Weather

Weather Applications

Weather conditions influence the productivity, aesthetic, and quality characteristics of crops. These include yield, growth, size, shape, eating quality, external appearance including skin finish and color, internal quality, storage potential, BRIX values, and pest and disease incidence. All of these factors can positively or negatively affect the profitability of a crop. Identifying the weather conditions that contribute to these factors enables action plans to be formulated to either alleviate negative effects or promote benefits to the crop.

Monitoring weather enables you to review current and historical weather conditions and:

• Determine daily extremes i.e. how hot, how cold, how windy etc and whether and by how much these acute weather conditions affected crop health and production.
• Ascertain trends over time i.e. monthly average temperatures, seasonal rainfall, growing degree days during flowering etc. to generate templates or long term averages to assist with ensuring repeatability from season to season.
• Generate historical records to compare seasons and seasonal variation.
• Evaluate specific seasonal weather trends to assist with managing and predicting crop responses for optimum production during the current season:
  • Bud fruitfulness—is thinning necessary?
  • Uniform bud-burst/Plant growth—do I need to apply a plant growth regulator this season?
    If yes, when is the optimum application time?
  • Over-wintering crop nutrient reserves—when do I start fertilizing?
  • Water requirements—use seasonal ETo totals to calculate likely water usage.
  • Pest & disease over wintering levels—am I going to experience a higher risk season this year?
• Plant growth models
• Insect models
• Disease models
• Evapotranspiration calculations
• Growing degree days
• Chilling hours

This information could provide assistance in auditing and management operations:

• Plan water budgets for the following season from seasonal precipitation statistics and absolute field reserves.
• Plan irrigation scheduling—more frequent and/or longer irrigations may be required early in the season in order to replenish and maintain soil moisture levels to ensure adequate vegetative growth and to sustain the crop.
• Identify the intensity of precipitation events to ascertain the effective infiltration into the soil profile and whether excessive leaching of nutrients had occurred.
• Identify periods where disease pressure was higher, potentially higher grape downy mildew risk, due to high frequency of daily rain totals (primary infection) early in the season when the vine was at its most susceptible.
• Ensure optimal spray cover—chemical applications may have been more susceptible to wash-out dynamics, due to more frequent and intense rainfall events.