Vine Monitoring

WineBusiness Monthly: Sectormentor aids adaptive management in short-shoot study
WineBusiness Monthly: Sectormentor aids adaptive management in short-shoot study 1215 882 Sectormentor

We were recently featured in WineBusiness Monthly for our work with Johan Vineyards, exploring how they use Sectormentor to manage regenerative experimentation while maintaining yield. Read the full PDF or an excerpt below. 

Magazine article page about using Sectormentor for a short shoot study in a vineyard
Magazine page showing charts of the percentage of short shoots and the number of shoots per vine from a vineyard trial
View article PDF

Excerpt from the article:

Why would a Biodynamic grower want a high-tech KPI dashboard? How does it add value?

WOOD: I inherited Vidacycle’s Sectormentor application from the prior vineyard manager, Dan Rinke, and he was one of the first to adopt it in Oregon when it first came out. Before I came to Johan, I was doing consulting vineyard management work, so I was an old-school spreadsheet guy. Sectormentor is intuitive; it has a desktop and a phone app and a bunch of real techies over there that help keep it all working smoothly. When I first started working with it, the historic data had not yet been migrated. They helped us import and integrate the data so that it’s all in the same place when doing queries or running reports. Our system has 150 sample stations across 50 blocks that we take data from. It would have been very onerous to import those ourselves. I have been using it for phenological timing data, as well as for counts and pruning weights. Now that we are joining the 1BC there are a bunch of soil-based challenges. The Sectormentor is already set up to handle the additional data requirements of the 1BC. I’m looking forward to tracking soil health markers and tightening up my below-ground farming game.

Which feature of this technology provides the most insight into your farming practices? What do you measure with it and how is the data captured?

WOOD: I track all phenological timing and weights on the desktop version and the mobile app. They give you little GEO tags, so you can just hold your phone up to access data or log sample points. It could be row 127 in block 12-H, vine 63.

Who else works with this application? How are you using this in the field?

WOOD: I’ll go out with them to show them how to load the data. The ability for them to scan the sample location and eliminate the possibility of transcription errors is huge. The beauty of this system is that it does not take a lot of training to use so pretty much anyone can use it when collecting samples. I don’t have to worry about language barriers or transcription errors: the data always comes out very clean, thanks to the GEO tag system.

Even our winemaker, Morgan Beck, uses the Sectormentor data. She loves it when we are tasting through several different wines and we are able to identify a flavor difference and be able to trace it back to farming practices. Having 15 years of data at your fingertips, accessible in seconds, is so convenient. It certainly sparks some creativity when relating growing practices to wine quality.

Does the system work as expected? Were there any “bonus” discoveries?

WOOD: I can’t really say that I have new insights, rather than it just takes me 1/10 of the time to get them. Even when we are tasting wines and we taste something weird, we can fetch the data on the spot, no follow-up required. The further down the dry-farmed, no-till rabbit hole you go, the more insights you need to be responsive. It allows us more insights and allows us to be more responsive with our vineyard decision-making.

What was the most important outcome of adopting this technology that growers can use?

WOOD: I think in the context of regenerative transitions it is important to address what everyone is so scared of: losing yield through the transition. 

We’re trying to retain yields while converting some blocks to more regenerative practices. That’s possible, and you need the data to make this transition smooth. The data that I’m watching to retain my yields is the percentage of short shoots on a vine—you need to know the truth about short shoots! If you see a block in no-till transition go from 15% to 25% percent, you know that you are in a sensitive position. If you ask too much of it again, you risk a real drop in vigor and upwards of 40% short shoots. We have found that when you see those numbers, it is important to lower your bud counts by 10% or so for the next year. We have been able to do this without corresponding yield declines.

The data allows me to be proactive and do a better shoot thinning the year before, and it seems to be working. This philosophy aligns well with what Simonit and Sirch say in the pruning class I took last year. I’d rather have a couple less shoots per vine with larger clusters and healthy leaves that provide the vine with more benefit to its overall health than a couple meager clusters with seven berries on them. Farming this way, over time, our percentage of short shoots went down, cane weights went up, and we are retaining the same yield but on a healthier vine. We have some blocks that are 10 years under a no-till system. These vines will be smaller, but it’s better to have smaller beefier shoots than short shoots. You can have a smaller vine but bigger fruits. We think the larger shoots give back to the roots whereas the smaller shoots don’t.

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Turn Your Observations Into a

Stronger and Healthier Vineyard

Clear Yield Forecasts

Confident Harvest Plans

Credible Ecological Monitoring

See how Sectormentor works for you:

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Guest Post: Regenerative viticulture and climate change resilience
Guest Post: Regenerative viticulture and climate change resilience 2560 1737 Sectormentor

In January 2025, The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation (RVF) published a study into all the peer-reviewed research related to regenerative viticulture published over the last 15 years.

In this guest post, the RVF have summarised some of the findings of the paper, related to specific regenerative viticulture practices. 

The RVF are a global charity dedicated to inspiring and empowering the transition to regenerative viticulture globally, through science, education and engagement.

Cover Crops

What do cover crops do for us? They:

  • Promote soil health
  • Improve soil structure
  • Reduce compaction issues
  • Increase soil fertility
  • Increase soil organic matter

Why is this good? Because, among other things, this:

  • Aids water infiltration
  • Aids water retention
  • Reduces erosion risk

Not only this, they also:

  • Shade the soil, cooling it down
  • Provide homes to insect pollinator populations
  • Enable carbon sequestration and nitrogen fixation
Crimson clover flowering as a cover crop


Organic amendments

We looked at the studies into:

  • Compost: commercial municipal compost, spent mushroom compost, compost produced on farm (cuttings, prunings, grape pressings, other estate waste streams)
  • Manure
  • Biochar
  • …combinations of all of the above

What does the scientific literature say?

  • Application of composts and manures over 5+ years increases nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, Soil Organic Matter and microbial biomass
  • Biochar enhances carbon sequestration, improves soil fertility, reduces soil bulk density, increases soil water content and increases leaf water potential
  • Organic amendments enhance aggregate stability, improve soil structure, promote water infiltration/holding capacity, and increase resilience to heat/drought. However, one study showed lowered soil moisture content
  • Compost and cover crops can sequester carbon
  • Cultivation increases soil respiration, SOM breakdown and soil erosion (so best to leave organic amendments on the surface)

Is there evidence of any effect on juice and wine?

  • Vineyard practices that affect the soil microbiome affect wine quality (evidence in shiraz and rotundone)
  • The effect on juice is variable

Does it increase GHG emissions?

  • Evidence was found that any increase in GHG emissions from application of organic amendments is temporary

What further research is needed?

  • Comparisons of different application rates of organic amendments are lacking, especially in vineyard row and over long periods
  • Research is needed into different combinations of soil type x rootstock x scion x climate condition x multiple years x diverse application timings and rates
Sheep grazing beside a compost windrow at the edge of the trees

Natural predators

There is a considerable body of research into fauna as biological controls, with considerable savings, both economic and environmental.

We looked at the studies into encouraging natural predators through:

  • Different ways of dealing with the vineyard floor
  • Retaining and introducing green infrastructures
  • Encouraging bats, birds and predatory arthropods

What does the scientific literature say?

  • Retaining trees/hedgerows and/or building raptor nest boxes attracts birds of prey which reduces damage to grapes by birds and reduces damage by rodents
  • Bird boxes, uncropped areas, cover crops, hedges, trees and woodland patches encourage birds that control insect pest species
  • Native vegetation bordering the vineyard, along rivers and hedgerows provides foraging habitat for bats through presence of prey insects. Bats provide biocontrol of grapevine moth and leaf rolling tortrix
  • Preservation of remnant oak trees increases the number of species of bats and their activity compared to open treeless areas

More research is needed into the synergies between different vineyard management practices and ecosystem service trade offs.

Mulches

There is a considerable body of evidence supporting mulches in vineyards.

They have been shown to be a valuable tool to mitigate against the impacts of climate change on vineyards. They:

  • Control weeds
  • Increase soil water content
  • Lower soil temperatures, protecting the soil from heat and drought stress
  • Increase yields

However, there are some reports of reduced water infiltration rates when combined with no-till. The interactive effects of different regen practices therefore need monitoring.


Biological stimulants and biological control agents

Biological stimulants and biological control agents (BCAs) for reducing synthetic fertiliser and pesticide use is a fascinating area of study emerging as growers look to replace synthetic chemical inputs with biological alternatives.

Overall findings indicate:

  • There is huge potential
  • Generally there is less consensus as studies vary with soil type and context
  • Best practice + disease resistant varieties + biopesticides + mating disruption = strongly reduced pesticide applications

We found studies providing evidence to support BCAs against pests and diseases:

  • Streptomyces and Trichoderma against downy mildew
  • Bacillus against Botrytis
  • Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi enhancing resistance to pathogens and abiotic stresses
  • Natural predators as BCAs (see above)

The studies also provide evidence to support biostimulants:

  • Seaweed, protein hydrolysates, methyl jasmonate and yeast extract can all act as bioelicitors of secondary metabolites
  • These can increase anthocyanins, stilbenes, flavonols and hydoxycinnamic acids
  • There is also potential to increase resilience but trials have been done in potted vines, needing field research

Future research is needed on:

  • Products’ stability, lifespan, doses, timing, environmental conditions, mode of application and mechanisms
  • Interactions between BCAs/biostimulants and cultural practices
  • Effect on soil microbial communities, ecosystem, ecological processes
  • Solutions for nematodes and pathogenic bacteria phytoplasma viruses

If you are interested to find out more about research that the RVF are undertaking, you can learn more at www.regenerativeviticulture.org.

If you’d like to know more about how Sectormentor can be used to support soil and vine health on your vineyard, feel free to email the team at info@vidacycle.com. Alternatively, you can explore our Regen Viticulture Hub, where we have collated free resources and information on all things regenerative viticulture!


Turn Your Observations Into a Stronger and Healthier Vineyard

Clear Yield Forecasts

Confident Harvest Plans

Credible Ecological Monitoring

See how Sectormentor works for you:

Small & Medium Vineyards Large Vineyard Vineyard Management Company
The Sectormentor yield predictor open on a laptop and phone
Wildflowers growing under a vine before bud burst

Seresin Estate Vineyard: Stem Water Potential, Irrigation and Grape Quality
Seresin Estate Vineyard: Stem Water Potential, Irrigation and Grape Quality 1707 2560 Sectormentor


Seresin Vineyard: Stem Water Potential, Irrigation and Grape Quality

Seresin is the largest Demeter Certified Biodynamic vineyard in New Zealand. Based in Marlborough, the vineyard spans 50 planted hectares. The vineyard is managed holistically, with a diversity of animals and plants which formulate an ecosystem, including: olive trees, pine nut trees, sheep, chickens, cows, goats, ducks and bees. 

Seresin have been using Sectormentor to monitor their vineyard activities, including creating yield predictions from their bunch weights, tracking their yield, and visualising their phenology activity. This week, we chatted to Seresin’s vineyard manager, Cameron Vawter, who shared with us how the vineyard team are now tailoring their Sectormentor app to specifically monitor Stem Water Potential (SWP) in order to determine irrigation habits that maximise grape quality. 

Sun rising over a vineyard on the ridge
Aerial view of vineyard blocks with hills behind

SWP is a way of monitoring water stress in a vine. The process involves taking a vine leaf and placing it inside a chamber in which pressure is applied to the leaf to push the water out. The chamber measures how ‘tightly’ the leaf holds onto water, reflecting its vine water status or water stress level. The readings from these tests are negative, but the team input them as positive and read the graphs inversely to simplify the data visualisation.

Chart of average stem water potential per day across the season

Above we can see a graph of the Stem Water Potential of two of Seresin's blocks, tracked from late January to early March; the grape harvesting season in New Zealand.

‘When I begin the irrigation season, I might be at a 5 bar. Dependent on soils and weather I might go up to a 12 bar, at which I’ll irrigate and see the graph go back down to an 8 bar. We have different thresholds for different varieties and different desired quality outcomes. When I see my SWP go down, I won’t irrigate again until I start to see my SWP increase again. Now I want to assess which irrigations work best for the vines; I’ve found so far that longer, deeper and infrequent irrigations are the more effective.’
– Cameron Vawter

The main driver for SWP testing at Seresin is to reduce the amount of water used in irrigation, and therefore improve grape quality: ‘We know that decreased or better timed irrigation will improve our wine quality, as well as save water’. Reduced irrigation reduces water dilution within the grape; this results in smaller grapes with better flavour profiles. Some vineyards irrigate frequently to increase the weight and yield of their harvest, but the team at Seresin believe in ‘quality over quantity’. Cameron also describes how over-watering vines can lead to ‘over stimulated canopy growth, which can increase disease pressure, the need to spray your vines, and vine trimming. This all takes away from the ripening process of the vine’. In this sense, targeted irrigation will lead to a lot less work in other areas of vine and inter-row maintenance.

‘Lots of viticulturists will look at the vines and try and make an irrigation decision based on appearance, but vines can be deceiving. When you are working with multiple different varieties, sizes and quality parameters of the vines, they will all have different watering needs.’
– Cameron Vawter

Cameron plans to put his irrigation quantities into the Sectormentor app next, so he can see their direct relationship with his SWP readings.  He has previously found that his SWP figures spike after a short irrigation, ‘by doing a small irrigation, you are actually adding more stress to the vine in a short period of time; if you are able to do it right, your SWP will be lower for a longer period of time before it starts to rise again’.

Vineyard rows on rolling hills at sunrise
Wildflowers growing under a vine before bud burst

Overall Key Learnings

  • Longer, deeper irrigations decrease vine stress for a longer period of time 
  • Vines do not need as much water as you think 
  • Specifically timed and data driven irrigation habits, lead to better quality grapes

A warm thank you to Cameron Vawter for speaking to us about the exciting SWP experimentation happening at Seresin Vineyard. We love hearing about new ways that Sectormentor can be adapted to support regenerative experiments on vineyards!  

If you would like to get in touch with us, please contact us at info@vidacycle.com. If you are thinking of buying Sectormentor, contact us or click here. 


Turn Your Observations Into a Stronger and Healthier Vineyard

Clear Yield Forecasts

Confident Harvest Plans

Credible Ecological Monitoring

See how Sectormentor works for you:

Small & Medium Vineyards Large Vineyard Vineyard Management Company
The Sectormentor yield predictor open on a laptop and phone
Young vine in a guard within a grassy vineyard alley

Regenerative Experimentation at Mac Forbes Vineyard
Regenerative Experimentation at Mac Forbes Vineyard 560 747 Sectormentor

Regenerative Experimentation at Mac Forbes Vineyard

Mac Forbes vineyard have been producing wines since 2004. Located in the Yarra Valley in Australia, the vineyard prides itself on drawing upon the wisdom of the local Wurundjeri people, the indigenous community who have farmed this region for over 50,000 years. This has shaped Mac Forbes’s journey in viticulture, leading the vineyard to experiment with and adopt regenerative practices on-site in the last 5 years.

In early 2024, the Vidacycle team visited Mac Forbes to discover more about the regenerative practices they are experimenting with, and what they have learned from their experiences with regenerative viticulture. Vineyard manager Owen Littlejohns talked us through some of their experiments and what they have learnt along the way.

Newly planted vineyard with blue vine guards on a misty morning

Mac Forbes have been planting varieties of clover underneath the vines in order to rebuild nitrogen levels and fertility within the soil. Owen highlights that this success hasn’t come without complication, “it’s a constant battle to fend off the encroaching clover from the first cord wire. We’ve had more hassle with the crimson clover, as opposed to the sub-clover”. The vineyard team are now experimenting with other ways to manage the areas under the vines whilst also contributing to soil health.

Their next experiment will be to roll out hay bales down the rows, simultaneously suppressing anything growing underneath and adding a layer of organic matter to help feed microbes in the soil. The hay layer in-between the rows will also help to retain moisture in the soil; a necessity for a dry farmed vineyard. The vineyard has also experienced issues with kangaroos eating the cover crops, so the hay acts as a deterrent.

Standing among vines with tall growth in the row

Vineyard manager, Owen Littlejohns

The team are also experimenting in their high density blocks to see which natural material works best to suppress the intervine weeds. In these blocks, the weeds are a particular issue, as machinery is too large to go down the rows for weed maintenance. An alternative solution was to lay down a suppressive layer; they experimented with sheep’s wool, hay and biodegradable wine filter pads.

They found that the wool takes a long time to break down into the soil, whilst the hay broke down quicker. The wool did a better job of suppressing the weeds, but the hay also created a successful barrier. Overall, Owen recommends the hay out of the three trials, ‘it’s more readily available, it biodegrades quickly and it puts organic matter back into the soil’.

Locking moisture into the soil while dry farming has been quite a significant challenge for the Mac Forbes team. One technique they have found to combat dry soil is using biochar when planting new vines. The process involves ‘digging a large hole, back filling it with compost, adding some biochar on top of that, and finally adding some organic fertiliser pellets’.

Using this method, Owen has noticed that there is significant improvement in water retention in the soil for at least the first year of vine maturation, if not two. In the past they have made their own biochar on-site, however as their use of biochar increased, they have begun to source from a local not-for-profit called Ecoss. They are still exploring how best to apply the biochar, and have learnt that successful techniques will vary between areas and different soil types.

Young vine in a guard within a grassy vineyard alley

Lastly, Owen shares with us his experience of using sectormentor, and how it has supported Mac Forbes on their regenerative journey:

“It’s simplified data collection, which has been good. Previously we’re just putting numbers into a manual logging spreadsheet for a bunch of weights and pruning weights. And that spreadsheet kind of just sat there. We didn’t really look at it after.”

The team have found that the more data stored on the app, the clearer correlations are over time, therefore increasing the app’s usability. The team have now added their historic data to Sectormentor, allowing them to see the patterns of previous year’s harvest dates relative to the present season. Owen sees how the app will influence future management decisions to benefit the health of the vineyard:

“Sectormentor now impacts how we prune and how many buds we leave down. We have also been able to track weather changes on the vineyard in the last few years and how this affects production on the vineyard.”

Walking across rough pasture towards a newly planted vineyard

Through their observations and experimentation, Mac Forbes are an inspiring example of creative and progressive viticulture practice. Thank you to Owen and the team at Mac Forbes for talking to us about their journey with regenerative viticulture.

Get in touch with us on info@vidacycle.com if you want to learn more about Sectormentor, and how it might support with your operation – we’re always happy to chat!


Turn Your Observations Into a Stronger and Healthier Vineyard

Clear Yield Forecasts

Confident Harvest Plans

Credible Ecological Monitoring

See how Sectormentor works for you:

Small & Medium Vineyards Large Vineyard Vineyard Management Company
The Sectormentor yield predictor open on a laptop and phone

Why monitor % short shoots? Regenerative viticulturist Dan Rinke explains
Why monitor % short shoots? Regenerative viticulturist Dan Rinke explains 1920 2560 Sectormentor

Why monitor % short shoots? Hear from regenerative viticulturist Dan Rinke about the newest addition to the Vine Health Report…

We first learned the power of monitoring pruning weights from growers like Will Davenport of Davenport Organic and Matt Strugnell of Ridgeview Estate, alongside some brilliant insights on how pruning weights might be linked to yield from Frances Trappey of Vinescapes (previously Rathfinny).  Building on those ideas, Dan Rinke of Art Science Cider Wine in Oregon has witnessed a similar phenomenon linking his pruning weights to the yield prediction for the following season: 

“I also monitor pruning weights for when I’m allocating and selling contracts for the year ahead. I know if there is a lower pruning weight in a particular block, then I will lower the yield prediction for those grapes in the next year.”

We initially developed the Sectormentor Vine Health Indicator to allow growers to link their pruning weights to the productivity and health of their vines, and it is already used by Will, Matt, Frances and Dan to locate and observe these trends.

We’ve recently released an exciting new update to the report, in line with another indicator that Dan Rinke has found to be a great compliment to pruning weights – tracking the percentage of short shoots across the vines…

Chart of the percentage of short shoots across three vineyard blocks
The Vine Health Indicator – observing trends in % short shoots across three blocks over three seasons.

“The percentage of short shoots is a really good indicator of vine health in my experience. I have found that there is a direct correlation between an increasing number of short shoots and a decline in health of the vines. You get a higher % of short shoots when there are more shoots per vine and tighter internode spacing, so there are many more shoots, and more short shoots generally.

When looking at the numbers, knowing the % of short shoots completes the pruning weight data. It helps to explain the pruning weights better because it helps you understand: if you have a low pruning weight, is it because you have less viable shoots or is there just less vigour per shoot? If the weights are higher, did you have more viable shoots or did the individual shoots just weigh more because they were bigger? I’ve seen less shoots due to internode spacing decrease the % of short shoots and vice versa.”

“If we see an upward trend in % short shoots every year, we most likely have either nutritional or disease issues. There is clearly something wrong with the health of the vines and it is probably nutrition related. For big vineyards, measuring % short shoots as well as pruning weights can result in a huge cost saving, as it indicates specific blocks to include in a nutritional program.”

Vineyard of unpruned canes in winter before pruning starts

Dan counts the number of short shoots and the total number of shoots at the same time as pruning (and weighing his prunings). For his VSP trellis system a short shoot is defined as any shoot shorter than half the canopy (i.e less than 18 inches / 45 cm).

“For people who won’t spend the time monitoring pruning weights, then I encourage them to at least record % shorts shoots, because it’s fairly quick and you can still get year on year trends to see an early indication of the health of the vines. And for anyone already monitoring pruning weights, it’s such an easy addition and it gives you much more information.”

Dan, Matt, Frances and Will all use Sectormentor to support them in turning data collected in the field into immediate reports, so they can take actions with plenty of advance warning. Sectormentor facilitates improving the longevity of their vines, and improves the efficiency of the running of their vineyards. Whether your vineyard is sustainable certified, organic,  biodynamic, or early on in a regenerative journey, the Sectormentor Vine Health Report, now including % short shoots monitoring, is here to help!

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Dense flowering understorey growing along a vineyard row

Interview: Luke Spalding’s regenerative experiments at Everflyht Vineyard
Interview: Luke Spalding’s regenerative experiments at Everflyht Vineyard 1120 1120 Sectormentor

Interview:
Luke Spalding’s regenerative experiments at Everflyht Vineyard

Luke Spalding is vineyard manager at the beautiful Everflyht Vineyard in East Sussex. Luke is an innovator, experimenter and self proclaimed data lover, who inspires us with his curiosity and openness to learning through mistakes – a truly regenerative mindset!

You may remember Luke from his excellent interview with fellow viticulturist Dan Rinke in our Regenerative Viticulture Series, or from our blog from a visit we made to Everflyht back in 2019.

We’ve caught up with Luke again for an update on his regenerative experiments, to talk observation, soil health, and following the regenerative path. The beautiful photos used in this interview are all from Luke’s instagram – follow him @the_country_gent to learn more.

Do you feel that there’s been a change in mindset required for shifting towards regenerative viticulture?

“For me the change in approach happened when I started to learn and immerse myself in the never ending subject of soil health and balance. It was not so much a shift in mindset, more a change in understanding of my own position. I know I will never know everything or have finished learning, I will never be in control or ‘right’, and not everything I do or practise will work. Once you come to terms with that, then you can begin regenerative methods of farming and viticulture.”

Tall flowering ground cover growing between vine rows
Pile of wood chip ready to spread as mulch in the vineyard

What are the main challenges you have faced practising these regenerative methods?

“I think for me it was where to start – with the spray program, with the vines, with the soil, inputs, or with the wider ecosystem. In the end I started with focusing on the soil, and then began to look outwards at the wider ecosystem.” 

What are the main benefits of your practice so far?

“To be honest, it is too early to tell. Plus – I do not have enough data yet to be confident in saying openly what I think. But I do believe we are on the right path.”

This has been a tough year with high disease pressure for UK vineyards – how have you worked on managing disease pressure regeneratively?

“This year has been, I would say, the most challenging that I have had since I started growing grapes. For the last year or so I have been cutting back on conventional chemicals and copper use in the vineyard, but this year the pressure was simply too great. I am pleased however that 2021 was the second year in a row that we have not used any insecticides at Everflyht.”

Dense flowering understorey growing along a vineyard row
Vineyard rows with green alleys running towards the downs

Which regenerative experiments have worked well for you in the past year?

“I think in time the undervine green mulch that we have been experimenting with for the past two years will show some great benefits. I think this will be the case not just for vineyards in the UK, but also to support dry farming around the world.” 

How important is observation for you in the vineyard? 

“For me observation is one of the fundamentals. You just have to get out into the field, have a good look at what’s going on, and take measurements as you go.” 

Recording a harvest reading on a phone beneath a bunch of dark grapes
Vine canopy trained up a post against a bright sky

What are your tips and tricks for others trying to take a more regenerative approach?

“Do not follow or copy someone else’s path or route – you need to find your own way, and learn what works for you on the site you have. By all means talk and share ideas – but change them, and make adaptations for your own site and working style. I feel the results are better that way.“

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Three people checking vines together and recording readings on a phone

Optimising your yield prediction – getting the bunch weights right!
Optimising your yield prediction – getting the bunch weights right! 2560 1707 Sectormentor

Optimising your yield prediction – getting the bunch weights right!

We know that counting bunches as the grapes are growing on the vines is a hugely important part of the vineyard monitoring calendar. A thorough bunch count gets you around 60% of the way to an accurate yield prediction, with the other 40% coming from understanding your bunch weights. After working with many different vineyard managers, we have found that taking steps to optimise your yield prediction means you can consistently get your prediction to within 5% of your actual yield – well worth it! In this post we will focus on optimising those final steps of the yield prediction, and using your intuition, combined with all of the data available, to ensure you get the best prediction possible.

As Luke Spalding, vineyard manager at Everflyht Vineyard in Sussex, told us:

“Without a good yield prediction, it can create a lot of stress for the vineyard team, as harvesting time can get out of control. It also creates stress in the winery when you don’t know how much is coming in or when the harvest is going to stop!”

So…. you have got a  good estimate of your bunch count, now how do you get the best estimate of your bunch weights? Let’s talk you through different ways people approach this and how our newly released Sectormentor tools help with each… 

Three people checking vines together and recording readings on a phone

Counting bunches at Everflyht Vineyard with Luke Spalding

The art of estimating bunch weights: from early estimates to lag/veraison

The most common method for creating your first yield prediction of the season is to use the average bunch weight from past years combined with current bunch counts. This is good for getting a vague first estimate but we have learnt over many harvests that for lots of sites there is almost no such thing as an ‘average year’ – each year zig-zags quite considerably around the average, so calculating a prediction based on this concept of an average can send you way off! We notice people will often say things like ‘this season is shaping up to be just like 2016’ – so the Yield Predictor now makes it easy to select bunch weights from a particular past season, for making an early prediction of this year’s yield. If current growing patterns remind you of the 2018 season, you can go in and use the average bunch weights from 2018 in your prediction for this year.

Once you hit lag phase or veraison many viticulturists will weigh some bunches to get an early idea of actual bunch weights for this year. At this point, in Sectormentor it’s very easy to update your yield prediction with the average lag/veraison bunch weights from each block (these were entered into the app and then Sectormentor automatically calculates the average for each block) combined with a multiplier appropriate to each block/varietal.

Joel Jorgensen, viticulturist and consultant at Vinescapes, has been using the new Sectormentor update.

He told us: “Being able to quickly and easily make a prediction that integrates bunch weights from specific past seasons is brilliant. Of course there is no ‘average’ season, but often a season feels similar to a past year, so being shown an estimate of the predicted yield based on historic bunch weights for each block is very powerful.”

Estimation Ranges

We often hear vineyard managers remembering the year with the biggest yield, or recalling painful memories of their worst, lowest yielding year. Knowing what possible extremes might look like, based on past years, presents a more complete picture of what your harvest could look like.

Do the berries look particularly small this year? Or maybe the bunches are some of the heaviest you have seen…

With the Sectormentor Yield Predictor Report you can see the heaviest and lightest bunch weight you’ve ever recorded in each block and we extrapolate from that what this years yield in each block would look like if either of those extremes happened (taking into account how many bunches you’ve counted this year).

These estimation ranges are now standard as part of each yield prediction, helping you to see on a block by block basis what the likely range of yields are. As the season progresses and you update your prediction, this estimation range becomes increasingly useful, as you get a sense for this year in relation to others, with all the numbers at your fingertips.

We spoke to Will Davenport, at Davenport Vineyards in Sussex & Kent, after he’d tried out the new updates:

“Having the high and low estimates really helps us plan tank space effectively as we have a better idea of the upper and lower ranges for yields we can expect from each varietal.”

Joel found the estimation range update has made his yield estimates much quicker and easier:

“A good estimation range is also a vital part of creating a yield estimate as so much can change between veraison and harvest, so it’s useful to know best and worst case scenarios as early as possible. I’ve never had this kind of information at my fingertips before – Sectormentor is making it faster and easier to do my job, and helping me to access powerful information that previously took hours of complicated spreadsheets.”

This is about optimising those final steps of the yield prediction, and using your intuition, combined with all of the data available, to ensure you get the best prediction possible.

Yield estimation range table showing minimum and maximum predicted kilograms for each sector

Example shot of the estimation range in the Yield Prediction Report 🍇

Historical bunch weights reporting

If you need a reminder of what your historical bunch weights were in past seasons, we have created a brand new Sectormentor historical bunch weights report, to help you pick the right season for this year’s prediction.

Get in touch with us at info@vidacycle.com if you have historical bunch weight data that you want us to upload to Sectormentor – we’re very happy to do so! Just make sure it’s clear which of your Sectormentor blocks the bunch weights belong to 🌞

We’d love to hear what you think of these updates. Fo let us know if you have any feedback or questions, or if there’s anything we can do to support.

Historical bunch weights table in the Sectormentor webapp, listing weights by block and year

Example shot of the Historical Bunch Weights Report 🍇

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Field of flowering cover crop beside the vineyard

Reducing inputs: cover crops, mulching and biodiversity with Luke Spalding at Everflyht Vineyard
Reducing inputs: cover crops, mulching and biodiversity with Luke Spalding at Everflyht Vineyard 2000 1333 Sectormentor

Luke is running fascinating trials at Everflyht Vineyard, which we had the pleasure of seeing when we visited in August 2019. He sees the positive management of ecology as an investment in the long-term health of the vineyard. Improving soil carbon and biodiversity kick-starts natural cycles, building healthy soil which supports healthy vines, and healthy vines require fewer inputs. We love to see a vineyard working with nature in this way!

Reducing herbicides with under vine mulching
Luke is exploring an alternative weed control to herbicides; he hand weeded several rows in May and laid out straw under the vines as a mulch layer. The straw suppresses and smothers out weeds, as they are shielded from light and air. It’s working well, although there are a few drawbacks – the straw is expensive and it’s time consuming doing the initial weeding and laying it out. The straw they tried this year is specially formulated by Leeds University; it is infused with iron, magnesium and a natural slug repellent. One herbicide application is still required at the end or the beginning of the season, but this is a good reduction from the 2-3 applications in rows without straw mulch (which also have a healthy crop of thistles underneath!). Luke feels this method has great potential, particularly if the cost of straw can be reduced and if the weed burden gets lighter and lighter each year in the mulched rows as is predicted.

Mown grass alley with straw mulch spread under the vine row

Mulching straw also benefits soil health under the vines, as it covers the soil which prevents soil moisture from evaporating (particularly useful if you’re in a drier, hotter climate). It provides a source of organic matter as it gradually decomposes, which stimulates and feeds the microbial community in the soil which in turn release nutrients for the vines to take up. Applying any herbicides or chemicals disrupts microbial activity, and so making an effort to reduce these inputs helps the natural cycles to start working with you. 

Encouraging biodiversity and soil health with cover crops
In between the rows Luke seed drilled a deep rooting cover crop of red clover, buckwheat, phacelia, cocksfoot grass and ryegrass. The phacelia sprung up tall, dramatically increasing the number of pollinators to the point where two bee hives have naturally formed on the outskirts of the vineyard in old rabbit warrens! The original seed mix only had 20% grasses but they turned out to be very vigorous growers, out competing nearly all the other plants in the mix. Luke mows the grass strips in between the vines every 2-3 weeks and the cuttings are discharged out from the sides of the mower and straight under the vines, creating a green mulch on the soil (and adding to the straw mulch where this is being trialled). Read this paper about floor management and how green mulch is can improve fruit set!

Vineyard rows with grassed alleys running down towards the hills

Although cocksfoot grass is great as the roots go down around 40cm Luke plans to reseed the cover crop mix in between the vines to regain the plant diversity he had before, adding red clover, phacelia and buckwheat back in. This is important for attracting beneficial insects and helps build soil health too. A diverse range of roots will stimulate the soil biology which generally improves soil structure. Deeper rooting plants in the cover crop mix are great for breaking up compacted areas of soil. A diverse and deep root system opens up new channels for water and air to percolate down through the soil profile and be stored for uptake by the vines in dryer periods and helps turn the subsoil from anaerobic to aerobic. This all helps to improve drainage, which has been a big challenge at the site. Luke’s diverse plantings don’t stop at in between the vines, he is using a similar cover crop mix to prepare a 4.5 hectare site to be planted up with vines in 2021. This invests in improving soil health, as legumes fix nitrogen and there is lots of root to soil interaction, sequestering carbon, getting all the great microbial and fungal life going before the new vines go in.

Field of flowering cover crop beside the vineyard

Reducing pesticides with buffer strips
Phacelia is abundant in buffer strips along the sides of the vineyard, which attracts a healthy population of pollinators and beneficial insects. At the moment Luke monitors the insects that pose a threat to his crop, but he’d like to monitor beneficial ones in the future too. Then he could see how the populations buffer each other, and if they are in balance.

Two people walking a flowering wildflower margin beside the vineyard

Luke sets traps to catch one of the insects he would rather not have – the brown apple moth. If there are more than 14 moths in the trap in a month period he usually sprays the vines to reduce them and 11 has been the highest count so far. It’s great he hasn’t had to spray this season, which could be due to them being predated by bees, wasps and hoverflies attracted by the buffer strips. If you’re reading this and you manage a vineyard, have you also seen reduced brown apple moth pressure this year?

Recording vineyard observations in the row, with a picking tool on the vine and a paper tally sheet

Using techniques to encourage plant and insect diversity, improve carbon sequestration and build soil health are all ways you can take a more regenerative approach to managing a vineyard. There are some fairly quick wins with implementing practises like cover crops and straw mulching, but for the most part they are part of a much longer term strategy. A strategy that builds up natural resilience in the vineyard to pest pressure, disease risks, and changing climate, while reducing the need for intervention with chemicals that disrupt nature from doing its thing!

Interesting in learning more about applying regenerative approaches in your vineyard? Read this case study about Johan Vineyards and/or get in touch with us.

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Know your Vines #9: Record harvest weights and analyse yield performance with our Harvest Tool
Know your Vines #9: Record harvest weights and analyse yield performance with our Harvest Tool 4032 3024 Sectormentor

In our Know your Vines blog series we share practical tips on what metrics to monitor in your vineyard. This is the ninth instalment, stay tuned for more as the seasons unfold! “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”

I heard it through the grapevine, not much longer ‘til grapes turn to wine

As we enjoy the welcome Autumn sunshine the grapes are doing their last bit of ripening. Months of hard work in the vineyard and efforts to optimise yield and fruit quality culminate in this moment; harvest time! What will your yield be? Is it in line with your prediction? Monitoring the yield for each block will not only tell you how close your prediction is but also inform your pruning technique and how you care for the vines going into the next season.

Picker carrying a crate of grapes between vineyard rows at harvest

How to monitor yield

The best way is to keep collection trays from different blocks separate when you’re harvesting, and weigh them separately, recording the total amount picked in each block each day in Sectormentor for Vines. This makes it possible to compare numbers for individual blocks, so you know how each one is doing, and can adopt relevant management actions.

Using the Harvest Tracker

The Harvest Tracker aims to be interesting both during and after harvest. During the harvest, as you record the amount picked per block each day you can see the total amount harvested and how that has progressed through the harvest season.

Harvest dashboard comparing total kilograms picked against the saved yield prediction, with harvest evolution over the season

This gives you a simple overview of how the harvest team are getting on and how your yield is moving forward.

Looking at the amount picked for each block or variety lets you quickly see how much fruit was picked so far (during the harvest) or in total (after the harvest). This is useful both in real time as the harvest is coming in to understand how much has been picked and how much is left to pick in particular blocks, as well as after harvest to help understand the profitability of each block or variety.

Bar chart of total kilograms picked per grape variety at harvest

The yield per hectare/acre lets you compare the productivity of each block and gives you an understanding of how each variety, rookstock and clone performed this year. You can quickly spot if there are any problem blocks and decide on actions to take for the next season.

Knowing your yield per unit area also allows you to benchmark yourself against other vineyards, and can often be a better indicator if it was a good or bad cropping year.

Harvest dashboard showing kilograms picked per acre and a bar chart of harvest per acreage by variety

Once your harvest weights are recorded and harvest is all done you can sit back and reflect on it all. Which blocks performed well? How efficient was harvest this year? How many tonnes per hectare were picked? With the Harvest Tracker on Sectormentor for Vines you can answer all these questions.

Harvest Tracker
Ripe black grapes hanging over a vineyard alley covered in green undergrowth

Are you already using Sectormentor for Vines to monitor kilograms picked? Log into your account online to try our new Harvest Tool. You’ll find it in the ‘Tools’ section – let us know what you think!

Find out how Sectormentor for Vines helps you record data & manage your vines for the best quality grapes: get in touch here or check out 10 key metrics to monitor in your vineyard.

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Case study: Luke Spalding – Everflyht Vineyard
Case study: Luke Spalding – Everflyht Vineyard 2000 1333 Sectormentor

Join us for a walk around a beautiful spot in East Sussex, a 2.6-hectare vineyard run by data lover Luke Spalding. The vines are fairly new, they’ve been in the ground for 4 years and will be producing at full potential in the next year or two. Another 4.5 hectares of vines are due to be planted in May 2021, and the aim is to consistently produce 6-8 tonnes of grapes a hectare in the future. Currently the wine is made at Hambledon, where Luke has built a great working relationship with Felix the winemaker there, the first wines will be released 2021.

Group walking a vineyard together on a summer visit

The vineyard is 74m above sea level and the site has its challenges; such as extreme south west winds and severe late spring frosts due to its proximity to the South Downs. Luke told us “This is why I wanted the job, if I can deal with these challenges and learn to produce a great crop then I know I am doing something right!”.

The field was previously used for grazing livestock and hay making, so the soil is rich in nitrogen but has an imbalance of magnesium and potassium. This is a blessing and a curse in the Pinot Meunier variety; as it saves on some fertilisers but creates other problems with necrosis on the berries and buds.

Crouching to tie in a vine at the post in summer

Luke spends a lot of time scouting in the vineyard for issues, making observations and recording them with his Sectormentor phone app. His passion for data started when he was at Ridgeview Wine Estate; he helped monitor links between the number of seeds in a berry, berry size and climatic values that increased berry size and development. In a Californian grape grown to maturity the average is three to four seeds per grape, but how many seeds do English grapes generally have? Luke decided to sample 250 berries across every block in the vineyard, counting seeds to calculate the average seed count per berry for each block, observing how well the fruit had matured. He found there are often only 2 seeds on average in an English grape, a sign the grapes do not fertilise as well as those across the pond. This is because we just don’t have enough sunny growing days over here!

From the vineyard row to the office, reviewing vine records as charts on a computer

Pre veraison Luke and his assistant Tom recorded bunch counts with the Sectormentor for Vines app to start making an early yield prediction and decide if they need to remove any bunches from the vines to optimise yield and grape quality. They checked the bunch count data displayed by block on their Sectormentor account and decided to take off quite a few bunches post flowering, which are left on the ground to return fertility to the soil.

Once grapes have been thinned out they will go through and count bunches again to understand how many were actually dropped and update their yield prediction. All this data can be put into the Sectormentor app so they can observe and understand trends in how their bunch counts are evolving and what their yield might be.

Two growers inspecting a vine cane together in the row

Post veraison, berries grow rapidly in size, generally due to Autumn sunshine causing sugar to build up in the grapes. Luke monitors berry weight to see the impact from different weather patterns and other variables. As it turns out, hot and sunny weather during the growing season is not necessarily what causes dramatic increases in berry size; it is actually a heavy rainfall event in the run up to harvest which makes a huge difference!

We got the low down from Luke: “If you have 10 bunches per vine and each one increases by 10g due to rain, each Ha has 4,132 vines and the site has 10ha that’s an extra 4,132kg. It all adds up!”

As Everflyht is a new vineyard, there are some younger vines which aren’t yielding yet. Luke monitors younger vines, along with dead and missing vines, so he can take them out of his yield prediction, ensuring it is accurate. Luke also keeps track of frost damage and wind scorch by recording incidences on Sectormentor, so he’s able to stay on top of the problems and make any necessary management changes. He sprays seaweed straight onto frost damaged buds within 24 hours – this does an amazing job helping them recover! He’s also trying a biodynamic treatment of silica to help with wind scorch. This improves cell walls and leaf thickness to make the vines more resilient to the prevailing wind, as well as powdery mildew.

Vine canopy in leaf beside a wider view of the vineyard rows

“I use Sectormentor as a Barometer of how the vine has developed, how many buds have burst, how many shoots do I have, how many clusters do I have and what do we need to drop. That information tells me if I have a problem like necrosis, if I have to shoot thin or if I need do a green harvest.” – Luke Spalding, Everflyht Vineyard

By monitoring bud counts, shoot counts and cluster counts with Sectormentor for Vines, Luke gets a good idea for how the vines are doing and if there are any issues. For example, if he does a bud count and then a shoot count, and finds only 60% of the buds have shoots, he knows there is a problem with necrosis or blind buds and can make a decision on how to manage this in the future. 

Growing degree days for a season also provide helpful and informative data for Luke; from several years of monitoring he has found anything higher than -70 GDD in March means bud burst will happen in the first week of April. As Luke points out, “In a cooler climate where everything is so marginal this type of data is really important and can make a huge difference to successful vineyard management.”

Recording vine data on a phone in the row, with a close-up of the Sectormentor app screen

We’re excited to continue following Luke’s journey; if you’d like to hear more about what he is up to read this blog post on trialling cover crops, mulching and biodiversity at Everflyht Vineyard.

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