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Green Climber's use at a prestigious vineyard in Santa Barbra, California
Sea Smoke Vineyards in Santa Barbra, California is one of the unique users of the Green Climber Slope Mowers. They reached out to Green Climber NA, looking for a safe solution. Sea Smoke was having trouble maintaining vegetation on the slopes around their vineyard. They purchased their LV600 back in 2015 and experienced positive effects after its implementation.
When Sea Smoke first purchased the machine they put it to constant use, clearing thick brush around the outskirts of the vineyard, and now have caught up to the overgrowth. We spoke to Julian Malone, Director of Vineyard Operations to understand why they choose Green Climber.
“We needed something that could access steeper than usual terrain where it was uncomfortable putting a tractor driver,” said Malone. “There weren’t many other options out there with the remote control or the larger forestry attachments that I could find.”
After implementing the Green Climber within a year, Malone noticed that the presence of pests around his vines had decreased, causing less stress on the grapes, and resulting in fewer pesticides being sprayed.
As Malone also runs the organic farm at Sea Smoke, the type of pesticides, and the amount being used is greatly restricted. Therefore, any cutting without chemicals positively impacts the farm and is greatly appreciated.
“After using the Green Climber, we cleared more grazing ground for the vineyard goats,” said Malone.
Which was a bonus for their vineyard. This was an unforeseen effect of implementing the Green Climber, as its intended purpose was to clear unwanted vegetation, yet this outcome has been greatly beneficial to the vineyard.
When growing wine grapes all aspects of their environment is crucial to the outcome of the wine. Some of these pests are usual culprits, weeds, fungus, and bugs, sometimes it comes down to wildlife. By clearing land Sea Smoke winery has allowed more pasture and better monitoring of the vineyard.
One of the most expensive and least environmentally hazardous alternatives to spraying pests is leaving a field unplanted for a season to starve out any bugs or critters. For most vineyards, this is a last-ditch effort to solve an infestation and thankfully, we have not heard this approach being taken by Sea Smoke.
We are greatly excited to be part of the Sea Smoke Vineyard’s arsenal of equipment that helps in producing one of Santa Barbra’s most delicious organic wines. We were excited to hear that the Green Climber not only has done its job in maintaining the vegetation but also increased the vineyard's ability to reduce pesticide use and reduce pest impact on their delicious wines.