Development of a Single Vine Irrigation System.

Water scarcity threatens specialty crop production in California due to ever-increasing competition between agricultural, municipal, and conservation needs. Specialty crop acreage is increasing throughout the state and requires irrigation in formerly non-irrigated areas. Increased production has been accompanied by groundwater depletion, especially during drought. Over-watering and fertilization in the Central Valley has produced high yields but often poor quality grapes. Groundwater depletion and restriction on its use will force changes. Lower water use along with better and more uniform quality fruit can command higher market prices, such as exists for grapes in Coastal areas. Careful water management will become an essential tool. Irrigation rates linked directly to individual plant water usage will improve fruit quality and water use efficiency on a given site. Sustainable use of water resources is dependent on developing the tools we propose in this project to achieve that goal.

This project under development optimizes the use of irrigation water and increase crop quality and market value through the development of an automated drip irrigation system with the potential to irrigate plants individually or in small groups, based on localized water requirements. Single plant and local growing conditions will be monitored at the vineyard block scale using an array of novel microclimatic and soil sensors, linked to a low power irrigation system, that will be operated wirelessly. Irrigated agricultural acreage continues to expand in California, mostly on land previously used for dry pasture, non-irrigated crops, or woodland. Groundwater use at the present rate brings very high yields but is unsustainable. Optimum crop quality is rarely achieved under these conditions. With precision irrigation, water use efficiency can be improved