Theses and Dissertations Collection

Weather dictates farm operations including irrigation scheduling, harvesting, and protection from crop damaging events such as frost, heat waves or disease outbreaks. In a changing climate, it is imperative that farmers are equipped with tools to efficiently and sustainably produce crops with limited resources. Farmers need real-time and site-specific weather data in order to better inform planning and resource allocation. Currently, regional weather networks provide near real-time data in most locations throughout the continental US, but these data may not represent local conditions for most locations. This thesis will focus on the development of low-cost weather stations using the Arduino-platform and describe their application to enhance management decisions in an Idaho vineyard. The low-cost weather stations showed robust results in calibration and were capable of testing rigorous hypotheses about site-specific weather phenomena. As a result, we show how site-specific weather data can answer questions that are directly relevant to disease management. Vineyard canopies are also surveyed using a field spectroradiometer and infrared thermometer to show spatial and temporal patterns of plant physiological response to their environment. A synthesis of socio-economic concerns that may impede the use of weather-based decision support tools is provided, and challenges associated with integrating weather into farm operations are discussed.