Virginia Grape Disease Updates

The meeting tomorrow is called "Weekend warrior workshop". This is our first attempt to target growers who have very limited time to manage their vineyard. What we originally imagined as the target audience was someone who has another job during the week and can only spend time during the weekends, but it can be applicable for someone who has several operations.  We will discuss time management and prioritization of tasks, and develop a template for disease weed, and insect management. It will be held at Winchester AREC (595 Laurel Grove Rd., Winchester, VA) on 4/1 (Sat), starting 10 AM and probably goes on until 2 or 3 PM. If you are interested in,  please RSVP using this link , or just show up. Our station is a bit far from restaurants, so, you do need to bring your own lunch.

We are looking for an agricultural technician position in my lab, which is located in Winchester, VA. The main duty is assisting various vineyard and experimental operations in our vineyards and other field plots, such as canopy management, weed management, and treatment applications. It is a part-time position, but the position will be held year around. During the winter months, duties will be mostly inside, assisting vine propagations, pruning, etc. We are looking for someone who enjoys working in vineyards and with good communication skills. The other requirements are: valid driver license, basic computer (Word, Excel, etc.) skills, and willingness to learn new things. If you know someone who is interested in, please let them know to apply for this position through the link below. The posting will close on 4/1. https://listings.jobs.vt.edu/postings/74676

Thank you all for coming to our IPM workshop today. Here are my slides from today (it will open a new window for Google Drive). As I mentioned at the workshop, this exercise is to help you developing a backbone of your program. You need to adjust it for your vineyard(s). Our next meeting is called "Weekend warrior workshop". This is our first attempt to target growers who have very limited time to manage their vineyard. What we originally imagined as the target audience was someone who has another job during the week and can only spend time during the weekends, but it can be applicable for someone who has several operations. We will discuss time management and prioritization of tasks, and develop a template for disease and insect management. It will be held at Winchester AREC on 4/1 (Sat), starting 10 AM. If you are interested in, please RSVP using this link.

In my pruning time disease considerations  (this link opens Google Drive with this year's recommendation for trunk disease management), I refer to Topsin-M as a choice of trunk disease management, especially for Botryosphaeria canker, which is very common in our area. The product has been transferred to a new company this year, and hence, there are changes in the label. [The US distributor is still the same (UPI), thus, I do not think it will affect where you can purchase the product.] If you are using Topsin-M for pruning wound protection, please update your label. You can download the new label by clicking this link  (will open Google Drive). Also, speaking of trunk diseases, I have been involved in a big research effort to develop management strategies for various trunk diseases. Please check our project page which contains not only research reports, but also extension information, such as disease keys, management guides, and economic tools to estimate the benefit of t...

I think many of you have received Tony's newsletter about upcoming vineyard IPM workshops. Here's the same information about workshops, just in case you are not a recipient of the newsletter. (hint: if you have not, I recommend getting touch with Tremain (thatch at vt.edu) so that he can sign you up for Tony's newsletter.) I hope to see you in one of these two meetings. Hopefully, we don't get as much snow as the original forecast... 2017 Upcoming meetings *Please register at the link provided for these upcoming meetings if you plan to attend, this will give us a headcount for printing purposes as well as a means to contact you if the meeting schedule changes due to road conditions. Program name Location Meeting details and registration* information 15-Mar IPM meeting – Pre-season training for vineyard pest management Early Mountain Vineyards, Central Virginia Virginia Cooperative Extension htt...

I have updated my fungicide application template that I have been using for my fungicide guides. If you are interested in, it can be  downloaded from this link . (will open a new Google Doc page) Many thanks to Mr. Bob Romsey who shared the original template to me! NOTE (8 march 2017): It says it is "View Only", but you can download the file. If you select "File" from the top menu of Google Drive, you will see "Download As" submenu which has several options for the file type. (I should have mentioned it when I posted. Sorry!) Please note that this is just a template. Your program will differ based on what you see in your vineyard(s). Please use it with VCE's Pest Management guide (linked under "Resouces"). I have been migrating my fungicide guide to an online database, but it won't come alive until late this year or 2018, thus, refer to either the PMG or Southeastern IPM guides (also linked under "Resources") for your refere...