South Australia’s vision of a “vineyard of the future” is already producing results for the vineyards of today. University of Adelaide researchers with combined expertise in engineering and plant biology have developed three new techniques for monitoring grape and vine performance, with others in the pipeline.

The first – an iPhone app to measure canopy growth – is being beta tested by a leading wine company prior to being released through iTunes.

The second is a new way of measuring vine water status using near-infrared spectroscopy (wave lengths above our visual range). The aim is a “point-and-click” measure of how much water stress a vine is under.
“In that range there are strong absorption peaks corresponding to water, so you can look at the absorption of these wavelengths as a measure of how much water is in the leaf,” said project leader Professor Steve Tyerman, who is a chief investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology.

For more information, head over to The Lead, South Australia’s news service.