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Clemens Weed Knife
Pros: Lower soil disturbance, no soil inversion. High ground speed. The frame can also support a ‘twister’ type mower for a pre-knife pass, or a french plow for deeper disturbance. Single- or double-sided.
Cons: Low level of disturbance means weeds can re-sprout depending on timing and soil moisture. Not great with heavy weed cover. Can either be one sided (lower efficency) or, on flat ground, can have a second side, but might require multiple passes.
Gramegna Power Harrow
Pros: Lower soil compaction than others. Effective in varying soil types. Can handle terraces. Head articulates to adjust for slope.
Cons: Single-sided, doesn’t do well with lots of rocks. Expensive and lots of maintenance required.
Calderoni Rotary Disk Harrow
Pros: Double-sided and efficient. Handles rocks well.
Cons: More compaction, especially on moist soil.
Pellenc Sunflower
Pros: Double-sided, lower number of passes. Limited soil disturbance.
Cons: Can cause soil compaction. Can require multiple passes due to lower termination efficacy.
Gearmore Spedovator
Pros: Low soil disturbance. Can handle tall weeds.
Cons: Requires several passes: One to turn the soil/weeds and another to replace the soil on each side.
French Plow
Pros: Very effective at smothering weeds and preventing regrowth.
Cons: Significant soil disturbance (inversion of the top layer). Possible compaction in wet soil. Long term use can displace topsoil. Single-sided.
Fischer TWISTER Mower
Pros: No soil disturbance. Fast groundspeed. Keeps living roots in the ground.
Cons: Does not kill herbaceous cover. Possible understory growth depending on timing.
Sheep
Pros: Ability to manage the entire vineyard floor, even steep, terraced, and tight rows, without fossil fuels. Increased nutrient cycling, as well as soil and vine health.
Cons: Require knowledgeable shepherds to be managed/rotated effectively. Small parcels are inefficient. Damage to vines and infrastructure is possible.
Organic (OMRI) Herbicides
Pros: Helpful as a foliar spray when the soil is too wet to cultivate. Reduces weed competition in unfavorable conditions
Cons: Organic herbicides do not match the effectiveness of synthetic herbicides, but are another tool in the weed management kit. They are ineffective once weeds have fully established root systems and can be expensive.
Note that feedback is assembled from members who have used these tools.
February 25, 2024
3:00pm - 4:15pm
With an uncertain future climate being our current reality, how can we plan for this on a landscape, watershed or county scale?
Join Ben Mackie, Vineyard Program Manager, Napa Green, Mimi Casteel at
Hope Well Wine, Sarah Keiser at
Wild Oat Hollow, and Lynette Niebrugge with the Carbon Cycle to discuss these issues, and how the water cycle, carbon cycle, forest management, stream health, prescribed grazing and good fire all intersect to sustain healthy ecosystems in which we raise our crops and our families. We will discuss successful plans and implementation projects with a panel of experienced practitioners and advocates.
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Castello di Amorosa
Sheep grazing offers numerous benefits in the vineyard when implemented properly. Join us for a field day in partnership with Napa Valley Grapegrowers to discuss how to best utilize sheep grazing to achieve your goals in the vineyard, as well as how to employ grazing animals to manage woodlands for fire fuel reduction or post-fire recovery. With Christian Cain of Perennial Grazing,
Jaime Irwin of Kaos Grazing,
Sarah Keiser with Wild Oat Hollow and
Tommy Fenster with UC Davis, Gaudin Lab
Thursday, March 7, 2024
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Inglenook
Hear from Miguel Garcia (Napa RCD) and vineyard leads at Inglenook, Grgich, and Spottswoode about herbicide-alternatives to weed management, and the benefits for soil health. See equipment and demos of French Plow, Clemens, Twister, Calderoni, and Pellenc and ask lots of questions. Eligible for 3 hours of CEUs.
Thursday, March 14
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Freemark Abbey
After heat extremes in 2020 and 2022, and atmospheric rivers early last year, 2023 turned out to be an ideal vintage, with Napa Valley winemakers thrilled about the quality of the wines. Please join us for a special salon conversation, moderated by Andrea Robinson MS. Cathy Corison, Owner & Winemaker at Corison, Matt Brain, Winemaker at Alpha Omega, and Morgan Twain-Peterson MW, Owner & Winemaker at Bedrock Wine Co. will join in conversation around navigating and adapting to climate swings and weather weirding from one vintage to the next.
Tuesday, March 19
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Gloria Ferrer
See and learn the technique for a conservation/low-smoke burn. The Clean Burn Company and Napachar will run their BurnBoss air curtain burner and flame-capped kiln/ring-of-fire system for processing spent vines, fire fuel thinning, and other wood waste. All three of these techniques/technologies can be used to develop biochar. Michael Sippiora from Treasury Wine Estates will present the results of a recent vineyard biochar application research project.
Rain Date: 3/26
Location & Time TBD
One of the main resistances to phasing out Roundup is increased labor and equipment costs. With rising supply chain costs, the costs of herbicides and fertilizers have risen dramatically, so phaseout can offset increased labor costs. In addition, leaders like Grgich Hills Estate, a Napa Green member, have shown that regenerative organic farming can be cost-effective.
Regenerative practices are a proactive approach to farm health. If you’re healthy enough you don’t get sick – you’re able to fight off pests and disease. It’s a paradigm shift.
We need to have a cultural shift in vineyard aesthetics. Is bare ground how we want to present our skill as farmers? Or cultivating life under our vines?
Regenerative farming starts with a mindset to build biological and human communities…On farm after farm the soil is naked, hungry, thirsty and running a fever.
The Napa Green Vineyard certification provides growers a beneficial roadmap for continual improvement. The process lead Dominus Estate to measure our environmental impact and, since we can only change what we measure, has strengthened our methods for interacting with our site's vital resources: soils, water, flora, fauna and people. Ultimately, this certification improves the grower's relationship to the land and deeply informs farming decisions.
You don’t hear more stories about how farmers eliminate herbicides because usually they just decide to do it, and they don’t look back. The decision is the hardest part.
Eliminating Roundup and other synthetic herbicides is a significant step towards more just, resilient agricultural communities and local ecosystems. A non-exhaustive list of the benefits: Farmworker health, Soil health, Ecosystem health, Community health, Consumer health, Consumer perception/Market demand, Visibility of Napa Valley and the wine industry.
Not yet a Napa Green member? Learn more about our leading certification, including our boots-on-the-ground consulting services for regenerative farming, soil health, and irrigation efficiency.
If you have any other suggestions for tools or resources please send them to vineyard@napagreen.org. Consider joining our Regenerative Viticulture google group, and Newsletter mailing list for regular updates.