Vineyards - Measurement of climatic parameters

When planning a vineyard it is important to select proper strains which will grow well in that place. Often, the shape and specificity of the area or the type of buildings nerby can have a significant impact on the temperature distribution in a given place. There are few parameters which allow you to check, how the temperature in the planned vineyard will affect grapes cultivation:

• THE LENGTH OF THE GROWING SEASON (LGS) is the number of days with average daily temperatures above 10 degrees Celsius. Depending on the grapes variety, the region is generally considered suitable for wine growing if the LGS value is higher than 182 days.
• HUGLIN INDEX (HUGLIN HELIOTHERMAL INDEX) is the sum of active temperatures in the period from the beginning of April to the end of September. HI takes into account the length of the day and the average and maximum daily temperatures. It is divided into 6 climate classes, from very cold (HI ≤ 1500) to very warm (HI> 3000). The heliotermic index using sums of air temperatures and latitudes is one of the most common methods used to identify suitable areas for viticulture. The Efento Logger application uses the GPS signal to determine the user’s position and include it for the calculation of the Huglin index. As a result, the index values are precisely calculated for the specific location where wine growing is planned
• THE COOL NIGHTS INDEX (CNI) specifies the relative measure of maturation potential, equal to the average minimum temperature during the month before harvesting. In the northern hemisphere: CI = average minimum temperature in September, in the southern hemisphere: CI = average minimum temperature in March
• SAT and GDDC is the sum of average daily temperatures, determined throughout the season, calculated as the average temperature value of all days for which it has reached at least 10 degrees Celsius (active days). In the case of GDDC, the product of the number of active days and 10 degrees Celsius shall be subtracted from the received SAT value.

The advantage of using the Efento wireless loggers and Efento Logger mobile application is the ability to determine these parameters exactly in the place where the wine-growing establishment is planned. Efento wireless temperature loggers are equipped with memory of 60,000 measurements, allowing you to collect data from the entire season with a ten-minute interval. After downloading data from the logger’s memory the application will automatically calculate the values of these parameters and allow you to export them in a form of printable reports.