Meetings at Koru Farm (Sept 30th) Dinwiddie (Oct 1st) 2009

I think this will be the last meetings for the season.

One is at Koru farm in Stuart, VA (Sept. 30th - TOMORROW!). Caryl and Greg Talcott has been kind enough to host and organize the meeting. If you can make it, please do. I will talk about new fungicide and other management information.

The other one is at Dinwiddie, VA (Oct 1st). Although this is titled late season meeting, I will talk mainly about "early" season disease management for next season, since most of people are probably either harvested, or harvesting their grapes.

The list of speakers (at Dinwiddie):

Dr. Mizuho Nita, VCE Grape Pathologist from Winchester VA, Mizuho will be cover Early Season Management of Grape Diseases.

Dr. Paul Semtner, VCE Entomologist form Blackstone VA, Paul will cover Early Season Insect Control Methods.

Janet Spencer, VCE SE Area Vegetable Extension Agent in Suffolk VA, Janet will cover General Production Tips

Mike Parrish, VCE Extension Agent, Dinwiddie VA, Mike will cover some Pruning Tips for Winter Pruning and Training.

This program will cover information for Both Backyard and Commercial Production.

Directions from Blackstone will be to fallow 460E about 18 miles to Courthouse Rd. Turn Right on Courthouse Rd. and go about ½ mile to Davis Road and turn right. The Coburn’s will be about a ½ on the Right. The Coburns grow 10 different verities of grapes and sells them to Wine Making Hobbyist.

Address is: 15222 Davis Road, Church Road VA,23833

Note: I tried to upload my notes, but VT's server is having an issue. I will do it next week.

Comments

Downy mildew gallery

At Winchester, we had light rain events during the night of 6/12/09, but it was short events and the relative humidity was low (80% or so), thus it probably did not promote any infections. However, we are experiencing continuing favorable nights for downy mildew sporulation (average T>55F, high RH (80-100%)) for 10 days now. Yesterday, we conducted a formal disease assessment, and observed first incidence of powdery mildew for this season. We had plenty of infection events in last two months, so it was not surprising. At this point, it is a trace level of infection on untreated vines. Downy mildew was the major disease so far. We had up to 40% incidence on untreated vines. Next runner-up was black rot. It varies vine to vine, but some of vine had 10-15% incidence. Phomopsis was omnipresent as I expected from early May rain falls, but severity was low overall. We will examine diseases again in the near future, and I will update as the season goes. Here is downy mildew ga

Season's Greetings!

I hope you and your family have a good holiday season and a Happy (and safe) New Year! Thanks again for your support of our programs. Here are some recent media highlights. 😉 The link will open a new window. AHS AREC promotional video that highlights some of our activities. The link did not work... It asks you to log in to VT. I will request the IT people to change the setting, but in a meantime, here's the same video. We also appeared in the Library of Congress project “Winery Workers of Virginia”. One more announcement: I will be moving this blog to a new location ( ext.grapepathology.org ) early next year. I had to make a change due to the email subscription service, which has been terminated. You do not need to change your bookmark or your email subscription. The URL will be forwarded to a new site and your email subscription has been moved to a new site already.

Recent downy mildew risk events

It seems that several rain events have happened over the course of the past two weeks or so. Here is a summary of recent downy mildew risk events, based on the NEWA stations and DMCast. Bristol, VA Fifteen days with potential DM infection event(s) since Sept 1. The latest event happened last Sunday. Floyd, VA Eleven days with potential DM infection event(s) since Sept 1. The last event happened last Friday. Charles City, VA Twelve days with potential DM infection event(s) since Sept 1. The latest event happened yesterday. Central VA Since there was a wide variation among stations, I am listing several around Central VA. Tyro, VA Nine days with potential DM infection event(s) since Sept 1. The latest event happened yesterday. Red Hill and Crozet, VA Only one day with potential DM infection event(s) since Sept 1. Olympic Lake Thirteen days with potential DM infection event(s) since Sept 1. The latest event happened last Sunday. Washington, VA Eight days with potential DM infection event

Virginia Grape Disease Updates

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