Fine wine starts with great grapes … and, it turns out, emerging technology.
In Canada, at the vineyard level, greatness requires attention to the smallest detail — such as the near-invisible beginning of plant disease, or a few tiny insects that signal hordes may follow.
Farmers watch for signs of such trouble by closely monitoring or “scouting” their crops throughout the growing season. The same goes for grape growers, keeping watch on their vineyards.
They scout with an experienced eye. They walk through rows and rows of grapevines, checking them for progress or problems.
Lately, some growers are getting help from drones. Literally and figuratively, they elevate farmers’ perspective, and give them an opportunity to locate problems early and precisely.
In Nova Scotia, a fledgling company called SkySquirrel specializes in drone technology for vineyards.
It’s the brainchild of engineer Richard van der Put, a biomedical imaging specialist. He describes SkySquirrel as “Google Earth for vineyards.” It’s capable of mapping vineyards, spotting problems and identifying disease trends early.
“This is emerging technology that will converge to where there are about three companies worldwide specializing in vineyards,” says van der Put. “We plan to be one of them.”
Here’s how it works. The SkySquirrel drone is equipped with recording technology that captures images and data as it follows a pre-programmed flight path over the vineyard. The information is saved on an on-board USB that the grower uploads to a cloud, which can be accessed by SkySquirrel. The company analyzes the information and reports back to the grower.
For a 40-hectare vineyard, the whole process takes about three hours of drone flights and one day of data processing. Van der Put says specialists on foot would need about 100 hours to scout the same area for plant disease.
A key to the system is the drone’s high-tech, multi-spectral camera, designed by van der Put. It’s so precise that from 80 metres above the ground, it can detect water content in leaves in a two- to three- centimetre square.
The system is especially adept at identifying what’s called grapevine leafroll disease, a plant virus that affects nearly one-third of vineyards worldwide. It ultimately proves fatal to grapevines.
A symptom of this disease is limited water movement through the leaves themselves, which eventually makes them roll up and die.
To the naked eye, the signs of the disease occur in its later stage. By that time, it’s spread. The SkySquirrel drone makes it more efficient to identify the condition at an early stage. That way, growers can remove the vines that are stricken, and prevent further problems.
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Most lately, SkySquirrel gained international attention by being one of 10 emerging agricultural technologies chosen for further development from a global field of more than 180 hopefuls from 38 countries, through the Pearse Lyons Accelerator program.
“A lot of people are working with drones and over-promising on results,” says Aidan Connolly, chief innovation officer at Alltech, the company behind the accelerator. “SkySquirrel is different. We were very impressed that Richard chose a high-value niche market. It’s a sound approach.”
Yet another reason to support scouting
SkySquirrel’s Emily Ennett says proactively scouting for plant diseases can dramatically reduce pesticide applications and water use. “Socially conscious consumers want to know they are purchasing grapes and ultimately wine from growers who are environmentally responsible and minimizing the ecological footprint of their vineyard,” she says.
It’s easier to say Kernza
Thanks to readers who asked for the botanical name of the plant featured in last week’s column, a deep-rooted wheat variety being commercialized as Kernza. University of Manitoba’s Doug Cattani, the plant scientist working to adapt it to challenging prairie conditions, says botanically, Kernza is known as Thinopyrum intermedium.