Irrigation Interval Before Harvest

Cellar Rats (ITB)
1

How close to harvest can you irrigate? I live in SD and my vines are totally dependent upon summer irrigation. Problem is that I have 7 year old vines on the same irrigation circuit as vines I put in this spring, the latter being much less dry tolerant. Have you had any problems with bursting grapes with late irrigation? I would assume that quantity of water in late irrigation of bearing vines would be a factor. Thanks in advance for your help.

2

Hi Bruce-

Rather than publicly opening Pandora’s box in regards to vine irrigation during harvest, I sent you a PM instead.

Ryan

3

Hi Ryan,

I didn’t get the PM. Could you please resend?

Thanks

4

Oh, Come ON! This is the place for Pandora’s Box’s to be opened freely to let blossom! Let 'er rip!

5

Matthew, I’d rather be [popcorn.gif] than [suicide.gif] , and I definitely don’t want to be considered this: [foilhat.gif]

However, for those interested in peer-reviewed research on the matter, check out Dr. Markus Keller’s (WSU) work at this link:

Enjoy (if you’re the academic type that digs this sort of thing)!
Ryan

6

There are so many variables regarding this subject, to make any one comment as true for all would be ridiculous. Heavier soils require less irrigation. Rocky, well drained or shallow soils require more irrigation(generally speaking). If you are holding back on water and your canopies are crashing or struggling hard, the lack of irrigation is, more than likely, detrimental to wine quality. If you are watering just to keep your yields up, or just to keep that struggling section of the row healthy, that can be detrimental as well. There is no one approach fits all. It totally depends on the climate, soil, variety, trellis system, crop load, exposure- you get the point.

For your situation, Bruce, I would put a valve where the new vines end and the old ones begin and continue to irrigate the youngsters through the fall. You don’t have to worry about frost killing green growth at the end of the season, so just taper back your irrigation from here on out and you’ll be fine. If your manifold is on the side of the older vines, I have(in the past) installed another manifold on the opposite side. Costly, yes, but it can be worth the work/investment and will allow for better control/fine tuning in the end.
John

7

We realized we needed to irrigate the bottom of our vineyard more often than the top. (The rows run downslope.)

We ran an additional drip line down each row with the emitters not starting until in the area we needed additional irrigation. Simple control valves at the top of each row control which line gets the water – the whole row or just the bottom.