Shropshire vineyard pioneers UV light technology to ‘boost’ vines

A Shropshire vineyard is the first in the UK to use artificial ultraviolet light on the vines.

While the use of UV light is common in greenhouses, and even where football turf is stored, the technology has never really been robust enough for outdoor use on a farm.

But on a blisteringly hot day I visited to watch what I can only describe as smallish tanning beds being driven up and down rows of vines at the Veenow Vineyard near Telford.

The UV light is so strong I had to stay at least 25m (82ft) away for safety’s sake but the impact on the plants is, at least according to the growers, already noticeable.

“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.

The vineyards agronomist, Rob Fletcher thinks this approach could be used for other crops too.

“Definitely it’s going to be something that becomes much more widely spread,” he said.

That said the tech is still quite delicate, and you can’t use it in rain for example.

The French company behind the system is helping to track all the data from this year’s plants and harvest to get a sense of how useful the system will be for English growers.

Rob has already had a lot of interest from other vineyards locally.

“We’re confident we’ll see the benefit when it’s in the bottle,” he said.

One day the slightly strange sight of crops enjoying a brush with a tractor and a tanning bed may become much more common.