Chrysalis Vineyards is located in the beautiful Virginia Piedmont. They make wonderful wines but they also do something most vineyards don’t. They have made a commitment to propagate a grape named Norton. The Norton grape is native to America and was once considered to be the best wine grape in the world. Chrysalis has filled their 50 plus acres with what may now be the largest production of Norton vines in the country.


As Thomas Jefferson also found out, this vine is a very tricky one to propagate. Chrysalis Vineyards Estate Manager, Drew Barna, contacted TrueLeaf after scouring through what little research there is on the subject. He let TrueLeaf know that he needed to be able to provide 80°F root temperatures consistently to his cuttings for the vine to be propagated with any success at all.

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After several conversations with the TrueLeaf engineers, they decided to go with a traditional BioTherm® MicroClimate benchtop soil heating system. This system, however, would not be the typical one with the MicroClimate tubing at 2 inches on center required for most 70°F propagation applications.

Manifolds and Tubing

This one was designed by TrueLeaf to have the tubing at 1 inch on center. After sizing the pumping and a heat exchanger to maximize the efficiency of a wood burning boiler that was already on site, Drew claims that he can easily maintain the desired
80°F soil temperatures.