Trellis Tension Monitoring (TTM) assembly (center) in line with the main trellis wire in a wine grape vineyard. The row in the background also contains a TTM assembly (toward right). The metal post supports the vine at the left edge of the photo and is a normal part of this trellis system.
(Credit: Photo courtesy of Julie Tarara)

ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2009) — Predictions of grape yields are extremely important to juice processors and wineries; timely and precise yield forecasts allow producers to plan for harvest and move the highly perishable grape crop from vine to processing efficiently. Until recently, wineries and grape juice processors have relied on expensive and labor-intensive hand-sampling methods to estimate yield in grape crops.

Thanks to extensive research efforts, grape producers may soon have access to a dynamic tool to estimate yield called Trellis Tension Monitor (TTM). TTM allows for real-time monitoring of plant growth and predicting yield in trellised crops. Simply put, TTM technology works by detecting weight change on trellised grapevines as the vine and grapes grow. Data recorded by the TTM electronic monitoring system can be used to predict crop yields, enabling growers to create more efficient timetables for grape-picking operations.

To support their previous work and further investigate the effectiveness of TTM, researchers Julie M. Tarara and Paul E. Blom of the USDA-Agricultural Research Service's Horticultural Crops Research Unit in Prosser, Washington, and colleagues from the University of Idaho and Washington State University, undertook a groundbreaking 5-year study of TTM. Two recent reports of Tarara and Blom's research were published in the American Society for Horticultural Science's journal HortScience.

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