New Zealand winegrowers continue to benefit from her viticultural research, which was formerly published as the work of Dr Doug King. Publicly transitioning seven years ago, King had presented as a male for the previous 65 years while struggling to locate what she had long felt was her true identity. Transgendering with dignity, the EIT staffer has retained her credibility as a researcher, teacher and scientist. The accepting attitude of colleagues in academia and in the winegrowing industry, she says, has helped her rise to that challenge.
Growing up in Timaru, King developed an interest in plants and a background in propagation as a high school student working part-time for a nursery specialising in fuchsias. She progressed to Bachelor of Horticultural Science studies at Lincoln University, with a Department of Agriculture scholarship providing a ready-made post-graduation job. Coming under the wing of well-established horticultural consultants in Nelson, she gained wide-ranging experience of cropping although not wine grapes, which weren't then part of the region's mix.
While she enjoyed her work, King was frustrated with not being able to deal with grower problems directly, instead having to call in outside experts and send samples away to diagnostic laboratories. Returning to Lincoln, her master's degree studies focused on investigating a problem faced by Nelson's pipfruit growers. Previously reliable organochlorine controls were being phased out, and King evaluated the level of leaf roller resistance to the organophosphates which were replacing them. Still bonded to the department, she returned to the Nelson area after gaining her degree.
"But I discovered how much I liked doing research and I enjoyed the communication of those research results to the industries because when I came back to my job as a consultant I spoke at field days and seminars about what I had found out. And I found that very rewarding."
Following that tack, King joined AgResearch's Ruakura station where five years of research work on the black beetle formed the basis of an ecological study for her PhD, completed through the University of Waikato. The 80s and 90s saw a push towards more horticultural crops, and King was encouraged to investigate the spread of phylloxera, then a major problem for Gisborne's winegrowers. Her work was aimed at determining the rate of decline in vine health as a result of phylloxera damage and the economic benefit of replanting. Her research more accurately established the life cycle of the aphid in New Zealand.
"In Europe and America they have a winged form which can fly from one vine to another," she explains. "In New Zealand we don't have a winged form so it has to be transferred by machinery or wind like the mealybug in grapevines. But the main thrust [of the research] was in looking at rootstock resistance and why we had different levels of resistance between northern and southern hemisphere populations of phylloxera."
Collaborating with other scientists, particularly a Federal Grapevine Breeding programme researcher in Germany, King produced joint papers that were the forerunner to establishing that different strains of phylloxera reacted differently to different rootstocks. During this time, she also worked closely with Dr Richard Smart. The internationally acclaimed Australian researcher was working as a Government viticulturist at Ruakura, and the pair widened their investigation to look at Marlborough where vines, planted on their own roots, were also dying out.
"It was very stimulating to work with such an enthusiast as Richard," King says, "and we became good collaborators, close friends, and that friendship has been maintained."
The next move was to a research station in Pukekohe, which focused primarily on vegetables, protected cropping such as melons and flower crops. But the floriculture sector in particular didn't adapt well to the user pays philosophy being introduced by the Government in the 80s and research budgets were progressively being screwed down. Disillusioned with unrealistic targets, King took redundancy. Later the station closed down. For various reasons, diversifying into other fields of work ultimately proved unsatisfactory. 80s and 90s were economically unsettled times for many who may have felt they had set off on relatively assured career paths. King felt more on track taking up a Hawke's Bay-based role running ENZA's research programme.
"I loved the job," she says, "but as deregulation came - that was in about 2001 – they rationalised their role to primarily function as an exporter and their industry good function became the responsibility of the growers." The politics and stress of deregulation prompted King's decision to take redundancy.
Stressed also as she struggled with gender issues, King left a job she was enjoying in the UK as "the bogey of my gender identity came to a crisis". Seeking a more supportive environment and better counselling, she returned to New Zealand and, after a season working for Mr Apple in Hawke's Bay, she joined EIT where she investigated red wine quality in the region by exploring the contributors to green characters in the wine.
"Initially my work was very focused on factors that were affecting quality and specifically variability within vineyards. Because of the alluvial soils across Hawke's Bay, there's a lot of different soil types and fertility levels within vineyards and this is reflected in the big difference in vine vigour which affects yield, quality, ripening rates and so on."
Assisted by final-year Bachelor of Viticulture student Dan McClelland, King collaborated with Caine Thompson, then viticulturist for Mission Estate, on the precision viticulture project, mapping vine vigour using NIR (near-infrared) technology. The information obtained enabled growers to tailor-manage individual vines or areas of vines. She also investigated crop load and leaf removal in Merlot and the effects of that on quality. The results were published and presented at field days and seminars.
"So I was still doing the thing that I'd always wanted, which was investigating issues and solving problems as best I was able to and then giving the results back to the industry." Collaborating with Dr Mark Krasnow, an EIT viticulture lecturer at the time, King investigated canopy management as a means of influencing crop load - an alternative to dropping fruit on the ground. Taking off a proportion of the leaves or young shoots, thereby reducing the source of carbohydrate, proved very effective, producing fewer berries to decrease bunch size. Because the berries weren't tightly pressed together, the bunches were easy to spray and air could circulate, potentially reducing disease.
"But it was very expensive," King observes, "so we decided that we would mechanise it." However machine removal of the lower leaves at flowering damaged the shoot and the inflorescence and, in the wet 2011/12 season, seemed to stimulate lateral grown of the foliage. Further work on the same problem was to take the research in an exciting new direction.
King discovered a paper by Professor Stefano Poni and his team of viticulture researchers who had been investigating the same issues and were evaluating the use of antitranspirants in Italy. Having corresponded with the Italians, the EIT team, comprising King and fellow viticulture lecturers Associate Professor Carmo Saunders-Vasconcelos and Dr Stewart Field, worked with Merlot at Te Mata Estate, Ngatarawa Wines and supply winegrower Terra Rossa. The research team found that applying antitranspirant early in the season blocked the stomata for a fixed time and the consequent reduction in leaf photosynthesis equated with that achieved by leaf removal. Concurrent research was also underway on Sauvignon Blanc. Last year's focus included the effects of spraying with antitranspirant later in the ripening season, at veraison. With the national push towards developing lifestyle wines, the EIT team were keen to investigate the use of an antitranspirant as a means of producing low alcohol wine. "The thought was, if we could use an antitranspirant to cut down on the amount of transpiration and the amount of photosynthesis, we would effectively reduce the amount of sugar accumulation and delay sugar accumulation but allow the grapes to continue developing the compounds that are responsible for taste and aroma."
King says the results gathered over two seasons have been "incredibly exciting" - a term this naturally cautious scientist doesn't use lightly. The project and its outcomes will be covered in a future issue of New Zealand Winegrower.
It is clear that King considers this latest research a high point in a career that has spanned more than 40 years. On a personal level, despite battling Parkinson's disease, she is also enjoying greater peace of mind following her gender reassignment.
"To finally be who I am is the key thing," she says. "I can still do the same things I used to enjoy, plus more, without feeling there's a big sign on my forehead saying strange or queer."
