Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
Proposal abstract:
The GROWER Initiative is a farmer-led participatory action research project that expands a northern Michigan pilot by bringing two additional farms from neighboring American Viticulture Areas (AVAs) into a collaborative learning network. The initiative stems from the foresight and passion of Kasey Wzierba, executive winemaker and general manager of Shady Lane Cellars, whose early recognition of Michigan's vine-health challenges helped catalyze this work.
Michigan's cool climate presents growers with stressors that limit productivity and shorten vine lifespan. Many rely on an outdated "spare parts" approach, leaving extra canes at the vine base to overwinter under snow. While providing short-term protection, this method causes long-term structural imbalance, inconsistent crop loads, reduced fruit quality, and shortened vine longevity.
To address these issues, growers will collaborate with industry specialists to test pruning and vine-training systems used internationally but not yet evaluated across Michigan. Field trials will run from August 2026 to November 2027 at three sites across three AVAs, with statewide outreach delivered through workshops, conference presentations, bilingual field days, and cultivar-specific SOPs published online.
Collectively, this research and knowledge-sharing effort will reduce grower risk, improve crop yields and farm sustainability, and strengthen the economic, environmental, and social resilience of Michigan's winegrape industry.
Project objectives from proposal:
Research
- Collaborative design trials, data collection, and result interpretation
- Assessment of new pruning and vine-training techniques across three AVAs including the effects of pruning architecture on vine survival, carbon reserve dynamics, yield recovery, and disease incidence following stress events.
Demonstration
- Demonstration vineyards will translate research findings into field-scale applications
- Vineyard analyses at two new locations by Jacopo Miolo (Simonit & Sirch), based on grower-identified concerns
- 5 field workshops, offered in English and Spanish showcasing pruning and training system
Education
- Findings presented at DTG conferences in 2026 and 2027
- Website hosting of SOPs and educational resources
- Publication of final research findings