Helping Growers Achieve Their Best Wine Grapes
January 16, 2018
The vineyards of Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley are known worldwide for their award-winning wine grapes. But rainfall, pests and weeds threaten the success of these renowned vineyards.
The Bayer Acre provides a unique solution. These plots of land — located in vineyards that use Bayer portfolio solutions to combat disease and pests — help growers achieve their goals and advance the health and production of their crop.
Supporting Productivity and Pest Management in Sonoma County
A fourth-generation wine grape grower, Michael Saini, vice president and manager of operations for Saini Farms Inc., is passionate about the future of his 300-acre Sonoma County vineyard.
To combat disease pressures, particularly from powdery mildew and Botrytis, Saini started using Bayer products 15 years ago. He discovered that Bayer’s portfolio fit his budget, farming style and management needs, and he saw positive results from the Bayer Acre program.
Using Luna Tranquility®, Luna Experience®, Serenade® and Flint® fungicides on a 6-acre plot, Saini observed that 50 to 60 percent of the Bayer Acre crop was untouched by Botrytis, and 95 to 100 percent of Bayer Acre fruit was unaffected by powdery mildew. By adding Movento® insecticide to his integrated pest management program, Saini's crops experienced an increase in yield of approximately 25 to 30 percent in the Bayer Acre.
Saini believes the simplicity of Bayer’s integrated solutions has saved his operation significant money and time while delivering reliable efficacy and enhancing vineyard quality.
“Using Bayer products helps to simplify resistance management and can increase our productivity by 10 to 20 percent on any given year," Saini said. "For us, that increase in productivity means money we can reinvest into our farm.”
New Innovation for Protection and Quality in Napa County
Al Wagner is the director of vineyard operations for Clos Du Val Vineyards. Wagner works hard to produce Napa Valley’s most premium wine grapes to ensure pest and disease pressures do not affect the quality of the company’s nearly 85,000 cases produced each year.
Wagner started using the Bayer Acre, implementing Alion® herbicide, Movento insecticide and Flint, Luna Tranquility, Luna Experience and Serenade fungicides on a test plot of 3 acres. He found no presence of vine mealybug, mildew or Botrytis on his Bayer Acre crops.
“Bayer’s pairings work very well because you can use one product, one application and use the next product on the next application without any plant resistance or pest resistance issues,” Wagner said.
“Bayer solutions also help me with time management. I can sit down with my viticulturist and write out the entire spray program and save a lot of time because Bayer fits into 95 percent of my spray applications each season.”
Commitment to Wine Grape Advancement
Crop Science strives to work alongside wine grape growers to provide effective answers to the market’s most challenging issues. With its growing portfolio of products for the wine grape industry, Crop Science delivers innovative solutions to equip growers with the tools they need to protect and enrich their crop from planting to harvest.
