Monitoring of environmental conditions in vineyards

In Poland there are several dozen large vineyards and several hundred smaller ones, producing white, red and sometimes pink wines and mussels. Poland, contrary to popular opinion, has wine traditions – the first mentions of vineyards in Poland date back to the 12th century and concern the Włocławek and Płock regions. Currently, the most famous vineyards are located in the vicinity of Zielona Góra, and the development of vineyards lasts primarily in the south-eastern part of Poland. Kazimierz, Jasło, Podkarpacie, but also around Gorzów and Wrocław – these are the places where the grapes took root for good.

Problem to solve / task

When establishing or operating a vineyard, it is crucial to select proper grapes species, depending on environmental conditions in the place where a vineyard will be located. To quantify the influence of temperatures on planted grapes SAT and GDDC were introduced. These parameters are calculated based on temperature (SAT – sum of all days in the season in which the average temperature was higher than 10 degrees Celsius). Both SAT and GDDC can be used as indicators when grapes harvesting can begin.

 

When establishing or operating a vineyard, it is crucial to select a proper grapes species, depending on environmental conditions in the place where a vineyard will be located

Solution

Two Efento loggers with external probes are installed in the monitored vineyard. One device measures temperature at the ground level and the other at 1.5m over the ground. In order for the temperature to be reliable and not affected by the probe heating through the sun, temperature probes were placed in special radiation shields.
In addition, Efento loggers are placed in hermetic enclosures which protect them from moisture, water and harsh winter conditions.

Reading the data from device’s memory takes place wirelessly, using a smartphone or tablet with Efento Logger application which can be downloaded free of charge from Google Play. After reading measurements from sensor’s memory SAT and GDDC are calculated automatically.

 

Installation of Temperature logger at the vineyard

Results

After downloading the data, users receives information about the minimum and maximum temperatures throughout the season, in a given month or every day. Additionally, the application automatically calculates SAT and GDDC values from the whole season and individual months. The logger’s memory can store up to 30,000 measurements, what allows recording temperature measurements throughout the season at a frequency of 3 times per hour (measurement every 20 minutes). After downloading, the data can be exported in the form of a .csv file, which can later be imported, for example, to MS Excel. More about the vineyard system you can find here.

Recording of measurements

Large build in memory which stores 60 000 measurements

Remote calculations

The application automatically calculates SAT and GDDC values which are essential for grape cultivation

Location data

Accurate, precise data for a specific location