data validation method and spatial data translation methods are being streamlined. Progress is being made to process sensor data, generate in-field sampling locations, allow the used to enter validation data to the sample locations, generate the relationship between the sensor and validation data, and then automatically translate the spatial data. 3) Define grapevine nutrient thresholds based on environment and production market: Seventeen replicated on-farm trials that were established in CA, OR, WA, NY, and Virginia (VA) in 2021 were continued in 2022. These trials are serving as test beds for sensor development and validation; to test precision vineyard nutrient management approaches; to develop enhanced tissue sampling protocols; and to provide data for socioeconomic analysis. Nitrogen supply is being manipulated in ten of the grower-cooperator trials, potassium is being manipulated at two sites and magnesium at a single vineyard. In addition, five pot experiments were initiated in CA and WA to explore sensor responses to a wider range of nutrient supply (focusing on N, K, and Mg) in wine and table grapes. Tissue and/or soil samples were collected from the field sites from 2020 to 2022. Macro- and micronutrients were analyzed in tissue samples from most of the field trials. Plant growth, yield, and fruit composition data will be collected from all field trials, and effects on wine quality will be evaluated in WA, OR, and VA. In the field trials there were few fertilizer rate effects on the yield components and fruit composition, as expected after the first year. However, <15 lbs/acre foliar N (applied at veraison) had the same effect on juice yeast assimilable N (YAN) as 60 lbs/acre soil N (applied at bloom). 4) Estimate economic impact and feasibility of nutrient management decisions, extend knowledge to stakeholders, and advance understanding of grower decision making: A meta-analysis of nutrient, management, and environmental effects on grape yield has been completed. Currently data is being collected from different industry partners who indicated their willingness in the nation-wide survey from 2021, and an econometric model developed using 10 years of data from OR is designed to estimate marginal effects of nutrition on yield. Results for the research data have a much stronger correlation than those from the industry, and more factors affecting the yield will need to be added into the model. Field days to disseminate lessons learned to growers and industry members were held succesfully across the nation throughout the year. A series of podcasts was recorded in 2022, interviewing researchers and key industry stakeholders. The podcasts will be released in October 2022 on the project website (highresvineyardnutrition.com), and promoted on the social media platforms (twitter.com/HiresVineyard, linkedin.com/company/78637914/admin, instagram.com/hi_res_vineyardnutrition) where there are regular updates to direct traffic to the website.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Chancia R, Bates T, Vanden Heuvel J, van Aardt J. Assessing Grapevine Nutrient Status from Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Hyperspectral Imagery. Remote Sensing. 2021; 13(21):4489. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13214489
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Chancia, R.O. "Toward Improved Crop Management using Spectral Sensing with Unmanned Aerial Systems." Order No. 28771377 Rochester Institute of Technology, 2021. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Web. 25 Aug. 2022.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Skinkis P, Schreiner P, and Woodill J. 2021. Oregons Role in HiRes Vineyard Nutrition, A National Research Project. Oregon Wine Research Institutes Vine to Wine Newsletter.
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: https://highresvineyardnutrition.com
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Kang C., N. Shcherbatyuk, P. Davadant, M. Karkee, Q. Zhang and M. Keller. 2022: Diagnosis of grapevine nitrogen content using proximal hyperspectral imaging. (unpaginated, online). 15th International Conference on Precision Agriculture, Minneapolis, MN, United States, June 26-29, 2022.


Progress 09/30/20 to 09/29/21

Outputs
Target Audience:Grape growers, crop consultants, vineyard management companies, winemakers, extension specialists Changes/Problems:A separate progress report for year 1, and a continuation proposal for years 2-4 of this project, will be submitted to NIFA. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Several grower presentations were given about this ongoing project: Bates T. Vineyard nutrition update and variable-rate management. Lake Erie Grape Program Grower Meeting. June 23, 2021. Bates T. and Walter-Peterson H. MyEfficientVineyard software for precision viticulture. Finger Lakes Grape Program Grower Meeting. June 22, 2021. Bates T. Leveraging sensor information for variable rate vineyard management. ASEV-NGRA Precision Viticulture Symposium. June 21, 2021. Pourreza A. Monitoring grapevine nitrogen status by aerial and ground spectral sensing. ASEV-NGRA Precision Viticulture Symposium. June 21, 2021. Pourreza A. Identification of nitrogen deficiency in table grape by spectral sensing. CalPoly College of Agriculture Seminar. February 26, 2021. Pourreza A. High resolution nitrogen monitoring in vineyards. California Plant and Soil Conference. February 1, 2021. Pourreza A. Remote sensing to monitor grapevine nutrient status. San Joaquin Valley Virtual Grape Symposium. December 16, 2020. Schreiner R.P. Grapevine nutrition: requirements, tissue tests and mycorrhizas. Penn State and Cornell Universities - Vineyard Outreach Webinar Series. January 20, 2021. Stories about the project, based on interviews with project team members, appeared in the following outlets: Flyby for fertilizer (by K. Prengaman). Good Fruit Grower 71: 60-65 (2020). https://digitalag.ucdavis.edu/research/nitrogen-tablegrape-rs http://news.cahnrs.wsu.edu/article/major-grant-helps-grape-growers-better-manage-nutrients https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/10/new-grant-fuels-better-nutrient-management-vineyards https://www.rochesterfirst.com/news/digital-exclusives/rit-professor-co-designed-drone-imaging-system-that-can-determine-grape-farm-health https://graperesearch.org/newsletter (September issue) What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?There are no changes to the agency-approved plan for the work proposed in Objectives 1-3. However, the review panel perceived the socioeconomic studies proposed in Objective 4 as being underdeveloped and poorly integrated with the scientific aims of the proposal. Consequently, some changes have already been made and continue to be made to address these concerns. Specifically, Co-PI James Watson stepped down and was replaced with John Woodill whose training is in economics as well as computer and information science. The project focus group Social Science/Extension, with input from our Project Advisory Panel, has already completed a survey of the wine, table, raisin and juice grape industries across the US to establish a baseline of current vineyard nutrient management practices and use of technologies with a focus on what, how, and why practices are being used in vineyards. Outreach efforts will increase as research results are generated within the project. A podcast series is being planned for production during the second half of 2021 and release in 2022 and beyond. Content will continue to be generated and shared with industry and the public through the social media outlets and the project website. We will develop "train the trainer" programs and products (publications, resources) for nationwide extension faculty in 2023 and carry out through 2024 to help guide standard practices for nutrient assessment across regions and grape markets, and share new methodologies and technologies developed from the project. We will develop two decision-support tools that may ultimately be merged into a single tool. A mapping tool will include sensor-based plant status maps with per-vine precision (Objective 1) and a method for defining management zones. These zones can be used as a prescription map for variable rate nutrient application (Objective 2) and directed sampling (Objective 3). A prototype mapping tool has been shared with a cooperating grower for testing during 2021. An economic tool will allow growers to input nutrient readings from the sensors (or automatically) at a given time during the growing season. Using this real-time data along with training data from Objectives 1-3 and results from our economic models (Objective 4), the tool can provide information about a vineyard's current nutrient status. The tool will then project out yield or nutrient deficiencies for the remaining season and show different scenarios based on different decision points. Ideally, we can offer an optimal strategy given farm-level inputs to optimize yield and/or fruit composition by grape market. Both decision tools can be hosted online, either on regional web servers or on the MyEV platform, with an easy-to-use interface, and generate reports for tracking results. During early 2024, a second industry survey will be administered to help address key goals and outcomes of the research. That survey will be tailored to understand changes in knowledge, practice, or acceptance/adoption of new technologies that are developed. This will also permit us to analyze barriers to technology adoption in the US grape sector. As we obtain more datasets, we will compile and analyze them together using econometrics to disentangle marginal effects of nutrients on fruit quantity (yield) and quality (multiple parameters) and to compare across vineyards and regions. A full meta-analysis report will be developed that includes a literature review, an econometric model that incorporates yield and nutrient data, and a discussion of results and implications going forward. We will also continue to engage with the other members of the project team to provide economic results for developing experiments related to the economic impact of nutrient management on vineyard production.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This project is developing grower-friendly decision-aid tools for vineyard nutrient management to optimize inputs and business profitability via improved vineyard productivity and fruit and product quality, while minimizing adverse impacts on the environment. The tools--remote sensors that determine grapevine nutrient status coupled with modern plant tissue sampling protocols--will give growers near real-time in-field access to spatial and temporal metrics for vine nutrition variability. They will enable growers to act upon these measures via variable rate synthetic or organic fertilizer application. Impacts on crop yield and quality for all grape sectors--fresh, wine, juice, raisins--are measured. Long-term impacts of this project are 1) grape production will become more sustainable with lower environmental impact and more consistent annual production; 2) growers will optimize vineyard nutrient management by grape type and market; 3) fruit packers and processors will improve their market competitiveness; and 4) consumers will have a more consistent supply of healthy and affordable fresh grapes and grape-derived products. Following is a summary of research and accomplishments for each of the four project objectives. 1) Develop non-destructive tools to measure grapevine nutrient status: In California and New York, unmanned aerial system platforms were used to collect spectral imagery using multispectral and hyperspectral sensors in commercial vineyards at times coinciding with tissue sample collection (Objective 3). Procedures were developed to radiometrically correct the hyperspectral imagery, extract individual vine spectra from canopy classified pixels, build different nutrient models, and create nutrient prediction maps. Trials were also initiated with potted vines to measure leaf spectral signatures of vines varying in nitrogen (N) or magnesium (Mg) status in parallel with tissue samples. Remotely sensed datasets were created for the early 2021 growing season, and grid layers were created and georeferenced to Google satellite images. In Washington, a ground-based sensing platform was developed to estimate and map grapevine nutrient status over 3D canopy surfaces. The platform comprises hyperspectral, multispectral camera, and RGB-D cameras. Canopy images in three commercial vineyards with varying N or potassium (K) treatments were acquired in 2021 at times coinciding with tissue sample collection (Objective 3). Processing of color, depth, HSI and multi-spectral images collected is ongoing. 2) Determine the efficiency and suitability of precision vineyard nutrient management: Field plots were established with vine nutrient deficiencies. Tissue samples were collected at veraison in 2020 and bloomtime in 2021 for nutrient analysis. Also, tissue sampling strategies are being tested in NY (cool/humid) and WA (warm/dry) to validate and translate sensor data. In random-stratified sampling, select data layers are subject to k-means cluster analysis. Samples are then randomized within each of the identified clusters. In an alternative sampling protocol, Sentinel-1 and NDVI imagery are used to compare random and spatially directed sampling. Validation sampling protocols were established in five cooperating vineyards in NY and three in WA. Additional test vineyards and nutrient management activities were identified in NY and VA. MyEfficientVineyard (MyEV) was developed to upload, process, visualize, and download sensor data and vineyard maps (https://my.efficientvineyard.com). Because satellite and drone imagery is raster data, methods were used to import raster data into MyEV and convert them into point data for comparison with other vineyard information. For variable-rate fertilizer applications, spatial prescription maps are being integrated with precision agriculture hardware/software for variable-rate application of dry or liquid fertilizers. Prototype configuration was developed to convert vineyard spray equipment for use with variable-rate liquid urea applications. 3) Define grapevine nutrient thresholds based on environment and production market: Seventeen replicated on-farm trials were established in five states. These trials will serve as test beds for sensor development and validation (Objective 1); to test precision vineyard nutrient management approaches (Objective 2); to develop enhanced tissue sampling protocols (Objective 3); and to provide data for socioeconomic analysis (Objective 4). In CA, field trials were established with table, raisin, and wine grapes; in WA, with wine and juice grapes; in OR, with wine grapes; in NY, with juice and wine grapes; and in VA, with European and hybrid wine grapes. Nitrogen supply is being manipulated in ten of the grower-cooperator trials, K is being manipulated at two sites and Mg at a single vineyard. In addition, five pot experiments were initiated in CA and WA to explore sensor responses to a wider range of nutrient supply (focusing on N, K, and Mg) in wine and table grapes. Tissue and/or soil samples were collected from the field sites during both 2020 and 2021. Macro- and micro-nutrients were analyzed in tissue samples from most of the field trials. Plant growth, yield, and fruit composition data will be collected from all field trials, and effects on wine quality will be evaluated in WA, OR, and VA. The 2020 baseline data from WA are the most complete, and indicated that blade nutrient concentrations were not well correlated with petiole nutrient concentrations. Depending on the variety, nutrient removal from the vineyard with the harvested fruit amounted to 2-3 lbs N, 0.6-0.7 lbs P, 5-7 lbs K, and 0.4-0.5 lbs Mg per ton of grapes. Thus far in the other field trials, early season leaf chlorophyll and shoot growth have not been altered by varying N, K or Mg supply treatments. 4) Estimate economic impact and feasibility of nutrient management decisions, extend knowledge to stakeholders, and advance understanding of grower decision making: An industry survey was developed and administered in spring of 2021; it was completed by 322 individuals, primarily grape growers (remainder were consultants and management companies), representing 176,000 acres or ~10% of the US vineyard acreage. The survey provided key information on how growers sample their vineyards and make nutrient management decisions. The top five most important nutrients they manage are N, K, B, Mg, and P. Many growers are working with crop consultants to devise nutrient management plans, and many are not currently using technology for nutrient management. Historical vineyard data were obtained from farms in OR and NY. Weather data were obtained from OSU's PRISM group in a 2.5-km grid across the US and were used to calculate nonlinear weather responses. We are soliciting more data from the project team and are contacting growers who are willing to share datasets as indicated in the industry survey. An initial meta-analysis of the OR vineyard data to examine relationships between yield and berry composition found the top three positive correlations were for berry K, titratable acidity, and total phenolics. A PCA found that the most influential variables include berry N and anthocyanins. These results provide a basis for the planned economic modeling strategy and will be helpful in assessing nutrient impacts on quality and economics. A logo and branded project name (HiRes Vineyard Nutrition) were developed for use in outreach activities. A project website (https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/highresvineyardnutrition) was developed and includes information on the project team, news, events, and grower resources. Reports will be added to "Research Findings" as they are developed by the project. Three social media networks are being used, including Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Given the early nature of this work, relatively few presentations and no publications have occurred to date.

Publications

  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/highresvineyardnutrition