Current Weather Pattern and Fruit Set

The start of this growing season’s weather pattern has been unpredictable, and the recent overcast, wet and cool weather may result in poor fruit set. Cool temperatures can interfere with the development of pollen and pistil during the flowering process or with the...

Why Integrate Biological Products?

I get a lot of questions from growers about integrating biological products and the cost of organic and sustainable products relative to conventional products. Today, our ability to measure the impact of about everything in agriculture is validating why we need to...

Lessons Learned from Biodynamic Farming

I was talking to a very experienced vineyard manager last week who shared with me his experiment of converting a small number of acres to biodynamic. It was something that he decided to instigate, with the blessing of the vineyard owner, as he was curious about the...

Key Objective – Building Soil Biology

Last week I was walking vineyards above the Alexander Valley near Geyserville, where they’ve received an overabundance of rain this winter, with a customer. As much of the vineyard remained saturated, our conversation turned to what happens to nutrients that have been...