Skip to main content

It's tempting, but it's not the time to use pruning shears, yet.

Please see the message below from Dr. Sara Spayd, who is an extension viticulture specialist at NCSU.  The information is probably more applicable to people in the southern VA, but we have not really seen cold temperature in the northern VA either. While we can enjoy outdoor activities in the middle of December, this warm weather is bit concerning for grapevines.  Let's hope for a gradual temperature drop in the near future...

--

Please pass this on to all grape growers:

I know this beautiful weather is tempting, but please DO NOT PRUNE - even hedging. Pruning helps to stimulate vine growth. I would not be at all surprised if you see grape buds in some degree of bud swell, particularly the European bunch grape varieties. Those varieties have very little chilling requirement and it was likely met in the few cold days that we have had. 

The short predicted cooling pattern for this weekend will do little to harden the vines and buds for any potential cold weather in January or February. Apparently the prediction is for temperatures to climb up again for Dec 24-25. A precipitous drop (30-40F) in temperatures after warm weather can cause a lot of damage.

Sara

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Please leave your comment here. In order to avoid spam messages, l moderate comments, thus it may take a few hours for your comment to be posted on the page.

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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. 
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more