Help manage frost risks in your vineyard
A UK frost forecasting and management research project has released a Budburst Model and Bud Burst Hub app to capture data by grape variety and location.
The hub is designed to ascertain the geographic spread of bud burst and use the data to show how the timing of this critical stage in the vine’s growth cycle differs by region and grape variety.
Users will be able to access a dashboard of data to monitor budburst and identify key trends.
The app is currently in a Beta-testing phase. This phase will help inform develop a more permanent design and hub functionality for growers and the sector.
This information will help us to track just what climate impacts are showing phenologically.
An earlier or later budburst could indicate shifts in climate patterns, which may require adjustments to vineyard practices or grape variety selection.
Similarly, charting bud burst dates across multiple years can improve long-term vineyard management strategies and help optimise the vineyard’s performance.
Developed as part of a two-year Innovate UK and DEFRA funded research project, the Bud Burst Hub is led by weather forecasting provider WeatherQuest, and supported by UK Agri-Tech Centre, Plumpton College, Vinescapes, and Vinewatch.
The Bud Burst Hub app will assist the research project team in providing granular, site and variety specific frost risk forecasts which will in turn enable vineyard managers to make more informed, targeted and sustainable choices when responding to frost events.
Ian Beecher-Jones, owner of JoJo’s Vineyard who has helped test the Bud Burst Hub app said the GPS located data is way of getting insights into what is going on in the vineyard per variety
“The app is easy to use for recording budburst at JoJo’s. There are many ways in which we could record budburst dates, but this app will allow me to better understand what is going on across the country compared to our vineyard.”
Collecting this vital data will help the team create site-optimised, variety-specific frost forecasts for vineyards along with the parallel development of a co-designed web-app platform, which will deliver alerts and provide tailored grower support.
If you have any questions about the hub, please contact paula@vinescapes.com.