Watching the "Weather"

Published March 20, 2009

As most of the local grape growers know, the weather plays a significant role in the production of quality grapes. When we think of weather we tend to mostly focus on the daily statistics that the weather man deals out every evening such as air temperature, wind, precipitation and whether or not it is sunny or cloudy. These weather measurements do play a major part in the growth of plants but there are other more important factors that effect the growth of plants. What about soil temperature? or Solar Radiation? After all, plants can't make sugars without sunlight. Leaf wetness, growing degree days, evapotransporation and soil moisture all play significant roles and should be considered while managing crops, whether they are grapes in a vineyard or a sward of turfgrass on the golf course.

How are these measurements taken. Using technology, many " professional weather stations" have the ability to take readings from an array of different types of sensors. The types of sensors vary depending on the individual user's needs. Although many golf courses do use these types of professional sensor stations, we do not have one here at Lake View but there is a station at the Penn State Grape research Facility down in the vineyards close to the lake. Thanks to member John Grigg, we are now receiving the data he is collecting on a weekly basis. Although the data is specific to his site, it does give some indication of what conditions we are experiencing in the general area. It also provides us with a baseline that we can use to compare with some of the readings we take here at the golf course using an inexpensive consumer-type weather station.

Using computer software, we are able to compile this data and use it to make decisions or to predict when the Poa will start to produce seed heads or when to apply a certain product for crabgrass, grub or disease control as well as how much water to put down when irrigating. Don't you just love science?

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