Wine Grape Growing
Glossary
S
SCION. A cutting (or bud wood) taken from a vine (usually Vitis vinifera) and grafted onto a root system from another vine (usually native American or a American hybrid).
SHATTER. The physiological stage following bloom when impotent flowers and small green berries begin to fall from the cluster.
SHOOT. The green, leafy growth developing from a bud on a cane, spur, cordon, or trunk. The developing growth of the shoot is the source of all of the vine's leaves, stems, tendrils, flowers & fruit.
SHOT BERRY. A very small berry that fails to develop to normal size, usually seedless.
SMUDGE POT. Oil-burning heaters used to prevent or reduce frost damage in orchards and vineyards. Typically consisting of a wide base topped by a chimney, smudge pots may be lit when frost threatens. They offer some protection by creating air currents that can disrupt settled colder air at ground level. Due to their consumption of oil and smoke production, as well as labor requirements, use of smudge pots is in decline in favor of other frost-protection methods such as wind machines and aspersion.
SODICITY. Sodic soils are those where the amount of sodium held onto the clay particles is 5 percent or more of the total cation exchange capacity (this is called the Exchangeable Sodium Percentage or ESP and represents the proportion of sodium ions held by clay particles compared to other positive ions).
SODIUM ADSORPTION RATIO (SAR). The relationship between sodium, calcium and magnesium in soil. The SAR has an effect on the water infiltration rate into the soil.
SOIL STRUCTURE. The arrangement of aggregates of sand, silt and clay and the arrangement of spaces (pores) between these aggregates within the soil.
SOIL TEXTURE. The relative proportion (percent) of sand, silt, and clay in a soil.
SPUR. A cane pruned to 3 or fewer nodes, generally on a cordon.
STAMEN. The pollen-producing organ of a flower, consisting of an anther and a filament.
STEM PITTING. A graft-transmittable virus disease, symptoms include pitting and grooving of the wood underneath the bark, weak growth and graft incompatibilities.
STICKER. An adjuvant that increases the adhesiveness of finely divided solids to solid surfaces.
SUCKERS. Suckers are shoots that grow from the crown area of the trunk.
SURFACTANT. A chemical that modifies surface tension. Surfactants can influence the wetting and spreading of liquids, and can modify the dispersion, suspension, or precipitation of a pesticide in water. There are nonionic surfactants (no electrical charge), anionic surfactants (negative charge), and cationic surfactants (positive charge).
