Bud cold hardiness refers to the ability of buds to survive cold temperatures during the dormant season. When temperatures drop below the critical value that buds can tolerate, injury happens. This critical value is not constant throughout the dormant season but rather changes partly in response to the daily temperatures that buds experience. To monitor these changes, we routinely sample buds from our experimental vineyards at the West Madison Agricultural Research Station and measure their cold hardiness using a method called differential thermal analysis (DTA). Data provided in the table and graph below correspond to the lethal temperature in which 50% of buds would experience injury (LT50).

This article was posted in Grapes and tagged bud cold damage, cold hardiness.