Long Island’s 3,000 acres of vineyards are on the front lines of climate change, and growers are planning to use new tools, grape varieties and skills to face the challenge. But the news isn’t all bad, experts said at an East End forum Tuesday.
The changing climate already has ushered in subtle changes, such as an earlier period of bud break that starts a vine’s spring growth, and harvest periods that are in some cases weeks earlier than in the past, helping to reduce the time the grapes are exposed to disease and pests, they said.
But climate change is also bringing new challenges to the vineyards as weather grows more mercurial and increases the need for maintenance of vines that are already relatively high maintenance and susceptible to disease, the experts told a Long Island Association East End committee forum at Claudio’s in Greenport.
“For sure, no question, the number-one concern and issue is climate change going forward,” said Kareem Massoud, winemaker for Paumanok Vineyards in Aquebogue. “There is no margin of error. We have a constant infection period for things like powdery mildew at a time like right now when we have this constant humidity. With climate change there’s more pressure.”
Nighttime low temperatures are higher than they’ve ever been, he said, increasing the incubation period for disease. But help may be on the way.
“There is some technology we hope can come to the rescue soon,” said Massoud, who is also president of Long Island Wine Country, an industry group. Paumanok has ordered three self-driving electric tractors that could be equipped with a solution better than spraying chemicals.
“An electric tractor driving itself at night in the middle of our vineyard, towing behind it, instead of sprayers spraying fungicide, it will be emitting ultraviolet light,” he said. “And UV light is going to knock out the powdery mildew spores which are most sensitive at night.”
Alice Wise, viticulturalist at…
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