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Kickoff Workshop A Success!
On April 15, the Napa Sustainable Winegrowing Group (NSWG), in cooperation with the Napa County Resource Conservation District held it´s first of a series of workshops for Napa County growers. The theme of the workshop was "The Other Plants in Your Vineyard." Over 100 growers attended the all day event at the Yountville Community Center. With grant support from the Environmental Quality Improvement Program (EQIP), a USDA sponsored program, members of NSWG both planned the day´s itinerary as well as served as hosts for the afternoon field tours. The morning program included speakers noted for their work in IPM, cover crop establishment, cover crops and their relationship to vineyard pests, and hedgerow establishment.
Dr. Cliff Ohmart, IPM Research Director for the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission, opened the meeting with an in depth look at the Commission and how it serves growers in their area. This very successful group has managed to incorporate the principles and practices of good IPM management strategies into the farming community by holding breakfast meetings to discuss new techniques and follow up with growers and questions or concerns that they might have. These informal discussion groups allow farmer to farmer exchanges of information so that the latest information can be communicated "at eye level." Born out of the BIFS program, the Commission has gone on to effectively promote Lodi-Woodbridge as a quality winegrowing area through what Dr. Ohmart terms the "Integrated Farming Approach" (IFS). Going beyond just IPM, as Dr. Ohmart stated, "puts the emphasis on an IFS as one of the critical areas to keep us ahead of the curve in maintaining a positive public perception regarding pesticide use." In addition to traditional IPM strategies such as weekly monitoring of vineyards, IFS growers also use cover crops, drip irrigation, compost addition, leaf removal, and owl boxes among many other practices.
Scott Stewart, president of Conservaseed, spoke next on the establishment of native grasses as suitable cover crops for Napa County. He shared his extensive knowledge about the performance of "obligate" grasses. These are fall planted, grow and seed in the spring, then "go to sleep" during the summer growing season. He provided the audience with many tips on how to get the grasses established and time the mowing so the competitor weeds are not allowed to take over.
Jeannette Wrysinski from the Yolo County Resource Conservation District, spoke next on the use of hedgerows to hos tbeneficial insects. Her research showed that the use of certain species like Hollyleaf cherry, redbud, yarrow, and California buckwheat (to name just a few of the possibilities) had a positive effect of increasing beneficial insects. She noted that some Pierce´s Disease species were on her list so she cautioned that they are obviously not suited for all sites. She also stated that the organic vineyard site in her trials had the highest number of beneficials. She also handed out a publication called "Bring Farming Edges Back to Life," an extensive guide on "how to enhance your agriculture and farm landscape with proven conservation practices for increasing the wildlife cover on your farm."
Dr. Michael Costello, formally of the UCSAREP program, and now a private consultant, gave some interesting insights in to why cover crops and border plants such as prune trees don´t work very well as insectaries for beneficials. He explained that the ratio of prune trees is too low in most plantings. In most cover cropped vineyards, the only increase he saw consistently was spider populations which then could have an indirect effect on populations of leafhoppers. But if there was any reduction in leafhopper populations, the most consistent reason was a reduction in vine vigor, not an increasein spiders or beneficials.
Dr. Adina Merenlender concluded the morning session with a discussion on oak woodland habitats and maintaining their health around vineyards. She pointed out that the best way to preserve oaks near vineyards was a) not to water them and b) to avoid fragmentation or planting new vineyards into isolated oak habitats.
In the afternoon, the growers chose to participate in one of two field trips to see some of the "other plants in your vineyard." Mitchell Klug of Robert Mondavi Vineyards and Lee Hudson, a private grower, hosted the Carneros group. Zach Berkowitz and Mike Morris from Domaine Chandon and Pete Richmond from Cardinale Estate hosted the Mt. Veeder group. The afternoon tours were meant to allow direct communication with the morning speakers, the vineyard host, and the growers in attendance.
As was pointed out in the opening remarks of the workshop, the hope was "to provide for the growers an educational workshop, an invitation for inquiry, and opportunity to discuss how the knowledge gained in the laboratory functions in the field." NSWG will continue to provide these types of workshops in to the near future in an ongoing effort to "identify and promote winegrowing practices that are…sound."
(written by DeWitt Garlock)
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