Dryland Farming, Vineyards & why Plants prefer Subterranean Water Sources

This is a further continuation on the subject of vineyards and underground root networks which fits nicely this blog's purposed intent 

Consider this another resource page

Image - Modern Farmer

Turning Water into Wine ???

When I first saw the animation above, it immediately brought to mind why all Viticulturalists [installers & maintainers] should create an ecological environment in which vineyards could and should be weaned off the conventional science-based way of farming and one which perfectly biomimics Nature. The centuries old method of dryland farming which has been successful without major problems should be brought back and even improved with a few miner innovation adjustments for no other reason than we now know so much more about the biological machinery which operates all of the Earth's ecosystems successfully. I previously wrote a post about the Groasis Waterboxx which is being used to encourage and force deeper root systems with grapevines. More than anything else, the above animation clearly illustrates the purposed goal of the Waterboxx Cocoon. The illustration appeared in the journal Modern Farmer. The article carried another animated graphic of rainfall totals in various lands where the lowest rainfall areas actually dryland farm, while one of the highest annual rainfall totals was in the Willemette Valley where back in the 1990s, organic wine producers Russ Raney and John Paul discovered that several of their wine-producing peers in were installing drip-irrigation systems in their vineyards. The oddball thing is, this valley receives an average of 42 inches of rain a year which would seem like the last place you’d need to add more water. The dryland farmed countries of Greece and Spain were 14" & 16" of rain. Something doesn't make sense.

Animated Illustrations - Jason  Holley

Well, looking back in history to pre-1970s, much of California vineyards were dryland farmed. But then giant beverage corporations realized the massive amounts of money they could make and so then they started buying up many of the wineries. Like everything else about Earth destroying industrial agriculture, these corporate owned wineries demanded higher yields. From that point on it was miles and miles of black pcv tubing infrastructure throughout most all the big vineyards from the central valley floor to the mountain foothills. Which brings us down to the present water crisis in California's mega-drought. Incredibly however, these high yield plump grape bunches do not provide the best tasting wines. Of course for the volume drinker who cares only for quantity jug or box wine [or even $2 Chuck], this is not an issue. But that higher yield is all that Industrial Ag cares about these days. Flavour ? What about flavour ? That's why industrial Ag is obsessed in fulfilling government monoculture mandates with regards to Corn/Maize for massive amounts of  "High Fructose Corn Syrup", which makes modern day cardboard tasting agricultural produce palletable and addictive for the consumers.

Image - WineFolly.com

“We started to reduce the use of water in the vineyard [and] we got to amazing results. 1.) The vine can live with less water of what most of the people think, 2.) when you used less water, the size of the cluster and berries decrease, so finally you get more concentration and equilibrium in your wines.”

Aurelio Montes, explaining high skin ratio grapes producing higher quality concentration for superior quality wines

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So what exactly do Plant Community Ecosystems really want and what has not-for-profit Scientific Research Groups revealed ?

Leaving the grape vineyard subject for the moment and concentrating on how many ecosystems work, function and maintain themselves, you'd be surprised to find out that most mature trees, shrubs, vines etc prefer deeper subterranean moisture for the majority of their water hydrating uptake needs. This brings me back to the subject of Professor Todd Dawson's laboratory and study of hydraulic lift and redistribution of deeper subsoil layers. He is incredibly one of the few researchers to actually research the subject of Riparian streamside trees which hydrate themselves not from available surface waters, but rather much deeper subterranean sources. An article about this was titled: 

"Streamside Trees that do not use Streamside Water"

"A LONG-STANDING axiom is that plant distribution is strongly influenced by soil moisture content. While it has been shown that plant taxa inhabiting streamside communities receive or use more water, it is assumed that this water is obtained from the stream adjacent to where they are found growing. Here we show, using hydrogen isotope ratio analyses at natural abundance levels, that mature streamside trees growing in or directly next to a perennial stream used little or none of the surface stream water. The deuterium to hydrogen content of both source and xylem waters indicated that mature trees were using waters from deeper strata. Although adult trees may have roots distributed continuously throughout a soil profile, it seemed that the most active sites of water absorbtion were limited to deeper soil layers. In contrast, small streamside individuals appeared to use stream water, whereas small non-streamside individuals used recent precipitation as their primary water source."

So basically Dawson and team were curious as to the origin of the waters which hydrated streamside trees. The obvious conclusion was surface waters which were abundantly available in the riparian habitat. Whereas the young trees in youth required the surface moisture for growth and initial establishement, the older trees did not require surface waters any longer and preferred the moisture in deeper subterranean layers of the soil. There clearly are some sort of epigenetic triggers at play here in response to environmental cues as the trees age. But the crazy thing is that much of Dawson's work with these types of studies happened mainly in the early 1990s. So what have world researchers been doing all this time since then, since such valuable information and understanding has huge practical application with regards agricultural techniques  potential. The middle of the research paper is basically how they went about the science of determining what sources through isotope studies and how they arrived at conclusions. It's mostly boring as is true with most research papers, but here is the last remarks at the end of the paper's report:

"Several ecological implications arise from these results. First, during establishment, these tree species [most likely riparian] depend on these waters in the upper soil layers. Because these isotopic signatures of summer precipitation (non-streamside sites) and surface stream waters (streamside sites) are different, we can distinguish between the sources. Second, once established trees from streamside sites as well as from adjacent non-streamside sites use a deeper prehaps more constant water source, abandoning the water sources on which they were dependent during establishment. By no longer using upper-soil-layer water sources,, these tree species may be able to avoid interspecific competition with more shallow rooted shrub and herb species that inhabit the same sites."

Source: University of Utah -"Streamside Trees that do not use Streamside Water" 

Stopping here to interject some thoughts. I've written about this previously in my own personal research of Bajada (Alluval Fan) sites and Floodpalin sites and how large trees in waterless regions establish and maintain themselves within large rocky waterless boulder strewn river rock floodplains. The only other point of note here about shallow rooted shrubs is that Dawson did this study long before much information was done on root structure of chaparral and his later focus on hydraulic lift and redistribution which hydrates shallower plants within any ecosystem through an interconnected biodiverse mycorrhizal fungal grid or network. There is a long held traditional blind faith religious concept we know as, "Survival of the Fittest" which has been championed and continually misapplied by it's inventors for decades. This concept has caused vast amounts of misunderstanding about our natural world which has in turn held back real viable advancement in technological innovation. This in turn has damaged most all of Earth's present day ecosystems. But that failed religious dogma has now given way to the more responsible understanding of a superior concept that most of the honest researchers now see as Survival of the Mutually Cooperative. In 1994 Cornell University published a report on Dawson's Lab work on Hydraulic Lift & Redistribution by extremely deeply rooted Sugar Maples which hydrated the various other ecosystem plant community neighbours around their sphere of influence. Here towards the end of the article the author makes an observation of how knowledge of such hydrological phenomena and rooting infrastructure can be applied to modern technological innovation and practice within Agriculture.

"I think Professor Dawson's research has amazing potential for agriculture," Hernandez-Mora said. "We know some trees are beneficial because they provide nutrients from their leaves that fall to the ground. Now we know they are also recycling water. I see hydraulic lift as a recycling system. The rainwater that eventually ends up deep within the ground comes back up through the tree's roots and can be used in the shallow soil by surrounding crops." She feels that the system can be used to regenerate dry lands and improve farming in developing countries that do not have access to fertilizers and advanced irrigation pumps."

Cornell University: Mother Nature's Irrigators - 'Plants Share Water With Their Neighbors'

Unfortunately, the concept of biomimicry or biomimetics in Agriculture that was hoped for by the author from Cornell University back in 1994 when this statement was first made has not come to be realized. It's incredible, it's been 25 years and our planet is worse off now more than ever before. Some attention has been paid regarding this subject by a few, but still ignored by the majority. Certainly not on the commercial scale hoped for. What hnders that ? Industrial Agriculture and all the various components which make it up like Biotechs, AgroChemical Companies, Irrigation Districts, etc all have a vested interest in smokescreening and deflecting such findings and keeping up a propaganda campaign that insists the world cannot survive without their direction and oversight. But still more and more research is finding out and revealing why Nature has been able to function and thrive for 10s of 1000s of years prior to the past 100+ years of  imaginary enlightenment.  Take a look below here. Science has discovered other interesting things about the programming inside of plant DNA which provides a mechanism for sensing water and creating a specific root architecture in obtaining that moisture.

Wissenschaft – Design – Animation

"Stanford, CA—Soil is a microscopic maze of nooks and crannies that hosts a wide array of life. Plants explore this environment by developing a complex branched network of roots that tap into scarce resources such as water and nutrients. How roots sense which regions of soil contain water and what effect this moisture has on the architecture of the root system has been unclear."

Really ? The soil beneath out feet is really a maze of microscopic nooks and crannies ? And notice they said that plants explore this environment by means of a branching root development programming that seeks out and searches for water ? As they stated, how the plants accomplish this has been a mystery, but the average person doesn't have to know every single scientific detail in order to accept that plants have an extraordinary water sensory system for moisture detection. In my last few posts, I've referenced the Groasis Waterboxx which is precisely designed to facilitate water movement downwards deep into the subsoil layers which encourages the plant's sensing mechanisms to track and follow. Take note again of the illustration below. These nooks and cranies are the exact capillary water movement action Pieter Hoff has been continually speaking about and taking advantage of in his device.

Continuing on with the research paper, they found that the informational content within a plant's DNA will instruct and create a hydropatterning blueprint. The signaling pathways they are speaking of are epigenetic signaling and sensing which will help build the root network infrastructure as the water is forced down deep into the subsoil which is our ultimate goal here. Again, You DO NOT have to be a rocket scientist to grasp this. But merely appreciating that most all plants will perform this task smoothly and efficiently if you facilitate all the right practices in providing what plants are programmed to thrive is all you need to know.

"The team named the new phenomenon hydropatterning and they observed it in several plant species, including the important crop plants maize and rice. The process is controlled by signaling pathways in the plant that are distinct from previously characterized drought responses suggesting that hydropatterning could be important for regulating root branching under non-stressful growth conditions."

Carnegie Institution for Science: Water found to provide blueprints for root architecture

==============================

Other Important Factors that both Hinder & Promote Rooting development Infrastructure

It's always been important to follow exactly the pattern found and observed in Nature when it comes to various forms of land management practices, irrespective of the endeavour pursued. Mankind for the most part has not done this and hence we now have a planet in crisis. There was some research done back in 2013 by Hairong Wei, Yordan Yordanov and Victor Busov which was published by the international journal New Phytologist. The article's title was, "Nitrogen deprivation promotes Populus root growth through global transcriptome reprogramming and activation of hierarchical genetic networks." Basically what they found was that the conventional recommendation by most science-based Agro-Chemical companies in application of their synthetic junk at time of planting actually hindered plant root development. Why ? Because like water, if you welfare the plants on an artificial life-support system, they will always depend on the entitlement program you've arranged for them and they will never mature towards self-sufficiency. Here is what they found.

"Contemporary nitrogen fertilization practices are not environmentally or economically smart,"  says Busov, who studies the functional genomics of plant development  

"Only 30 percent is used by the plants. The rest goes into the ground water. It changes the soil and causes increases in algal blooms, greenhouse gases and insects like mosquitoes that carry disease."

Now notice in the article what they found out regarding the effects of that nitrogen had on plant root system growth development and  overall infrastructure blueprinting. And the effect on rootstructure development from the lack of nitrogen.

"Nobody knew the mechanisms of how low nitrogen affects plant roots."

In their laboratory at Michigan Tech, Busov and Yordanov planted Poplar seedlings under normal nitrogen levels. Then they transplanted them to a medium that contained almost no nitrogen. What happened? 

"Surprisingly, the roots got larger and longer,"  says Yordanov. "We think that the roots were looking for nitrogen," Busov suggests. "But what is the genetic machinery behind this growth?" 

These researchers were experimenting with Poplar plants for possible biofuels potential. They made reference to there being  tens of thousands of genes in the poplar genome. So their huge challenge here was how to determine which gene/s were doing what, how they affect each other and how they work together to regulate root growth under low nitrogen conditions. Basically what they were looking at was the regulatory mechanisms of epigenetic gene expression with it's on and off switches. Researcher, Hairong Wei, who is a molecular biologist has extensive knowledge of computer science applied his knowledge to large biological data sets. His goal here was to untangle the interactions of more than 61,000 genes by searching for a "high hierarchical regulator," or what he labled as the "boss" gene. When they identified this boss or control gene, they tweaked this gene and the entire network responded which caused the roots to grow 58% more. Take a look at what they found and how it was described.

"Imagine a manufacturer. At the bottom of the hierarchy, you find the laborers. They answer to a foreman who reports to a manager, and so on until you get to the president. If you want multiple laborers to do a complicated job, you start with the president, who will pass the instructions down. The process can be likened to the functioning of a machine. There is a master switch that turns on the engine. The engine activates other switches that make all the little cogs and gears in the machine do what they are supposed to do."

Michigan Technological University: Getting to the root of the matter

The original intention of the research was not necessarily the pursuit of biomimicry in Nature. It's all about tweaking the organism's genetic makeup either by gene editing or some other genetic manipulation. But in the process they discovered some amazing things about what triggers root infrastructure development. This was a study of certain specific plants which would best be biofuel material candidates. If they could find a gene to genetically engineer, etc, then these plants could be cloned and/or bred for the biofuels industry. First you should understand that in conventional industrial science-based worldview ways of looking at things, in the back of many a scientist's minds, Nature is almost invariably viewed as inherently flawed and badly designed. Hence the collective genius of intellectual human scientists are assumed to be the answer to correcting where nature is inept at design. However that is not what they found here. Industrial Agriculture and the corporations which run the Big Ag World want to sell products. Nitrogen, Phosphorus, etc are just few of their prized flagship products. But nature also has after market add-ons which enhance performance. The majority of these after market add-ons are mycorrhizal fungi and beneficial bacteria to name a few. But now getting back to dryland farmed vineyards, there are other beneficial reasons for deep root promoting techniques.

==============================

Encouraging Deeper Root Infrastructure & Mycorrhizal Colonization can combat Pathogens common to Vineyards 

Photo - Coenie Snyman, Rust & Vrede

Source - Wingerdbou in Suid Afrika

The successful dryland farmed Vineyard requires a rootstock with a healthy branched root system and vigor that can penetrate deep subsoil layers. One of the biggest problems for vineyard grape rootstocks is a historical disease caused by a pathogen called phylloxera of which there are several varieties. As an example of what happens to the grapevine roots, you can see the difference of Phytophthora on the roots on the right side of the photo to the right and healthy roots on the left. This pathenogen is normally associated with shallow, wet soils that become saturated during the winter months under heavy rainfall [not exactly a California problem] or over irrigation, and then the soil drains slowly during the Spring. This is where conventional science-based commercial irrigated vineyards have the problems and dryland farmed organic vineyards have the advantage. When the phylloxera swept over the vineyards, some vintners saw the connection to irrigated fields, which discourage vine depth (the vines won't go deep if water is always avaialble near the surface) and therefore the disease more easily spreads. Phylloxera cannot reach the deeper roots, but it will devastate the shallow ones. The Organic dryland farming growers with deeper rooted vines survived the epidemic. The other plus was the organically managed vineyards have a better chance of healthier microbial community which help fight off the bad pathogens by forming a shield around the root system. The fungi also send chemical messages up into the plant's stems triggering an epigenetic switch for the immune system to be turned on into high gear. Most conventional commercial growers who heavily irrigated and synthetically fertilized were forced to replant.

Image - WineMatch.com

 
Here is an interesting interview I read from a blog called "Organic Wines Uncorked" with organic vineyard & winemaker John Williams of Frog's Leap Winery of Rutherford California. He actually get's into the science of how his practice of what the industry calls, "terroir" which takes into consideration the geographical locations, the soil type, the regional climate, and the specific farming techniques utilized by people which are optimal for a particular set of environmental circumstances to an area. Basically, John Williams is describing an interesting phenomena called epigenetics which is becoming more and more researched as a clearer understanding of DNA is discovered with program studies like ENCODE. Science has been held back for decades because of an ignorance about this fascinating biological function for all life which has been opposed by a powerful ruling Scientific Orthodoxy who for decades have insisted upon on it's own mystic version of consensus settled science. Take a look at the interview and Frog's Leap Vineyard owner, John Williams' practice of Biomimicry in maintaining his vineyards:

"We get beautiful flavors, dead right - for two reasons -  one, the vines are fully hydrated and they've regulated their own growth. The other thing is, from a winemaking point of view, you've got a smart grapevine."  

"The grape roots are where all the information is, in these last two or three root cells. They run the hormonal cycles of grapes."  Growth and ripening and other aspects of development are both regulated by these cells."  

"That message comes from the roots. If your roots are constricted or living in a false environment of fertilizer and water, they don't know to send the message to the grapevine saying, 'Let's go, the soil is drying, the temperature of the soil is warming up. Now's the time to ripen our fruit. Now's the time to produce flavor. Now's the time to produce color.'"

Take close note of what he is describing here above. He's talking about epigenetic responses to environmental cues. Although I'm not even sure if he actually understands what epigenetics is. Most people do not. These grapevines are living biological machinery interconnected with the programmed machinery of other biological lifeforms within the soil profile. There are no copying errors or random mutations, no dumb luck, no Junk DNA or a blind unguided tinker bell [natural selection] making fortuitous choices with it's magic wand based on some Dice Theory nonsense. These are living biological machines following their genetic programming through sensory mechanisms and responding to the stable or unstable environment around them. Also, when it comes to these disease attacks like that of the Phylloxera virus wreaking havoc on California vineyards and other parts of the globe, John Williams places the blame squarely on the irrigation practices (and synthetic fertilizers) for making grapevines dumb. The vines become dumb because of the welfare program of artifical life-support system [irrigation/synthetics] recommended by industrial agriculture bent on keeping the status quo in hopes of keeping their own business model in power and authority. And he continues:

"If you have dumb grape vines - and we believe that's what results...you get a grapevine that has no idea what time of year it is, what the temperature of the soil is, what the moisture content of the soil is, what the pheromones and the fungi in the soil are saying…it has no idea of what's going on."  

"It's not just about hydration and fertility and vigor management. It's this knowledge that comes from the deep connection to the soil - and the hormonal cycles that come out of that."

Again, he is speaking about and describing the incredible engineering performed by those epigenetic on and off switches within genes of a lifeform's DNA which guides and regulates based on environmental input sensing. This is the same thing I've obsevered for years when I collected the same type or kind of plant specimens from different elevations and environments. Only after planting them side by side, could I see first hand that the higher elevation specimens had a later bud break compared to lower elevations specimens whose buds would emerge two months earlier. Yet they [Alnus rhombifolia or the common White Alder] looked identically the same in appearance. Cleary having an understanding of whole plant systems and how they work and function is an important part of what the wine industry calls, Terroir. Terroir (French pronunciation: from terre, "land") is the set of all environmental factors that affect a crop's epigenetic qualities, unique environment contexts and farming practices, when the crop is grown in a specific habitat. With industrial science-based agricultural practices the terroir doesn't matter as it is their belief you can force anything in the pursuit of that precious goal known as "Higher Yields." That's what is killing this planet. Below is a great page from Frog's Leap Winery which attempts to explain how vines think and what they want so to speak.

Image - Frog's Leap Winery

Frog's Leap Winery: Thinking Like a Vine

Sustainability means taking good care and concern for the welfare of your Employees year round

This is a side point away from the techniques and science behind Dryland farming, but it's an important one for making the entire system work. I found John Williams care for his employees to be a good business model for others to follow

Treehugger: Frog's Leap Winery: Saves 10 Million Gallons of Water a Year with Dry-Farming

===============================

Below is another great documentary which came out some time ago which is called, "Symphony of the Soil", which attempts to explain the harmonious balance within the soil which farmers and other land managers practice in what is known as biomimetics as opposed to forcing imperfect human goals on the system for higher yields. The documentary features scientists,  farmers and ranchers and offers a glimpse of the possibilities that healthy biodiverse microbial soil creates for healthy plants. The film also includes a portrait of the biomimetic techniques practiced by the winemaker John Williams of Frog’s Leap Vineyards in Rutherford, California, where organically managed dry-farmed grape vineyards make ideally healthy soil and award-winning wine. There is also a great review of the documentary over on the IMDb film review pages.

"This documentary takes us through the formation, use, and history of soil and makes a compelling case for organic farming and for forgetting technological fixes that ignore the reality of the biology of soils. This is not information that agribusiness wants people to know, since their business model relies on heavy machinery, genetic engineering, and chemical-intensive methods." 

"Most compelling is that many answers to the problems of food production, pollution, environmental degradation, and disease are already here and in use, if only people would listen, become informed, and buy wisely. I had some idea, but not to the extent shown in the film, of soil's importance. I really had no idea that the solutions to our problems lie well within our grasp if only we can change our ways.  

"Somewhat explored in the documentary are the ideas that a tremendous amount of inertia lies in current practices, both in terms of government regulation which favors agribusiness, and in terms of perception resulting from public relations campaigns and advertising these multinationals use to preserve their profitable business model." 

"However, the film does not come off as a political diatribe, but only as the accumulated wisdom of many experts in the field, both academic and working organic farmers. The film serves more as an open-ended exploration of these points of view, tying perceptions into scientific fact and common sense."

(Source - llbreaux)

I love towards the end his review where he makes special note to the fact that this film "does not come off as a political diatribe." That's important because so many environmental organizations, movements, activists, their followers, etc who claim to champion Nature are more often than not filled with hatred for others blaming their opposing political ideology for the world's problems. The effect is to turn many people off to their message. I understand why they do this. Mostly non-profit ecology organizations irrespective of the cause have to keep their followers angry and stirred up. If they are happy and content, the leadership loses their power in the movement and donations stop rolling in. Those donations are extremely important and unfortunately, like todays various news outlets, only negative news sells and attracts. You'll find very few truly viable solutions offered other than total elimination of the opposing side. The Eco-Activist political organizations while championing Nature, are often hesitant to even critize the modern Biotechnology and Agro-Chemical Industry. Mainly because they fear backlash from their followers who may assign to them the label of Anti-Science. We live today in this culture of science  which will question nothing that comes from Science or a Scientist. To criticize or point out the major flaws of such hallowed institutions is considered almost a religious heresy of sorts and doctrinal sacrilege. Below here I'll provide the Soil documentary's website and a couple of good trailer links on Vimeo.

http://www.symphonyofthesoil.com

Here are three good trailer link for the Documentary:

Symphony of the Soil - “Beginning of the Film” (Clip)

Symphony of the Soil - “A Place Full of Life” (Clip)

Portrait of a Winemaker: John Williams of Frog’s Leap

===============================

Some concluding comments on Deep Pipe Irrigation to supplement Dryland Farming shackled by Climate Change ?

Image - Mine 2012

These meter long gray drainage pipes in the photo above I purchased from one of the two Swedish Home Improvement stores. Bau Haus or Hornbach over here in Gothenburg which are German owned companies. I've often used this simple illustration at right here of a very simple type of deep pipe irrigation, but my feeling is that someone who is creative enough could build a far less expensive system on their own if they have an inventive know how. I have also referenced the design of the one from Hunter Industries product which is a deep root zone watering system. My only difference would be to have a pipe without the various holes down the sides or even a perforated mesh or screen full length down the sides. I want the water placed at least one meter deep into the soil. This in my opinion would be better for the vineyards if you have trained the root systems to grow straight downwards with a advanced technological device like the Groasis Waterboxx which has already proven to accomplish this many times over. I would drill a hole into the soil a little bigger diameter than the pipe and perhaps four feet down. Then place crushed gravel at the bottom of the hole to help water settle and percolate. The illustration below from the well known company Rainbird shows almost similar design as Hunter Industries, but the fittings and other small companents could be purchased separately and incorporated into your purchase PVC Pipe. Their scheme is to have hydration throughout the soil profile. Mine would be a simple straight solid (no holes] meter long pipe where water only percolates at the bottom into the crushed rock at about a meter down with the top end of the pipe at the surface with an end cap which allows air flow as in the illustration. I would further put a fine screen or mesh on the underside of the cap to prevent further fine debris from entering the pipe.

Courtesy of Rain Bird

Image - Mine 2012

In 2012 I had this so-called bright idea of creating a far different growing container system for desert plants in the pea family like Cat'sclaw Acacia, Mesquite, Palo Verde, Desert Ironwood, etc. I had strips of burlap that I would sew together using the white PCV pipe above as a guiding mould of sorts for creating a burlap planting tube. These burlap tubes are a meter in length and in remote planting sites you would have needed  to drill holes about a meter to accomodate the seedling burlap tube. The idea was that such a design would better facilitate the very long tap root which is the main rooting structure of such desert plants. I've experimented in the past with Mesquite, Palo Verde & Cat'sclaw Acacia seeds and in a mere 2 or 3 weeks the taproot would grow between two to three foot long. The taproot is a major component of desert plant survival success. But since the seed develops so quickly, I realized it would have been a waste of time and material to use the burlap containers. Also, with the new introduction of the Groasis-Waterboxx , this incredible device and technology renders the burlap tube sock idea worthless. The point with the deep pipe irrigation system on a mostly dryland farmed vineyard is to be as a backup to an undependable climate change scenario around the globe.

Image - Penn State University - Wine & Grapes

The image above from Penn State is not an example of installation of deep pipe irrigation, but rather the taking of soil cores to measure nutrient concentrations down to one meter deep. However it does beautifully illustrate just how you could use an auger to create the deep pipe irrigation holes to install the meter pipe sleeves. Preferably this should be done beetween the grapevines and prior to actual planting if possible. One wouldn't necessarily have to water in summer, but simply water to supplement less than adequate rainfall season totals, if that makes sense. (especially since such events are gone to be more and more common in the future) But also if necessary, deep water for adequate moisture levels if vines are stressed. The other advantage is less moisture on the soil surface means no weeds and no herbicides. The future is unpredictable with these coming uncertain changes. And even if a vineyard does want to irrigate  anyway, they would not have to waste as much water and painstakingly maintain a tedious drip system which easily clogs and subject to wildlife damage. These were just a few of my thoughts and ideas regarding irrigation and also research which has helped me about the science of what plants in the wild prefer as far as hydration and practicing biomimetics as a way to replicate nature in the designing process. Farmers, landscapers and home gardeners need major deprogramming on conventional industrial science-based techniques and re-educate themselves on how nature truly operates. Once people learn it's all about feeding and watering the soils properly, the underground ecosystem will take care of the plants above the ground.

Update August 2nd 2016

An analysis of 74,000 blind taste-tests by professional wine reviewers shows that Eco-Certified Wines get higher ratings than regular wines. 

Inage - Neville Nel/Flickr

UCLA Newsroo: "Do eco-friendly wines taste better?"

=========================================

Some Serious references on Deeproots and subterranean Irrigation Technologies

http://www.deeprootscoalition.org

http://modernfarmer.com/2015/12/dry-farming-wine

http://www.caff.org/programs/sustainability/vineyards

Organic Wines Uncorked: Just Gimme Some of That Old Time Dry Farming: Napa-ites Say It Produces Better Wines

Roles of Epigenetic Switches in Rooting Infrastructure & Architecture

Plant Signaling & Behvior - Efflux of hydraulically lifted water from mycorrhizal fungal hyphae during imposed drought

 Epigenetic Mechanisms Defined & Illustrated

Image Animation - BrayBrookGroup

Deep Subterranean Irrigation Resources

http://www.hunterindustries.com/irrigation-product/micro-irrigation/root-zone-watering-system

http://en.swanwatersolutions.com/rd

http://middleeast.polypipe.com

BREAKING NEWS: Apparently Trees don't really Gulp, Guzzle & Water Hog, only Humans do that

Somewhere Roger C. Bales & Michael Goulden just fell off  the proverbial chair

Artist John Cox, Terre Haute, Indiana.
 (White Cloud 1942 - published in Life 1948)

Those large wildland Mega-Fires are actually Ecologically Beneficial - Seriously ???

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The wildfire that scorched nearly 600 square miles of land in Oklahoma and Kansas in March cleared out more eastern red cedars in a week than local efforts to eradicate the invasive species could have accomplished in decades, conservation experts say.

"This was an ecological cleansing for the environment," said Ken Brunson, wildlife diversity coordinator with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. "That's mixed-grass prairie down there. Prairie survives with fire."

(Source - St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

(Aron Flanders/US Fish & Wildlife Service photo via AP)

May 2014 photo provided by Aron Flanders of the US Fish and Wildlife Service shows eastern red cedar infeastation in Southern Barber County in Kansas before the Anderson Creek wildfire. 

The article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was entitled, "Wildfire in Kansas, Oklahoma called 'ecological cleansing'" and the same theme was carried by other News outlets. But doesn't that new label or terminology, 'ecological cleansing', have an eerily familiar ring to it ? 

"Ethnic Cleansing" - is the systematic forced removal of ethnic or religious groups from a given territory by a more powerful ethnic group, with the intent of making it ethnically homogeneous. (Wikipedia)

Keep watching out there for this latest derogatory term to make the rounds and become a regular part of the scientific community's more enlightened vocabulary. Especially where industrial business interests are concerned. One of the biggest mistakes human beings make when attempting to describe something in the natural world is they tend to judge and view things about Nature only in human terms and you cannot do that with the natural world around us. The common flaw in human viewpoint on things in nature are generally based on things they like or dislike, things they view as beautiful or things that are ugly, things that annoy or please them, etc, etc, etc. Things that are inconvenient, bad, creepy, spooky, evil, good, are motivated by loads of emotional bias. In the case of the Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana), there are economic considerations. Take a further look at what US Fish and Wildlife Service, Aron Flanders says regarding Eastern Red Cedar:

"Yes, we killed the trees with the wildfire, but we didn't remove the problem," said Aron Flanders, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "The trees still standing will act as a shelter for the next generation of trees."

(Aron Flanders/US Fish & Wildlife Service photo via AP)

The May 2016 photo provided by Aron Flanders, of the US Fish and Wildlife Service shows reduced eastern red cedar infestation in Southern Barber County in Kansas after the Anderson Creek wildfire.  The wildfire that scortched nearly 600 square miles of land in Oklahoma and Kansas in March 2016 destroyed homes, killed livestock and damaged thousands of miles of fence. But conservation experts say it also cleared out more eastern red cedar trees in less than a week than local efforts to eradicate the invasive species could have accomplished in decades.

Apparently to some experts like Aron Flanders, if these dead trees are not removed by allowing logging companies to come in and harvest them, then this disastrous scenario will happen:

Red cedars, also known as junipers, are fast-growing, drought-resistant trees that are useful for erosion control along canyon edges in the region's Red Hills. But they're a nuisance on prairie land because they crowd out native grasses, suck up moisture from the soil and reduce the amount of forage area for wildlife and livestock.

(Credit: US Forest Service)

Does some of the terminology sound familiar ? These trees are known to 'suck water', 'guzzle water', or 'gulp down water' ??? This was the same stunt pulled in California where certain hydrological experts made the same accusation against all the trees in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The claim was that the lack of water in streams, rivers and reservoirs were drying up not because of the four (going on five) year drought (climate change induced), but rather because the native vegetation was at fault for gulping down all the available water which prevent big industrial agricultural interests from getting their big share. After all, they only want to feed mankind. Their theory suggested that if logging companies were allowed to harvest and thin throughout the Sierra Nevadas, that water would return to the streams, rivers and lakes of California. But oddly enough we don't have to wait that long to see if their theorized massive logging projects would bring improved stream flows, because the media has been posting this news headline everywhere:

A record 66 million trees have died in Calif., increasing fire risk

=========================================

The Water Guzzling Alert: Roger C. Bales is still on the Tree Logging warpath for Industrial Agriculture again

New York Times: Sierra Nevada Snow Won’t End California’s Thirst - by Henry Fountain, April 11, 2016 

=========================================

The big question though to those hydrological experts is, did they do any studies in regions where millions upon millions of dead trees occurred and did shy mystic water magically increase in the streams, rivers and lakes ? No and the reason is you need water from normal rainy seasons to make that happen in the first place. Despite the less than as advertise El Nino saviour coming to the rescue, it didn't even make a dent in the drought. But back to the controversy of the Eastern Red Cedar, the ranchers and others with vested agricultural interests who have greatly exaggerated the Eastern Red Cedar as greedy user of water and those imaginary detrimental side effects these trees have on grasslands. Rumor has been spread around that the Eastern Red Cedar consumes 50-60 gallons of water daily, stealing it from precious grazing lands. However that appears to be a gross exaggeration. Oklahoma State Division of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources said this:

"With funding from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, Giulia Caterina, graduate student, Will and Chris Zou, ecohydrology assistant professor, found that, on average, redcedar trees used six gallons of water per day."

The Eastern Red Cedar's biggest drawbacks are mainly a lousy public relations, because for the most part humans judge this native tree as having no value either economically or aesthetically in the opinion of the person who hates it. People have a flawed tendency to judge most things in the natural world the same failed way they misjudge other human beings who are from different cultures, races, ethnicities, etc. Hence we have a ruined planet as a result both physically and socially. I've stumbled upon this stupid reasoning with native plants in the chaparral plant community of Southern California where humans place value on certain specific plants because they have good ornamental value, can make money off them or generally have that eye candy curb appeal. So what exactly did Ralph Waldo Emerson mean by looking for "virtues" in a weed ? We should first define weed. A weed should not necessarily be considered one of those usual pesky annual ruderals which invade and carpet your yard for which Roundup is employed. Truthfully a weed is any plant that interferes with a human being's opinion of what they consider to be useful, pretty, good, of economic value, etc. The term "virtues"  equates 'good qualities'. Emerson is just saying that plants classed as weeds may turn out to have uses we may not as yet know about. For example many chaparral plants in Mediterranean climates act as an important erosion control component mechanism for a time after disasters. Thereafter other more desirable plants can grab a foot hold and are helped to survive early life and eventually replace the chaparral nurse plants. Certain Chaparral nurse plants [many of them disliked as dull or mundane] have this same quality of mothering or nursing many valuable tree saplings until the trees are large enough to succeed them as an old growth forest. But there is no getting away from the repetitive ignorance for which most ignorant people accel. Much of the ignorance and arrogance comes from the very people who should know better for know other reasons than their credentials. Take note of one Professor's biased opinion of the Eastern Red Cedar.

If these were California Redwoods, beautiful and pristine, or some useful tree species to man or animals, I might feel differently.  But even when they're allowed to grow with plenty of space around them, Red Cedars often aren't very pretty or useful.

Professor James Roush, Kansas State University

Photo Devan McGranahan & M.C. Christy

Interestingly, the Eatern Red Cedar does have excelling value even if the elites among us refuse to recognize and acknowledge this value. For example aside from being an actual native to Oklahoma and eastern Kansas/Missouri, the areas further east are Virginia, North Carolina etc. In the eastern USA they mainly invade reclaim the old abandon farm fields. Much like the unused farmland in the photograph above somewhere in the midwest. In the wild the Red Cedar is a pioneer tree. Where they form woodlands. Eventually the more desirable hardwood trees develop and emerge from the Red Cedar's nurse plant services and replace them in about 100+ years. Therein lies the main problem for humans. It's called  impatience. No one wants to wait 100 long years before they can harvest. That's the same thing out west where chaparral is demonized as a competitor plant [often claimed to be an invasive in it's own native habitat] instead of a facilitator of Timber tree species. Industrial Corporate Science [SweTree] here in Sweden has also developed GMO Trees which can be harvested in 20 years instead of 100 years. This process is also helped along by helicopters dumping loads of synthetic pellet fertilizers to bypass what they view as slow inferior natural systems. The Red Cedar Trees also aid wildlife with both shelter and food. Interestingly, contrary to what humans think, the Red Cedar is incapable of planning, scheming and invading on it's own. It simply responds to environmental cues and opportunities provided by wildlife. Take a look at the recent research below of how birds create newer ecosystems.

Migratory birds can disperse seeds long distances & create new ecosystems ???

Image - Francesco Veronesi 2010
Common Redstart male (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)

Some species of plants are capable of colonising new habitats thanks to birds that transport their seeds in their plumage or digestive tract. Until recently it was known that birds could do this over short distances, but a new study shows that they are also capable of dispersing them over more than 300 kilometres. For researchers, this function could be key in the face of climate change, allowing the survival of many species.

(Source: American Journal of Botany)

Image: Sherri Patrick Brandt

Hmmm, I think there is a reason this bird on the right is called a Cedar Waxwing. They have a love and passion for all kinds of berries. But there are actually 20+ other birds which will dine on the Eastern Red Cedar berries as well and yes, they slowly extend ecosystems or create newer ones. Apparently they too should be considered the new evil villans behind invasiveness. Anyone who has ever tried to germinate Juniper berries [which is what Eastern Red Cedar actually is], know the difficulty in making that happen. Artificially they need to use something like sulfuric acid to soak seeds in order to break the hard protective shell coating to allow water to penetrate. Any bird's or animal's digestive tract is the perfect environment for that task. In many of the negative commentary I've read about Eastern Red Cedar and especially by the so-called Experts on the subject, they warn about allowing the trees to remain because they produce 1000s upon 1000s of seeds that fall off the tree and produce more trees. Some of this stuff is the most ignorant propaganda I've ever read by any experts in official positions of authority. Maybe they should kill off all the birds and that will seal the deal. Read up on how China did that with Sparrows and how well that worked out for them.

The real Water problem is not Nature, but rather a Human created Climate Disruption

Let's take a few examples. Another demonized Juniper in this region of the central plains is the Ashe Juniper which has been on the receiving end of other derogatory labeling to excuse and smokescreen human stupidity and ignorance. The Ashe Juniper as well as the Red Cedar in Texas has been labeled as "Water Thief", "Sunction Pump", and "Water Hog". Oddly enough, most of the negative articles demonizing these plants are produced by local industry leaders in commercial agriculture and Media sources whose own economy is based on those in the Ranching biz. Another demonized tree, Western Juniper, in eastern Oregon is also being accused of being invasive in it's own native range. Oregon State University who provided the research for the study was funded by the Oregon Beef Counsel. See my link below under references called "Pretzel Logic." Now below is another link which shows how important Junipers are to wildlife. So important that the Golden Cheeked Warbler of Texas is extremely endangered because of the Cattle Industry destroying habitat for raising beef.

"Golden-cheeked warblers are endangered because many tall juniper and oak woodlands have been cleared to build houses, roads, and stores. Some habitat was cleared to grow crops or grass for livestock. Other habitat areas were flooded when large lakes were built."

Golden-cheeked Warbler (Dendroica chrysoparia) 

Below here is yet another report on the lying assertions made against the Ashe Juniper of Texas which often is found with Eastern Red Cedar. The Ashe Cedar like the Red Cedar also has been given the reputation of being a water guzzler, but responsible scientific research has proved otherwise. These researchers had no vested financial interest in the outcome of the study because of who funded them.

Plateau Land & Wildlife: New Research Shows Ashe Juniper not the Water Hog It Was Thought To Be

Historically the Edwards Plateau was a dynamic mosaic of grasslands and woodlands and much more savannah like. Cedars were found mainly in canyons where they were protected from wildfires. When settlers arrived, the introduction of cattle led to overgrazing, and, combined with the lack of fire, gave cedar the opportunity to expand its range and take over.

Now let's look at the real problem behind native prairie grass loss. Take into consideration what was reference above about agriculture. Human greed from it's earliest start on the North American continent where people from Europe fantasized about making fortunes in cattle ranching brought in more cattle than the land could support. The problem is, bobody ever considers the plant world's ecosystems as a cooperating biologically fine tuned run machine, but that's exactly what it is. Or rather was. Take a close look below at what overgrazing actually does to root infrastructure of prairie grasses.

University of Florida

Photo - Mark Mauldin

Both photos above and to the right show grass experiments where the blades were deliberately clipped and kept clipped at varying length levels from the ground surface. They basically replicated wild prairie lightly grazed to heavy overgrazing. The photo at right is from a Canadian research station showing the root growth of bunchgrass plants that were kept clipped at certain levels. In each case the above ground foliage dictated how well the root system developed and maintained health and vigor. Now look at this photograph below of a bahiagrass pasture in Washington County, Florida, that has experienced significant stand loss. Before any efforts to salvage or replant this pasture can be successful, the factors leading to the decline must be identified and addressed. In many cases the shorter roots and struggling grasses succumb to a pest called 'Ground Pearls.' But in the photograph below, does anyone see any invasive Red Cedar or Ashe Junipers out there causing the prairie grasses to descend into a major decline ???

Photo by Mark Mauldin

People clearly are going to have to do their own homework on this. Mankind has set a climate change process in motion which is having a major ecosystem disrupting domino effects all over the Earth. Chaparral plants systems are replacing dead and dying trees throughout California. Experts want to blame chaparral which are incapable of evil thought, scheming and planning to ruin things for human business ventures. Had people actually paid close attention to much of the available good science out there instead of shortcut industrial science, then maybe the planet wouldn't be in the toilet right now. Frankly I don't know what else there is to say. Each one is going to have to decide which authority they are going to believe and follow. In the mean time, considering there are no real viable materialist solutions, why not enjoy reading up on some history on what Nature use to be like from an early explorer's writings who first discovered these natural wonders. Pay close attention to what things use to look like before intellectuals 150+ years ago told us nature was flawed and badly designed and only Man's enlightenment could fix the copying errors and make a profit on the deal all in one shot.

Juan Bautista de Anza & Pedro Font Diaries archive

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Further Reading References

Pretzel Logic & the "Denial of the science is malpractice" Mandate Define science ?, What science ?, Who's science ?

New Research Shows Ashe Juniper Not the Water Hog It Was Thought To Be

http://www.landsteward.net

Our Love-Hate Relationship With The Red Cedar Tree