Every drop of water is precious

This month is a special month for the Fruition Sciences team. We are very honored to be featured in the cover story of the September/October issue of Vineyard & Winery Management.

As you probably know, since 2007, we’ve been helping grape growers and winemakers save water and improve the quality of the fruit with our product Sap Flow.

Here are a few highlights from the article about some of our customers:

Jackson Family Wines

Jackson uses Sap Flow in two test areas to monitor their water use. A water-conscious winemaker, Jackson actively participates in local voluntary drought initiatives and has made a number of investments in water use reduction since the 1990s. What Jackson said about us in the article: “We found it really helps to reduce the amount of water we use, especially on the valley floor where the soils are heavier.” Thanks, Jackson Family Wines!

Halter Ranch

Halter Ranch came to us through a Water Quality Control Board experiment. Not only did Halter achieve water savings benefits with Sap Flow, they were also able to make the decision to switch from cordon pruning to cane pruning. We love Halter’s great analogy to describe what Sap Flow does:  “But the sap flow is like a blood pressure test. We could be tempted to water when we didn’t need to. Fruition tells us just how much water to use and when. It’s a program more than a sensor.”

Wente Vineyards

Wente Vineyards uses our Fruition Analytics platform to visualize data from TerreAvion’s NDVI images and has Sap Flow sensors installed in strategic locations in the vineyard. Their water use was reduced by 30%. Considering a number of vine technologies but wondering how to make sense of the overwhelming volumes of data? Fruition Analytics might just be able to help you.

Alta Colina

Alta Colina installed two Sap Flow sensors this year on their property in addition to pressure bomb monitoring. Alta Colina’s been able to realize between 40% and 67% water savings.

As winemaker Bill Brosseau said in the article “Growers don’t ever think they’re watering too much!”, it’s hard to cut down on watering when you receive visual cues of a possible water deficit. However, the right amount of water deficit can retain the best flavors in the fruit and using Sap Flow sensors helps you find out what that amount is.