Precision viticulture for table grapes
Some farmers do not pick grapes, squash them and then ferment the juice. Some farmers just sell them for eating. And why not? Grapes have long been the gift of choice for hospital visitors. The glucose sugar in grapes is absorbed quickly into the blood stream to provide a burst of energy for a sick […]
Discovering precision viticulture
Imagine sharing a bottle of wine as the sun sets slowly over the vineyard. Who wouldn’t want to work in a winery? Corbeau founder Pierre Graves talks to agronomist Miguel Rodrigues from XpectralTEK about his passion for wine and technology. So what originally inspired Miguel to become a viticulturalist? “It’s actually perfect that you are […]
Detection of grapevine trunk disease Esca by hyperspectral imaging
Global viticulture loses more than £1 billion every year due to so-called grapevine trunk diseases (GTD). Some vineyards just suffer a lower yield whereas others can lose the whole vineyard. Esca is one of three main GTD diseases. Unlike the usual seasonal problems such as downy or powdery mildew, GTD have no known treatment or […]
Italian vineyards investigated with Google Earth
At the end of the old year journalists like to write articles summarising events, listing items, totalling numbers. At the beginning of the New Year writers and readers alike become more philosophical, resolving to extract information from mere data and wisdom from observations. Google Earth has been a phenomenal source of data for many years […]
New Raman sensor for precision agriculture
Sometimes stress can just creep up on you. Lack of sleep, lack of nutritious food and not drinking enough water have a cumulative effect. Yes, it’s a tough life being a basil plant. Happily precision agriculture techniques can now give early indication that crops are getting stressed. A new portable Raman sensor may help farmers […]
Climate change: a challenge or an opportunity for viticulture?
October is the time most vineyards have completed the harvest and wineries start the winemaking process. Some wineries are counting a better than ever harvest but others are just counting the cost. This summer the fields of Australia, California, South Africa, Portugal and even Oregon have been ravaged by fire and drought. This year the […]
Identification of Xylella fastidiosa disease in olive trees by multispectral imaging
Humans are not the only species susceptible to bugs from foreign shores. Olive trees in Italy are falling prey to a nasty bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, that has hitched a ride on unwanted migrants. In this case the migrants were insects on plants originating from the Americas. X. fastidiosa causes Olive Quick Decline Syndrome (OQDS) and […]
Hyperspectral imaging reveals rice quality and growing conditions
Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) sounds like something Superman should have. And indeed it is. Hyperspectral imaging is increasingly used in art conservation, waste management, industrial quality control, medicine and agriculture. HSI not only gives an image of an object like the smartphone photo above, it also contains a detailed spectrum of every single pixel in the […]