Wise use of deficit irrigation can help growers make the most of limited water supplies and pay off in concentrated flavors—at least in red grapes. Dr. Markus Keller, a viticulturist at Washington State University in Prosser, discussed regulated deficit irrigation from the vine’s point of view at the British Columbia’s Wine Institute viticulture conference in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada. Unlike partial root-zone drying, which stresses a part of the vine by limiting water to a portion of a vine’s root system, deficit irrigation reduces the total amount of water a plant receives to induce stress for a set period of […]