When we first started building the infrastructure for what has become the Rockbound Cellars Estate vineyard it was a crash course in farming. We started with 35 acres of land that had never really been farmed other than a few acres of pomegranate trees. This meant there was little to no infrastructure in place.
To grow grapes, you essentially need three things: Sunlight, Soil, and of course Water. We are on ground water here in Paso Robles meaning that all of the water we have comes out of two wells that are on the property. Farmers use irrigation pumps and underground networks of pipes that feed risers at each row of vines that connect to an irrigation line that has an emitter for each plant.
Based on our well water supply and pump setup that we installed we can water about 3 acres at a time, but it's also important to water different varietals separately since they have different needs.
Based on this we broke the vineyard into 13 blocks that can be turned off and on independently. I was very interested in watering best practices and how to manage that aspect of the farm, especially how to conserve water. Hmmm, that's really the answer, you pay someone to turn on valves?
No way. Meet Steve! So, we got to talking over a few glasses of Cab and decided it should be possible to build an automated system that would open and close valves on a schedule. I mean sprinklers do that right? Besides the obvious challenges the valves are spread out across the vineyard into 4 valve stations and there is no power.
