I got frosted…now what?
How to hedge your losses I had an macroeconomics professor preface the start of the semester stating that any question asked in his class was answerable with “it depends”…or “China”. While I don’t remember a ton about that class or the intricacies of U.S. tariff policy towards Chinese manufacturing, I find that at least the […]
Does a lot of rain mean a lot of aquifer replenishment?
Let’s ask a hydrogeologist! I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Timothy Parker of Parker Groundwater Consulting in Sacramento, CA. Timothy Parker began his career as a regulator working in contaminant hydrogeology. He got involved with fresh water while working for the California Geological Survey, doing watershed assessment and timber harvest oversight, and […]
Unboxing Owl Boxes
Rebuilding habitats for natural rodent control The following article was originally posted in Wine Business Monthly in April of 2022. Did you know that owls are cannibalistic? Baby owls will feast on their owlet-siblings to reduce competition. Did you know that owls strike so fast they kill on contact? It’s the equivalent of getting hit […]
2023 Growing Season: The Napa Edition
A couple weeks ago I was asked by Tim Carl over at Napa Valley Features to write a review of the 2023 season with a focus specifically on Napa. Check out the original post here and be sure to browse the rest of this remarkable publication. 2023 has been a weird one. While the rest […]
2023: It was the best of vintages, it was the worst of vintages…
Yesterday marked the official end of the growing season and what a season it was, amiright?? 2023 has proven to be polarizing. For some growers and winemakers, this was a remarkable year for quality, and others are just thankful to have crop insurance. Let’s take a look at why this is. I wrote about how […]
What it’s like to have real time plant stress
Let’s look at some data. I once saw a commercial that said: “forget everything you thought you knew about slip covers”. So I did. Admittedly I don’t know a lot about slip covers. I do know quite a bit about plant stress. Up until recently, our constant flow of data on soil moisture has been […]
We need to talk…about 2023
No, we aren’t breaking up. This year has been a little weird. We got a lot of rain and up until recently it’s been markedly cold. How different is it though? One thing I like to keep in mind is that the last few years have been hot and early. Perhaps this is just a […]
Micronutrients: you should sweat the small stuff
When it comes to micronutrients, good things come in small quantities By Mark Greenspan The following article first appeared in Wine Business Monthly in June, 2014. Read the original article here. When it comes to vine nutrition, most of us think about the N-P-K we’re putting out. That makes sense, because each and every year […]
Can I rely on wind for frost protection?
How can I find out? Despite the deluge we Californians got this winter and early spring, we’re not out of the drought. Many of the state’s groundwater basins are still overdrafted, some by a lot. The reason we’re in dire straits right now is because of agriculture. There are not enough low-flow toilets in the […]
After the flood…Part deux!
After the flood…Part deux! How did the recent rains affect your aquifer…if at all? California was hit by some torrential rain in January. In our last post, we explored how that rain had affected soil moisture. In some cases, the water percolated right through and left the soil dry again. In other cases, the rain […]