Red San Pedro is the Vineyard Manager/owner of Fil Rouge Vineyard on Mt. Veeder in Napa Valley. In 2019, Red signed up for Napa RCD’s Irrigation Toolkit program to learn how to use monitoring data to make better decisions about when and how much to irrigate. As part of the program, Miguel Garcia, Napa RCD’s Sustainable Ag Program Manager, performed a distribution uniformity in the vineyard and installed 6 soil moisture probes to help Red track water usage. Since then, Red has also been working with Miguel to incorporate the soil moisture probe data into an irrigation management plan. According to Red, joining the program “was a big deal” for him and since joining he has been able to “cut irrigation by half.” Since Miguel is a soil fanatic, Red couldn’t help but learn about Napa RCD’s soil health services. Red requested a soil health assessment in the vineyard from Miguel to help Red determine potential areas for improvement.
 
Miguel and Red have observed that Red’s soil is currently very healthy. Red’s soil organic matter is 4.7%, which is some of the highest soil organic matter that Miguel has ever seen in a vineyard! Moving forward Miguel will advise Red as to how to maintain that soil health. Miguel is recommending compost applications every three years or so, a no till regime, establishment of a permanent cover crop, and establishment of native, pollinator-friendly hedgerows as key practices to maintain Red’s soil health.