Virginia Grape Disease Updates

I heard that some of early cultivars are ready to be picked on 7-10 days.  Looks like no tropical storms to worry, yet... (crossing my fingers!) There have been frequent thunderstorms went through our area, and some of them (like the one we had last night) resulted in a significantly long wetness event (8 hours). These wetness events, especially the one happens overnight, are preferred by downy mildew pathogen since they produce spores in dark, moist conditions. Please check my previous post on late season downy mildew . As usual, protection is the best approach.  If you have seen some downy mildew on foliage, it would be best if you can mix a protective material (e.g., copper, captan) with a phosphonate (Prophyt, Phostrol, etc). If there is heavy downy mildew already happening, please do not use Ridomil (metaxel) products because they are known to be overcame by the downy mildew pathogen. Some of reds are probably going through veraison, which would be a good timing for your Bot