Grape growing-winemaking conference coming this month

By TRACY TURNER

OSU Exten­sion 

COLUMBUS – Grape grow­ers, wine pro­duc­ers and any­one inter­ested in learn­ing more about the wine indus­try will have sev­eral oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn from local and national pro­fes­sion­als in the field dur­ing the 2013 Ohio Grape and Wine Conference.

The con­fer­ence, which will be held Feb. 18–19 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Con­fer­ence Cen­ter in Dublin, is antic­i­pated to attract some 250 par­tic­i­pants through­out the region, said Imed Dami, a state viti­cul­ture (grape grow­ing) spe­cial­ist with the Ohio Agri­cul­tural Research and Devel­op­ment Cen­ter (OARDC) and Ohio State Uni­ver­sity Extension.

The con­fer­ence is offered jointly by Ohio State’s Depart­ment of Hor­ti­cul­ture and Crop Sci­ence, OSU Exten­sion, OARDC, the Ohio Grape Indus­tries Com­mit­tee and the Ohio Wine Pro­duc­ers Asso­ci­a­tion. OSU Exten­sion and OARDC are the out­reach and research arms of the Col­lege of Food, Agri­cul­tural, and Envi­ron­men­tal Sciences.

The con­fer­ence will offer ses­sions that focus on viti­cul­ture and enol­ogy with themes focused on vine­yard inno­va­tions, fruit wine and spe­cialty pro­duc­tion among other top­ics, and is designed to help grow­ers and wine­mak­ers, as well as to boost Ohio’s wine indus­try, Dami said.

“Atten­dees will get a regional per­spec­tive on var­i­ous prac­tices, pro­duc­tion tech­niques and insight into the grape and wine indus­try,” he said. “We’ll also pro­vide research updates and edu­ca­tional pro­grams that are ben­e­fi­cial for either new or exist­ing producers.

“The con­fer­ence will also pro­vide an excel­lent oppor­tu­nity for net­work­ing for grape grow­ers and wine pro­duc­ers, as well as fea­ture a trade show.”

The con­fer­ence comes as the Ohio grape and wine pro­duc­tion indus­try con­tin­ues to grow. It now ranks among the top 10 in the U.S. for grape acreage, grape and wine pro­duc­tion, and num­ber of wineries.

The Ohio grape and wine indus­try employs 4,100 peo­ple and attracts 1.7 mil­lion vis­i­tors every year with an esti­mated eco­nomic impact of more than $500 mil­lion annu­ally, Dami said. He notes that grape pro­duc­tion has become the fastest-growing sec­tor in Ohio agri­cul­ture with a cur­rent growth rate of about 10 per­cent per year.

“This grow­ing inter­est is dri­ven by the high value of wine grapes as an alter­na­tive and prof­itable cash crop in Ohio; its adapt­abil­ity to the already exist­ing lands that are oth­er­wise unsuit­able for row crop pro­duc­tion; and grape short­age and upward demand for locally grown grapes,” he said.

Work­shop top­ics will include: Devel­op­ing an Effec­tive Dis­ease Man­age­ment Pro­gram for Grapes; Vine­yard Weed Man­age­ment; Pes­ti­cide Safety; Vine­yard Fer­til­ity Man­age­ment; Grape Dis­ease Con­trol; Grape Root Borer Research Project; and Eval­u­a­tion of Wine Grape Vari­eties New to Ohio, among others.

Reg­is­tra­tion for the full con­fer­ence is $200 if received by Jan. 30 and $225 after that date. For more infor­ma­tion on the con­fer­ence or for reg­is­tra­tion infor­ma­tion, con­tact Christy Eck­stein 614–728-6438 or by email at ceckstein@agri.ohio.gov.

Posted by Tina Murdock on Feb 24 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.