“So the French say wait until the harvest comes,” Rob Greenow of Veenow Vineyards told me.
“But I can tell that with the UV vines the chlorophyll is stronger. So that the green area on the leaf is just darker.”
To my, admittedly, untrained eye, the leaves from vines treated with UV light are larger and much darker green than those without.
In theory those healthier leaves and plants mean a better harvest, better grapes and better wine.
In fact Rob has already reduced the amount of fungicide on the vines being treated with light.
The team has also used the lights to give plants a boost when frost is forecast and help them fight off cold weather.
At £60,000 the system isn’t cheap (it costs more than the tractor it’s being towed by) but if the savings pan out it could well pay for itself in three years.
