Viticulturists will have the latest information for vineyard management at their fingertips, with the release of the new Grapevine Management Guide 2020-21 from the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI).
DPI Development Officer Viticulture, Darren Fahey said the guide provides articles on grapevine diseases, vine nutrition, vineyard management and wine research.
"Growers are also informed on the current projects being conducted at the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre (NWGIC), that aim to increase the development, sustainability and profitability of the wine industry," Mr Fahey said.
"The NWGIC is an alliance between NSW DPI, the NSW Wine Industry Association and Charles Sturt University.
"As part of a project funded by Wine Australia, a team at the NWGIC is currently developing a smartphone app to help growers to assess and manage nutrient disorders.
"Still in the early stages, the app will use underlying artificial intelligence to carry out the diagnosis in real time and provide growers with immediate information on the cause of the problem and links to resources on how to address the issue.
Mr Fahey said the guide provides the results of a new trial, that is part of the Wine Australia Regional Program, that evaluated the effects of using single row netting on grapevines over an extended timeframe.
"Sites were selected in the Hunter Valley and Orange to assess the differences in temperature, humidity, solar radiation, spray coverage, yield and berry quality differences under white, green and black netting against no netting," he said.
"The trial results were very encouraging with minimal differences between the treatments and locations.
"We could see the unnetted rows were impacted with significant fruit loss, compared to the netted treatments at both sites."
NSW represents the broadest diversity of wine-production climate and terroir in Australia and produces around 500,000 tonnes or 30 per cent of the Australian wine crush.
The free Grapevine Management Guide 2020-21 can be downloaded from the NSW DPI website.
