How Can Wine Waste Help Blueberry Growers?

Researchers at Oregon State University say they’ve discovered a new use for the waste left behind from the winemaking process.

“After extracting the juice that will go into the fermentation process, the grape skins, the seeds, the pulp, the stems and the leaves are all left behind.”

OSU Associate Professor Scott Lukas said it turns out that grape pomace is a perfectly balanced mulch for growing blueberries east of the Cascades.  He said growers west of the mountains use wood products like sawdust.

"And those are readily available in the valley, where there’s a lot of timber and a lot of that industry. But you go out to the semiarid eastern side of the state, that is just more challenging to come by."

The two-year small-scale study was conducted in Hermiston, where Lukas said they found blueberries grew even more plentiful with the grape pomace compared to sawdust.

You can read the results of that study Here.

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