VineAlert program<\/a>. By also collecting data on grape bud survival rates after cold weather events, the Institute is able to give growers direction on how to manage any damage vines may have sustained.<\/p>\n\u201cThankfully, we had some data available and it didn\u2019t get cold enough to damage the vines based on our preliminary bud survival data,\u201d said Jim Willwerth, CCOVI\u2019s senior viticulturist, \u201cbut the extreme variances in temperature are especially problematic when the grapevines are early in their cold acclimation process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now in its ninth year, the VineAlert program tracks a grape bud\u2019s ability to survive cold temperatures over the dormant season, from October to April, across Ontario\u2019s key grape producing regions.<\/p>\n
During that period, alerts indicating which grape varieties may see damage during a cold weather event are sent out to growers and researchers. This allows them to determine when they should utilize their wind machines or other freeze-avoidance technologies.<\/p>\n
Kevin Donohue (BSc \u201994), Vineyard Manager at Colio Estate Wines located on the north shore of Lake Erie, said the alert system acts as confirmation that the weather conditions warrant running his wind machine.<\/p>\n
\u201cVineAlert allows us to correlate real-time weather data with what is actually going on in the field,\u201d said Donohue, who also graduated from Brock\u2019s Grape and Wine Technology certificate program in 2002. \u201cWe can adjust some of our strategies for field operations to help us to get to the safest level of dormancy going into the winter months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willwerth said monitoring the hardiness of the region\u2019s grape buds is especially crucial in periods with volatile temperature fluctuations, including the shift from the cold below-average temperatures of early November to the above-seasonal temperatures experienced at present.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all these ups and downs in temperature, we worry the plants won\u2019t acclimate well or they might de-acclimate prematurely, leading to spring frost injury,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
As weather patterns continue to become more unpredictable, it\u2019s also important to monitor conditions on a long-term, historical basis in order to use that data to understand and predict the vines\u2019 response.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why CCOVI researchers will be sampling more grape buds than usual this year in order to further bolster their cold hardiness database.<\/p>\n
The goal is to improve predictive modelling to help growers better understand how their vines will react during erratic weather conditions.<\/p>\n
Willwerth said the years of data will help researchers \u201cfurther understand how growing season and variable winter conditions impact hardiness, which will allow us to better protect the vines and better understand how viticulture may change in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willwerth operates the VineAlert program along with CCOVI Professional Affiliate Kevin Ker, of KCMS Applied Research and Consulting, and CCOVI Director Debbie Inglis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With erratic temperatures and extreme weather events on the rise, researchers at Brock University\u2019s Cool Climate Oenology & Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) are working to make vineyards across the region more resilient to climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":48132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,3319,41,1,5],"tags":[61,855,1278,695],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48133,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48131\/revisions\/48133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}