Taking the guesswork out of yield estimating

摘要

Trellis tension technology could improve accuracy of crop estimating in grapes.Trellis-tension technology developed by U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists to improve crop estimating in grapes is ready to be commercialized by private companies.Estimating the yield in a vineyard is an important, though often difficult task. Accurate yield projections help ensure that enough tank space and barrels will be available to process the fruit, as it must be processed immediately at harvest and cannot be stored for later handling. Estimating yields involves sampling cluster counts and bunch weights in vineyards, a labor-intensive task that must be completed during a short window of time. The lag phase of berry growth in grapes often is used as the trigger to start sampling because that is the period of slowest berry growth.