Skip to main content

Thank you for your attendance.

I appreciate those of you who showed up at the meeting. I'll try to visit the meeting in the other regions as much as possible. [I do have a research to do, so, I cannot go to every single one of them, though. ;)]

It looks like we will have good weather during next few days, and I think most of you are thinking about pre-bloom or at-bloom applications right now. (Those of you in the Southern VA may be thinking about 1st application after bloom.) Temperature is getting higher (although we had 3-4 days of cool nights), and many of common disease organisms are more active around 60-75F. At pre-bloom, you need to think about Phomopsis, powdery mildew, black rot, and downy mildew control, and for at-bloom or the first application after bloom, you need to add something for Botrytis control. Pre-bloom to 2-3 sprays post-bloom are very critical sprays for disease control in VA growing area.

Rachis and flower part can be infected by these fungi and results in direct problems, and also, in some cases, such as powdery mildew infection on rachis and small berries, it could cause problem later in the season by creating wounds for other microorganisms to come in to cause sour- or bitter-rots. Botrytis infection on flowers may also come back as rots later.

If you have an application due soon, make sure to adjust your spray volume based on the canopy development, and remember that you should not apply sulfur if temperature is85F or above.

Last two nights were cold (lower 40's) around Winchester. It was not suitable for downy mildew sporulation event. I hope you did not experience any frost injury. Growth stage was about the same as the last time for our Chardonnay and Cabernet sauvignon.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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 e...