Challenges and Solutions for Efficient Vineyard Canopy Management

Targeting labor costs, Paul Licata, President of BDi Machinery in Macungie, PA, touts efficient vineyard mechanization, moving sequentially from sprayer to hedger to deleafer:

Low-Volume Sprayer

Problem: Customers have used traditional high-volume air-blast “soaker sprayers” and are not able to have consistent control over pressures and disease and pests impacting their crops.

Solution: CIMA Low Volume Atomizer Sprayers are the pesticide sprayers of choice for growers that want quality and clean fruit. The Blitz Trailer Model T50 is a very common application solution for single rows and, with the TCF.2M2M spray head, for multi-rows.

Details: “The CIMA Low Volume atomizer-style sprayer makes droplets in the 100-150µ range. A high-pressure sprayer commonly makes droplets in the 250-400µ range. And since droplets are three dimensional, when you break down a large droplet it has many smaller droplets inside of that large droplet. Therefore you will have many more droplets available for better coverage. This type of spray method also allows you not to have to spray to a drip. Unlike typical high-pressure sprayers with air speeds around 80 to 100 mps, the atomizer-style delivery system coat all surfaces of the canopy with air speeds around 170 to 200 mph, achieving a better quality of coverage and yielding a cleaner crop.”

Trimming Machine

Problem: Hedging and trimming of the vine canopy is costly. Being able to trim the vineyard canopy in a timely manner is very important. Additionally, maintaining canopy growth during the entire growing season can be very difficult with only manual labor.

Solution: Rinieri CRV Vision single-sided and dual-sided trimming machines with rotating knives allow trimming of the vegetation in vineyards or forest fruit plantations quickly and precisely. The knife trimmers are similar to the double-blade trimmers, although to prune the shoots they use a rotating knife system with high performance and reduced maintenance. The cutting quality is exceptional up to 6 mph.

Details: “Rinieri’s CRV Vision series provides a wide variety of options for your trimming needs. The CRV has cutting bars with stainless steel rotating knives that are strong and lightweight, allowing fast precision cuts of vine shoots. These machines can operate at over 6 mph due to their blades rotating at 3,000 rpm. The cutting bars are equipped with aluminum pulley transmission and toothed belts, reducing weight and improving performance. Trimmers are mounted to a controlled frame, with hydraulic movements that allow the cutting of any shape canopy. All models are equipped with a breakaway protection system with spring return to cushion unintended contact.”

Pneumatic Leaf Remover

Problem: Customers seeking optimal grape development have significant cost implications and challenges in acquiring labor to pull leaves manually by hand.

Solution: The Olmi 430F pneumatic deleafer allows growers to eliminate the need for manual labor while resulting in improved product health and quality of wine.

Details: “Use of the Olmi Deleafer improves the penetration and efficacy of pesticide treatments, consequently reducing the number of treatments while saving considerable cost. Additionally, it improves ventilation within the cluster area, preventing the formation of moisture that is harmful to fruit development.”