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College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

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Research

The Inter-disciplinary Winegrape Team formed of OSU researchers work together to solve the most pressing issues facing the thriving grape and wine industry in Ohio.  Our mission is to bring knowledge to your door so you can use the research-based information to better your business, organization, and community.  To learn more about our research projects, please contact OSU specialists listed under the "About Us" tab.  Also, for specifics about projects funded by Ohio Grape Industries Program, please visit the OGIC website.  The following are examples of the different research projects conducted by OSU experts.

The Viticulture Program in a Nutshell - 2023 The mission of the Viticulture Program is to serve the grape and wine industry and more broadly the citizen of Ohio and beyond
New Winegrape Varieties in Ohio and GIS Technology This multi-state project is funded by USDA, Speciality Crop Research Initiative Program (SCRI), and aims to address major production issues relevant to our industry in the vineyard, winery, and consumers. OSU involvement consists of evaluating varietes new to Ohio as well as using GIS technologies to help determine vineyard sites and potential new AVAs.
Optimum Crop Load Improves Wine Quality in Chambourcin

This collaborative study between viticulture and enology groups demonstrated that cluster thinning Chambourcin is a good thing, not only to wine quality and its health benefits, but also to vine health and winter survival.

Pruning after Winter Damage The 2009 winter freeze provided the viticulture group at OSU an opportunity to assess the damage and conduct pruning trials to evaluate and identify the best pruning method when primary bud damage is more than 75%. Cane hedging by leaving all spurs with 5 buds each, was the best pruning strategy in this case and produced balanced vines the same year of injury and vines recovered better and were easy to prune the following year.  Read more in this Wines and Vines article.
ABA - Another Tool to Improve Cold Hardiness of Grapes Abscisic acid or ABA, is a plant hormone, produced by plants for several reasons, primarily to protect plants from environmental (abiotic) stresses including cold. The viticulture group at OSU attempted foliar application of ABA to investigate whether it would affect cold hardiness of important grape varieties in Ohio. ABA was effective in increasing cold hardiness of Chambourcin, Cabernet franc, and Chardonnay by 1 to 8 oF. As an added bonus and “icing on the cake”, ABA also increased red pigments (color) in red varieties.
Top 10 Weeds in Ohio Vineyards Important weeds and herbicides used in commercial vineyards in Ohio were determined in this survey conducted by OSU weed specialists.