Sometimes it seems that growing grapes and trying to be conscious about the environmental impact is a contradiction in itself. During the growing season from May to October regular sprays with pesticides are necessary to protect the developing crop from destruction by fungi and or pests. The decision when and what to spray lies in the hands of the operator and is generally based on a combination of growth stage, weather conditions and experience from previous seasons. Help in decision making is given by Agri-phone lines that monitor the development of diseases and pests; talking to experienced growers and consultants and by "watch thy neighbor". There are also monitoring devices in place that compare environmental conditions to predict outbreaks. They can be linked together to networks and are considered a very valuable tool in the decision making process.

 However these networks are not in place in all growing regions and if the vineyards are spread over a larger geographical area, the specific conditions of a particular site become more important. These conditions do not only include the weather, "the vineyard in itself" with all inputs and practices stands as an eco-system with a specific potential for diseases and pest infestations. Consequently, sprays alone will not be able to solve all the problems and help to ensure quality crops every year.

 This is the idea of "Integrated Pest Management", which originated in Central Europe about 40 years ago and focuses on  three fundamental issues: quality of the crop, ecology, and economy.   The first IPM system  for vineyards was done in Switzerland and is known as the "Swiss model".

    During this year's cool climate meeting in Australia it was announced that Oregon is in the process of implementing their own adaptation of this system, called LIVE (Low Impact Viticulture and Ecology )

 For other crops there are currently systems in place that deal with their particular problems, for example, the mating disruption with synthetic pheromones against certain pests in grapes and tree-fruits. There are also several publications available to explain the concept .

 During our last meeting on May the 12 at the Harrow Research Station, the members of the Viticultural Roundtable of Southwest Ontario were presented with the articles that deal with these  topics and a view from Kevin Ker, KCMS, who attended the meeting in Australia.
The attendants of the meeting were given the two write-ups from the conference in Australia, Kevin's article is on the status of IPM, and the LIVE concept.

 After discussing the basics of the approach, we decided to start a trial period for the remainder of this years growing season. This will mainly affect the use of pesticides for the spray program and weed control. After the harvest we want to get together again and discuss the findings and develop a strategy/plan on how to implement the model for Southwestern Ontario and what problems we can foresee.

This will take time, but is very important because growing grapes is only one half of the business, and for the entire concept of IPM and LIVE to work the wineries will have to do their share, as will as those of us in the vineyards.