Wireless system can detect water level in soil
On a rolling hillside planted with row upon row of Cabernet grapes, viticulturist Jason Cole waxes eloquent about the elusive notion of terroir, a term French farmers use to describe the je ne sais quoi of crops harvested in any given locale.
“Grapes, chocolates, coffee, these are all incredibly good at soaking up their environments and spitting them out in their fruits,” said Cole, who oversees the preening and pampering of more than 500 acres of vines planted at the Stagecoach Vineyard in Napa County.
That vineyard is a test bed for a new wireless sensing technology that measures soil wetness, wind speed, temperature and humidity to take the statistical pulse of the vineyard’s microclimates to help determine how often and how much to irrigate.
Fore info are available here
