Skip to main content

Late season downy mildew and recent rains

I have heard from several growers that they are seeing downy mildew despite the fact that they have not seen much precipitations.  It could happen because of the humidity, especially during the night.  Warm, humid, and dark condition (just like we have been having during the last few weeks) promotes downy mildew pathogen to produce spores.

In addition to these conditions, we had lines of rain storms passed in our areas in the past two days. The length of wetness due to these storms were probably long enough for downy mildew pathogen to cause infection.

So, just a reminder.  If you have seen downy mildew, and you have not applied any protective material (captan, Revus, even phosphorous acid products) in the past 10 days or so, you may want to consider a rescue application of a phosphorous acid product to reduce the risk of infection that might have happened in the past two days of rains.  (Note: If you are considering harvest in a few days, I would wait until harvest.)

If you have not seen much downy mildew, and/or you have protected your vines within the 10 days or so, the risk of downy mildew infection would be low.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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. 

Up-coming meetings and Sentinel Vineyard Report #2

  I think many readers of this blog subscribe to Tony’s viticulture note, but just in case, here is some information that you may be interested in. The second Sentinel Vineyards Report is out now.  The report is attached at the end of this post.  Make sure to subscribe to Dr. Beth Chang’s Blog here:  https://sites.google.com/vt.edu/vtenology/home Two upcoming meetings: New Grower Workshop 4 November 2021 at Winchester VA Team taught sessions for new grape growers and those considering developing a wine grape vineyard in the Mid-Atlantic.  Registration is required ( and the deadline is this Friday! ). Please click the link below.   https://register.ext.vt.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=1600122 Virginia Wineries Association Annual Meeting November 15 & 16, 2021 Hybrid event: in-person (Richmond, VA) and remote virtual options The technical session theme on Day 2 is “Wine Stabilization – ...

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...