Virginia Grape Disease Updates

It looks like we will have another wet week coming up. Our Chardonnay is about 50% bud break at this point, thus, I think that many folks south of us are seeing 1-3 inches growth. Once again, a 1-3 inch shoot growth is the timing for Phomopsis management. The forecast tomorrow and this weekend seems to be OK for spraying ( but watch out for the wind! Saturday seems to be a better day ). Also, if it is too windy to spray tomorrow and looking for things to do, we have a short workshop/Q&A session on grapeIPM.org , which is created to help your spray management, from 3 to 4 PM. Please join us in a virtual meeting.

Grape Pathology lab will hold an online workshop on grapeIPM.org, which is a new online database to help you track, manage, plan, record, and report your pesticide usage. You may remember my presentation at the VVA meeting in February.  It will be a 20-min presentation followed with a 40-min Q and A. We will help you set up an account, enter your vineyards and blocks information in the system, and go through basic functions to kick start the season. It will be on next Friday (4/10) from 3 PM. Please use the URL below to register by 4/8 so that we can send you a Zoom link for the meeting. https://forms.gle/Z3Mfx5BBfMmMerTBA In addition, if you find your vineyard management in a bind related to the pandemic, please keep records- a paper trail- of the details. This may be helpful if there is assistance available after the pandemic.

Our Chardonnay is about to break buds. It is about 2 weeks ahead of "normal" year, whatever it means at this point... One of the diseases you need to consider soon after bud break is Phomopsis cane and leaf spot. It causes minor leaf spots, which is more evident to our eyes, but the more critical damage is caused by necrotic lesions on shoots and rachis. It also causes berry rot; however, it is not common with wine grapes because of our spray programs.  (Typical shoot symptoms) Phomopsis spores can cause infection under the relatively cooler environment (the upper 40s). Thus, springtime rain events are ideal for Phomopsis to produce spores and cause infection. Unfortunately, we do not have curative fungicides for Phomopsis management. Therefore, it is vital to protect young tissues when they come out from the older canes and trunks. Since shoots will proliferate quickly, you may need to spray 1-2 times against Phomopsis, depending on how much rains we receive