The best powdery mildew scout on the planet!
Detect Grape Powdery Mildew spores in your vineyard BEFORE an infection occurs. CVC's Grape Powdery Mildew Network provides growers with county-wide detection maps. CVC delivers the reliable information needed to improve your spray program's efficiency and effectiveness. Direct your scouting and spraying teams where they are needed first.
Samples are collected weekly or twice a week by CVC's trained staff. Your quantified spore count report alerts you when powdery mildew spores are present!
CVC's new "Spore Trap 800" samples 500% more air volume than competing spore traps. The Spore Trap 800 is field proven, has improved spore detection with a smaller carbon footprint!
Elevate Your Vineyard's Appeal to Grape Buyers with In-Season Berry Phenolic Testing
CVC Ag is excited to offer weekly berry phenolic tracking. Our precision sampling and analysis services help you monitor key wine quality markers—essential for color, tannin structure, mouthfeel, and aging potential.
Why Phenolic Tracking Matters
Data-Driven Harvest Decisions – Go beyond Brix and acidity to pick at peak phenolic maturity.
Consistency & Quality Control – Achieve uniform phenolic expression year after year.
Maximize Grape Value – Deliver fruit with premium quality metrics that buyers demand.
CVC's Phenolic Analysis Services
Total Anthocyanins – Monitor seasonal color evolution to ensure optimal grape maturity and wine quality.
Catechins (Tannins) – Measure seed-derived tannins known for their impact on bitterness, astringency, and aging potential.
Total Polyphenols – Track polyphenol development, key contributors to wine flavors and complexity.
Custom Sampling Protocols – Tailored tracking to fit your vineyard’s unique conditions and winemaking goals.
Tailor Precision Phenolic Farming to Your Vineyard
Combining berry phenolic tracking with CVC’s real-time leaf and berry temperature monitoring will empower you to:
Manage grape phenolics with site-specific data.
Evaluate irrigation effectiveness during heat spikes.
Demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of alternative cooling methods (e.g., shade cloth, sunscreen, misters).
Take the Guesswork Out of Phenolics
Contact Us Today to implement a phenolic tracking program and elevate your fruit quality with precision data.
The Coastal Viticultural Consultants booth will display grape powdery mildew spore traps, soil mapping using soil resistivity, and irrigation / vine water use monitoring using real-time (vine) leaf temperature and vapor deficit data and / or soil moisture. For more specifics about these technologies and how they can help improve use of resources, sustainability, and / or production goals, stop by booth 1344. The principals of Coastal Viticultural Consultants will staff the booth to personally greet any parties interested in viticultural technologies and to answer any questions about the technologies on display, or field general viticultural questions.
Coastal Viticultural Consultants
Unified Symposium Booth: 1344
Coastal Viticultural Consultants (CVC) is a company of experienced, professional, certified Soils Scientists and Viticulturists that has served the viticulture industry for 30+ years. Coastal Viticultural Consultants has a proven track record that places CVC as a leader in the viticulture industry. Coastal Viticultural Consultants, Inc. provides an array of technical services to the viticulture and related agricultural industries, throughout Northern California and the Central Coast. Coastal Viticultural Consultants is proud of the personal service and long term relationships with clientele, and supporting them to maximize sustainability and precision agriculture practices. As growers, owners, and managers of vineyards, CVC employs the technologies it developed to improve its own vineyard practices and to help clients achieve their production goals and, simultaneously, more effective use of resources.
Current Technologies Successfully Deployed:
1) Grape Powdery Mildew (GPM) Spore Trap and Network app
The Grape Powdery Mildew (GPM) Spore Trap Network and app allows growers to monitor, 24/7, dispersed, aerial spores (specifically, GPM) that enter their vineyard and from other regional vineyards also participating in the network. With the app, growers have access to GPM information 24/7 on their mobile device. The monitoring service and network operate from early spring until verasion, and presents data in easy to read graphs. With this service growers can better quantify overall GPM infection risk, and identify mildew “hot spots” before visual symptoms and damage occur. Data from the GPM spore trap can provide a heads-up if treatment or material resistance is occurring in a vineyard.
2) The CVC AgTM app is a data presentation platform for agriculture, and is now available now for download (CVCAg) for Android and Apple mobile devices. The CVC AgTM brings the CVC Spore Trap Network data and maps to your mobile devices. CVC AgTM app users can view updated GPM detection data 24/7 from each of their own spore traps, and an easy read graphical display of the data on their mobile device. Additionally, utilizing CVCAgTM provides users the ability to view GPM presence throughout their county or localized region.
3) The Real Time Grape Water Stress and Leaf Temperature Monitoring
This device and system is a 24/7 measure of leaf temperature and leaf vapor pressure deficit (VPD) data collected from an array of sensors placed in multiple vine canopies. CVC’s Leaf VPD system is real time field data; not a model or calculation that relies on other equations, ratios or estimates to approximate plant stress. This service provides field data 24/7 via your laptop, and can be very effective in optimizing water use and irrigation needs to enhance grape production goals. CVC’s patent pending technology is like having pressure chamber or porometer reading 24 hours a day, every 20 minutes. The service includes fast – read graphical presentation of the data. This allows growers to know how much water stress your vineyard is experiencing, how long each day your vineyard is under water stress, and many days or hours irrigations last before the water stress returns without relying solely on general evapotranspiration data (ET).
4) TerroirView® – Soil Mapping, Field Evaluations, Testing and Technical Reports
TerroirView® is unique, CVC – trademarked, comprehensive soil evaluation that describes your vineyard’s distinctive terroir, and is essential in vineyard design, trouble shooting, fruit quality improvements and / or achieving sustainability. TerroirView® consists of technical Reports and soil resistivity mapping that is completed by in-house Certified Professional Soil Scientists. TerroirView® employs GPS and GIS technology, complete laboratory chemical analysis, soil profile descriptions, and photographs to produce soil amendment, soil enhancement and rootstock recommendations, site-specific soil maps, water-holding capacity ratings, vineyard design, and layout maps.
We measure leaf temperature and leaf VPD in several grapevines while also collecting atmospheric data within the canopy to determine plant water stress. CVC’s patent pending technology is like having pressure chamber or porometer reading 24 hours a day every 20 minutes. Know how much water stress your vineyard is under and how long each day your vineyard is under water stress. Know how many days or hours irrigations last before the water stress returns without using evapotranspiration data (ET).
CVC’s real time canopy temperature and VPD data is more accurate than Surface Renewal or Sap Flow technology for measuring plant stress. You know exactly where the data is collected, no guessing or estimating depending upon prevailing winds. We measure only the vineyard not the trees, cover crop and weeds in or around the vineyard like Surface Renewal. We don’t measure only 1 or 2 grapevines like Sap Flow. CVC’s Leaf VPD system is not a model or calculation that relies on other equations, ratios or estimates to approximate plant stress.
Real time plant water stress and canopy temperature data collected directly from the grapevines in a known soil type is a powerful tool to manage your wine quality.
January 17, 2022 - Coastal Viticultural Consultants, Inc. (CVC) announces the launch of the CVC AgTM app that tracks local and regional Grape Powdery Mildew (GPM) detections in the first ever Spore Trap NetworkTM.
The New CVC AgTM app
The CVC AgTM app is a data presentation platform for agriculture, and is now available for download (CVC Ag) for Android and Apple mobile devices. CVC AgTM brings the CVC Spore Trap NetworkTM data and maps to your mobile devices.
Benefits the CVC AgTM app Provides
CVC AgTM app users can view daily updates on GPM detection data 24/7 from their own spore traps and an easy to read data graph on their mobile device. Additionally, utilizing CVC Spore Trap NetworkTM provides users the ability to view GPM detections throughout their county or localized region.
Power of GPM Spore Trap Technology
CVC successfully pioneered the commercial use of Grape Powdery Mildew (GPM) spore trap technology. CVC’s evolution of spore trap technology and data interpretation has been field tested and proven for over 12 years. CVC’s Spore Traps identify and quantify GPM spores entering into a vineyard. This data can better quantify overall GPM infection risk, and identify mildew “hot spots” before visual symptoms and damage occur.
Display at 2022 Unified
Stop by booth number 1340 at the Unified Vit Symposium, in Sacramento, CA, where Coastal Viticultural Consultants will have a display of the GMP spore trap and CVC AgTM app. CVC professional staff will be present to answer any questions.
About Coastal Viticultural Consultants
Coastal Viticultural Consultants is a company of professional, certified Soils Scientists and Viticulturists that has served the viticulture industry for 30+ years. Coastal Viticultural Consultants has a proven track record that places CVC as a leader in the viticulture industry and in promoting sustainable agricultural practices. Coastal Viticultural Consultants, Inc. provides an array of technical services to the viticulture and related industries in California. As growers, owners, and managers of vineyards, CVC employs the technologies we developed to improve our own vineyard practices and to help our clients achieve their production goals, sustainability, and more effective use of resources.
Coastal Viticultural Consultants Contact Info
(707)-965-3700
March 25th Webinar, by Coastal Viticultural Consultants, Inc.
Effective Implement for the IPM Toolbox
Improve powdery mildew management with spore trapping technology. This technology can identify and quantify powdery mildew spores entering into or within a vineyard, better quantify overall powdery mildew pressure, and identify mildew “hot spots” before visual symptoms and damage occur. As the visual inspection of 1,000 leaves per acre is required to detect powdery mildew on leaves at an incidence level of 1% or lower (Mahaffee, et al. 2014) and Disease Forecasting Models do not reflect actual field conditions, spore trapping is more effective in monitoring and predicting powdery mildew populations and treatment needs.
Coastal Viticultural Consultants (CVC) is providing a free informational webinar (via Zoom) that will discuss the practical use and advantages powdery mildew spore trapping offers, and availability to regional data sets. The webinar will also discuss the latest research in powdery mildew resistances to commonly used treatment materials. The webinar speakers will feature Mr. Bryan Rahn president of CVC, Certified Crop Advisor, Certified Professional Soils Scientist and Agronomist, and Mr. Walt Mahaffee, PhD, Plant Pathologist at Oregon State University.
The Webinar agenda is below:
- 9:30AM - 2020 Spore trap network recap, overview of spore trap use and data. - Bryan Rahn - CP Ag/SS, CCA
- 10:00AM - Scouting for disease – probability of detection, Fungicide resistance monitoring, DMI resistance and QoI resistance update, QoI resistance change over the season. - Walt Mahaffee - OSU
- Questions and Answers
- 10:30AM - 2021 Spore trap network map, using spore trap data is your spray program. - Bryan Rahn - CP Ag/SS, CCA
- 10:45AM - Fungicide redistribution and application timing, sulfur rates. - Walt Mahaffee - OSU
- Questions and Answers
Contact Kathy at klopez@coastalvit.com to register for the webinar.
Powdery Mildew Detection and Control
- Know if you have Powdery Mildew spores BEFORE an infection occurs!
- A weekly service with the actual number of spore detected.
- Next day graphed lab reports sent to you via email.
- Optimize your grape powdery mildew spray program.
- The greenest spray is the one you don’t need to apply!
Every grower has heard accounts of the destructive potential of grape powdery mildew infections. In terms of its economic cost of management and potential loss of yield and quality grape powdery mildew is perhaps the most important pathogen in viticulture. However, you may not need to spray as much as you think you do. University research and CVC’s field experience using PM spore traps has shown that the pathogen inoculum is not always present. Our spore trapping program the proven method to determine when powdery mildew of grape spores are present in your vineyards.
TerroirView®
TerroirView® is CVC's unique, trademarked, comprehensive soil evaluation that describes your vineyard's distinctive Terroir. TerroirView employs GPS and GIS technology, complete laboratory chemical analysis, soil profile descriptions and photographs to produce soil amendment, soil enhancement and rootstock recommendations, site specific soil maps, water holding capacity ratings and vineyard design and layout maps.
Soil Resistivity Mapping
CVC uses the most accurate technology and methods for measuring soil resistivity. This cutting-edge soil resistivity technology is combined with a Global Positioning System (GPS) to produce CVC's geo-referenced Soil Resistivity Maps. Soil Resistivity Maps precisely locate changes in soil conditions. These changes in the soil conditions are then described, evaluated and quantified by an experienced and Certified CVC Professional Soils Scientist in the TerroirView phase of the soil study. CVC mapping products are entirely the work of our professional staff which has distinguished CVC as leader among its competitors.
Slope and Aspect Maps
CVC uses contour data to develop maps with percent slope, aspect and approximate acreage to spatially define the soil resources of a project. The slope maps will classify specific slope categories and approximate acreage within each category.
Soil Resistivity and Slope / Aspect Maps
Combined with TerroirView ®, they provide an extensive evaluation of the vineyard soils and resources that is a powerful tool for vineyard management, planning and optimizing wine quality. CVC utilizes the soil, slope and climate data to design vineyard blocks, irrigation layout, row orientation, rootstock and variety, vine and row spacing and trellis systems.