vets2vines.com

FSP Bio - Contact: “Frank’s Septic Products

PO BOX 1477 - Vacaville CA, 95696

Tel: 707.678.4041

Fax: 707.678.4507

E-Mail: info@fspbio.com “

Septic System Design

Sustainable Farming at Shafer Vineyards and other California Wineries: “Of Bats and Birds

But gophers are only one of a vineyard’s many pests. A greater number are insects such as blue-green sharpshooters and leafhoppers. We are working to replicate the night-and-day patrol idea, again using flying hunters. To this end we?ve erected a 500-lb bat roost, which is currently awaiting its first residents (just as we had to wait for the first owls over a decade ago). The box rests on two 20 ft poles and towers over one end of our hillside vineyards. The box was designed and built by our wildlife consultant, Greg Tartarian of Wildlife Research Associates in Petaluma, California. He also designed and built our first owl boxes. The bat box is designed to hold 400 to 1,000 bats (depending on the mix of species) and it will be a maternity colony, meaning this is a place where the bats will breed and raise their young.

Bats are big eaters ? consuming anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of their body weight per night as they cruise through the moonlight. Given our location at the base of towering cliffs, called palisades, we already enjoy some insect patrolling by bats. This new roost is designed to attract even more to put a permanent dent in the number of bugs that chomp our vines. For daytime insect feeding, we have erected songbird houses throughout our vineyards. These provide homes for cavity-dwelling species such as swallows and bluebirds, who tend to eat the flying bugs that blight our vines. “

California Heartland | Raptor Works: “For information on how to purchase an owl box call the Merced High School Raptor Works program at 209-385-6470. (Call before 8AM or after 11:30AM)”

Equipment: “Hawk Kite tethered to pole

People have used reflective ribbons, noisemakers, sprinklers with motion detectors, and model airplanes (contract with local RC club) to repel pest birds. Let us know what works for you.”

AIC Online Publications and Data This is the site with all of the research reports from UC Davis!

Plant Genetic Resources Unit: “Vitis, or grape, is one of the large collections at the PGRU. Over 1800 separate accessions of grape are held under commercial field conditions at the Clonal Repository Farm located a mile north of the station. Grape, much like apple, is presently being evaluated for suitability for cryogenic storage in liquid nitrogen. This type of storage would eliminate potential crop damage by weather, insects, bacteria or viruses.”

Winegrape Varieties and Clones: “Vitis International Variety Catalogue

German Centre for Documentation and Information in Agriculture

The Catalogue provides details of grapevine collections in 126 institutions, on disease resistance data (with bibliographic references), characterization data (photographs, berry and shoot descriptions, seed), and passport data (prime names, synonyms, pedigree, holding institute).

Plant Genetic Resources Unit

USDA-ARS and Cornell University

Vitis, or grape, is one of the large collections at the PGRU. Over 1800 separate accessions of grape are held under commercial field conditions at the Clonal Repository Farm located a mile north of the station.

National Clonal Germplasm Repository for Fruit and Nut Crops at Davis, California

USDA-ARS

The NPGR for Fruit and Nut Crops is one of over two dozen facilities in the National Plant Germplasm System which collect, maintain, characterize, document and distribute plant germplasm from all over the world.

European Vitis Database

The establishment of an european grapevine genetic resources database with free access via Internet is one of the objectives of the European Project GENRES #81. The aim of the database is to enhance the utilization of relevant and highly valuable germplasm in breeding. “

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/fruitveg/fruit/grapes/starting.pdf

Winegrape Glossary: “THE SUPER GIGANTIC Y2K WINEGRAPE GLOSSARY”