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Precision irrigation at Ohau Gravels Vineyard

Irrigating Ohau Gravels Vineyard near Levin has been a remarkable experience for us. Particularly as now its wine has won a multitude of honours at the prestigious Romeo Bragato awards with its first vintage – no small feat for such a new vineyard to the market. Our contribution, other than tasting this delectable product, was designing the irrigation system and providing the materials for the job. Find out what irrigation system keeps Ohau Gravels Vineyard’s award winning grapes in tip-top condition - read on.

The vineyard development (formerly known as Bishop’s Vineyard) was originally slated to be a rural subdivision. However, after it was determined that the land had a soil type equivalent to the best viticulture land in New Zealand and the Horowhenua region had an idyllic climate for wine growing, Ohau Gravels Vineyard was born and the design for the ideal irrigation system commenced.

In terms of irrigation design for the vineyard it was all relatively straight forward:

The planting plan was used to select the right drip tubing for the application, in order to provide the necessary water to the vines in a uniform manner.
With consistent soil type and lack of elevation changes across the site, irrigation zones were grouped by plant type, to allow the vineyard manager the flexibility to tailor the watering regime to the different varieties of grape.
The pipe network and pumps were sized in order to provide the most efficient delivery of water to the vineyard.
A Motorola IRRInet control system was specified, to provide the necessary monitoring and control capabilities that allow the manager to precisely control the amount of water delivered to the plants. The Motorola IRRInet system provides:
- Monitoring and reporting of actual water used during irrigation through automatic water meter reading. If an unusual flow condition is encountered during irrigation, the system will automatically shut-down (if necessary) and send out alerts.
- The most flexible option available – the system can use a combination of multi-wire, two-wire decoder and radio topologies to control the system in the field.
- The ability to monitor and control any number of ancillary items, such as pumps; soil moisture or rainfall sensors; tank levels; fertigation – in fact, it could even work the security system if they wanted it to!
The perfect system for when the grower wants to grow; Ohau Gravels Vineyard has the ability to expand to new sites (and it is) and still be centrally controlled.
The major materials supplied for the job were Toro Drip-In PC drip tubing, Toro AG Gulf cast-iron valves, Toro AG Clear-Flo screen filter; Motorola ICC/IRRInet control system.

The design was a great fit with Ohau Gravels Vineyard’s objective of minimising impact to the existing ecology and environment.

About the irrigation system

The control centre
The irrigation is centrally controlled by Motorola ICC software that was installed on a PC in the manager’s office. Password-protected remote access to the PC allows the system to be monitored, or changes made from remote locations if necessary. The computer interfaces with the field hardware via the IRRInet-XL controller. The most sophisticated and intelligent system of its type available on the New Zealand market, the IRRInet-XL communicates with the IRRInet Control Centre effortlessly and accurately. It also benefits from its large capacity, and wide range of communications supported. The precision control on irrigation usage and wastage that IRRInet-XL affords is phenomenal. The implementation of this system for a Vineyard is such an important step towards ensuring the best grape possible is produced. Grape growth and consistent quality results are best achieved through tight monitoring and control; something that the IRRInet-XL enables.

Out on the vineyard
A two-wire Piccolo RTU system is used out in the vineyard. Piccolo units are installed at each valve location, and operate the irrigation valves when commanded to by the IRRInet-XL controller. The Piccolo RTU units are connected to the IRRInet-XL controller via a single two-core cable, reducing cabling costs compared to multi-wire systems, and allowing for simple system expansion.

(IRRInet-XL pictured)

Next stage: crossing State Highway 1
The next stage of development for Ohau Gravels Vineyard will be the implementation of irrigation in its new Strathcarron Vineyard which is located just on the other side of State Highway 1. Instead of boring under the road with cabling to link back to the ICC central controller, Motorola Radio Piccolo XR (image below) will be used for communications. This pint sized radio controller, communicates via a two-way low-power radio with the Piccolo Interface Unit which is attached to the IRRInet XL on the other side of the road. The units have the ability to communicate up to a distance of approximately 3kms.

No doubt you will hear a lot more from this award winning vineyard. And by all means, we highly recommend you try their Ohau Gravels Pinot Gris 2009, and Woven Stone 2009 Sauvignon Blanc. For more information on Ohau Gravels Vineyard visit www.ohaugravels.co.nz.