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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JANUARY 2020


CHANGING climate “We may be faced with


having to spray more,” says Douglas, and that will lead to increasing chemical resistance. “It will be important to develop better IPM strategies against these diseases.” Quails’ Gate has been experimenting with thermaculture, using a system from Napa-based Agrothermal Systems that applies heat to vines, with the support of UBC Okanagan and ACARN. “It gives a burst of heat


BRIGHT FUTURE: BC Agriculture & Food Climate Action Initiative project managers (left to right) Samantha Charlton, Harmony Bjarnson and Foster Richardson led a climate adaptation strategy meeting in Coombs on November 27. Additional meetings were held in Merville and Saanich to engage producers and local government personnel in discussions regarding climate change, emerging concerns and priorities for adaptation programming. BOB COLLINS PHOTO


between 350°F and 550°F to the vines,” says Douglas. “The heat shot is said to increase yields, kill fungal and bacterial spores, and increase grape phenol and antioxidant properties.” Results from 2019, the first


year in a two-year pilot of the system, didn’t yield significant results with respect to botrytis, vine metrics or crown gall on


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Chardonnay and Merlot. “But I would like to do a trial on Pinot Noir,” says Douglas. “I had experience with the machine on that varietal when I worked in Oregon.” An increasing concern for


growers as the BC industry matures are grapevine trunk diseases (GTD), which intensify as vines age, leading to reduced yield, poorer quality fruit and eventually vine die-back. The fungal disease spreads through pruning wounds. “Pruning is terrible for


diseases, but we have to do it,” notes Jose Urbez-Torres of the federal Summerland Research and Development Centre. “If you have GTD in your new vines, by year six or seven you will see a 10% to 20% reduction in yield, and by year 12 you are losing half of the yield in your vineyard.” Urbez-Torres is exploring


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how these diseases work in BC. The research is finding that pruning in the dead of winter, when spores are not active, gives pruning wounds a chance to begin to heal. This reduces the risk of infection.


Chemical treatments to


protect wounded vines after pruning – none of which are registered for commercial use in Canada – are being tested. Biological controls that use beneficial fungi to control GTD are also being explored. Both Douglas and Urbez-


Torres underscored sustainability concerns when addressing fungal diseases. “In California in 2011,


grape growers applied 32 million pounds of products to their vineyards to control powdery mildew alone,” notes Urbez-Torres. “That gives you an idea of the impact of controlling diseases in grapes.”


Those are the sorts of concerns that are behind the growth of Sustainable Winegrowing BC (SWBC), a program of the BC WineGrape Council. After 11 years of


development, a successful pilot program this past summer has set the stage for the launch of an audit-based certification program in 2020. “SWBC is not just about the


environment,” SWBC program manager Katie Pease told the workshop. “We have a triple bottom line approach that includes people, planet and profit.”


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