www.goodfruit.com Good Fruit Grower APRIL 1, 2016 25
6-year-old block of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes at Kiona
Vineyards on Washington's Red Mountain.
Scott Williams of Kiona said he was encouraged by the
early results. As currently implemented, the idea prob-
ably isn't practical on a commercial scale, but that isn't
the point yet, he said. The information gleaned from the
research will be beneficial.
"As a grower, if you're going along and all of a sudden
your water supplies are reduced by 30, 40 percent, which
has happened a couple of times the last decade, knowing
how you can manage that water is a significant piece of
knowledge," he said.
Cabernet on deep deficit
Growers have tried before to water their vineyards
from underground, only to walk away discouraged
by buried lines that get clogged by soil or chewed by
gophers, leaving damage that is imperceptible until it's
too late to save the plants, Jacoby said. Yet most plants
irrigated by drip irrigation tend to have 80 to 90 percent of
their root mass in the top 1.5 feet of soil, he said, making
them more susceptible to cold damage and less efficient.
courtesy Pete Jacoby
Washington State University researchers are conducting
an irrigation study on a Cabernet Sauvignon block on
Washington's Red Mountain, near Prosser.
