Improving winegrowing with sap flow driven irrigation

For the past 10 years, Fruition Sciences has been using real-time sap flow data to improve irrigation scheduling across many vineyard regions worldwide. The goal of this article is to examine how and why viticulture has adopted sap flow monitoring to improve irrigation strategy. In the context of precision farming, adopting sap flow metrics means disrupting traditional habits and pre-existing status quo on irrigation and vineyard management. Through a few case studies, it is described how sap flow monitoring has gained popularity in the wine industry and why it contributes to improving vineyard management beyond irrigation strategies.