At the GiESCO (Group of International Experts for Cooperation on Vitivinicultural Systems) Conference, held July 17-22 in Ithaca, NY, Cornell University\u2019s Terry Bates gave a thorough and thoughtful tribute to legendary Cornell viticulture professor Nelson Shaulis. Dr. Shaulis\u2019 legacy, Terry said, includes teachings and techniques for vine size management (he invented the Geneva Double Curtain trellis system in the 1960s), crop load management and mechanization (he helped to develop the first mechanical grape harvester in 1970). But perhaps one of his greatest contributions to grape research was his unique philosophy around science\u2026and life. “We are mostly concerned about unanswered questions,\u201d Dr. Shaulis famously said, \u201cwhen we should also be concerned with unquestioned answers.\u201d<\/p>\n
I started seeing examples everywhere!<\/p>\n
Three weeks earlier, at the NGRA Midyear Board meeting on June 26, another Cornellian, virologist Marc Fuchs reviewed his lab\u2019s recent field-based confirmation that the three-cornered alfalfa hopper is, in fact, a vector of Grapevine Red Blotch Virus.<\/a><\/strong> Peculiarities of the pest\u2019s digestive system\u2014namely the related discovery that the virus must be present in TCAH\u2019s salivary glands to transmit it to a grapevine, a trip through the bug\u2019s guts that takes at least 10 days\u2014had confounded prior studies. Thus, because much of the previously published research hadn\u2019t given sufficient time for virus acquisition, it had sown confusion about the hopper\u2019s role in spreading GRBV. Unquestioned answers for sure.<\/p>\n More examples abound. When I first got into the industry, I remember asking grape growers why they planted the varieties they did, why their rows and vines were spaced and oriented how they were, why they leaf-pulled (or not), why they sprayed (or not), when and why they pruned, hedged and more. Often, the answers were some variation of \u201cwhen we established the vineyard, that\u2019s how my neighbors did it.\u201d More answers unquestioned\u2014though to be fair, that was nearly two decades ago and a lot of those answers have been robustly questioned since then.<\/p>\n