In Vino IoT Redux

Almost two years ago, my portable weather station met a professional one installed in the Paso Robles American Viticultural Area (AVA). At that point, I enthusiastically “discovered” how IoT-like systems can be used to significantly improve vineyard operations and efficiency. The experience intrigued me enough to spend considerable time researching and talking to vendors and practitioners who use such systems. To shorten the discovery path for those interested in the topic, I summarized my findings and observations in a white paper (and to have something to show for the time spent!).

The short story: viticulture sensor data platforms collect and process vineyard real-time sensor information and generate predictions to inform viticulturalists and vineyard managers about the current state in the field and to indicate conditions and potential developments that may need attention. Information and guidance from sensor data platforms can enhance the viticulturalist’s decision-making process by adding a data-informed input to complement their experience, observations, and intuition.

Key components include weather stations with ambient and auxiliary sensors installed in the field, all connected to aggregate and forward data to the processing point. Results are visualized to authorized users in numerous ways and on a variety of devices.

Vineyard Sensors

Sensor data platforms are powerful tools that provides viticulturalists and vineyard managers with quantified information about the state of vineyard and its crop. Their up-to-date measurements, predictions and alerts provide actionable insights and suggestions for managing key vineyard operations, such as irrigation, disease management, canopy management, and harvest timing.

Benefits: In many cases, anticipatory interventions can mitigate risks before problems become apparent. By offering predictive guidance on proper targeting, timing, and dosage of vineyard operations, sensor data platforms can boost effectiveness and efficiency while conserving labor and resources when they are not necessary. They also facilitate implementation of the principles of precision viticulture – doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right place.

One of the key long-term benefits of using sensor platforms is the collection of data across seasons which results in profiling the vineyard and its microclimate. This allows for cross-season comparisons leading to better harvest predictions and quantified understanding of how climatic shifts impact vineyard conditions over time.

The longer story, complete with an elaboration of system functions, operations, and selection considerations, can be found in the white paper.