REDUCING YIELD LOSS IN THE GRAPE INDUSTRY WITH PROTECTION FROM ABIOTIC STRESSORS

Wine grapes are the highest-value fruit crop in the US with an annual value exceeding $6 billion. They are foundational to the $275 billion wine industry. Employing over 130,000 individuals across 48 states, grape production is expanding rapidly beyond pacific states, with wineries in New York, Texas and Pennsylvania increasing by 17%, 26%, and 32%, respectively, over the past 4 years. One of growers' primary concerns is freeze damage, with disaster events causing significant crop losses (i.e., over 40%) and becoming more frequent. Most dangerous in late spring when crops are in full-bloom or budding, freeze events typically last 1-3 nights, when temperatures dip below 32ºF for several hours overnight. Freezing temperatures damage buds and flowers, rarely killing the plant, but dramatically reducing yields by up to 95%. Once rare, these events appear to be occurring more often and are becoming more destructive than in the past, presenting a significant risk to the continued growth and success of the wine industry in the United States. While there are products to help protect from frost, they are expensive, operationally challenging and only partially effective. As such, few growers use these existing technologies and there is growing demand for more cost effective and better protection solutions.The goal of this project is to develop an affordable and effective freeze protection system that enables growers to protect their crops from freeze events. The project will focus on, (1) developing a prototype insulating foam formulation and method of application, and (2) demonstrating the safety and the efficacy of the foamed hydrogel across a range of simulated freeze temperature and humidity conditions. Successful completion of this phase i SBIR project will lead to a working and tested prototype. This would lead directly into a phase ii project that would test and validate these results in field trials with growers to identify any remaining technical and operational challenges prior to commercialization. Successful completion of this project will lead to a new, lower cost and more effective method of protecting crops from freeze damage.