Virginia Grape Disease Updates

Presentation slides Thank you to those of you who were able to make it to the meeting today. Here are slides from today's presentation (open PDF).  Up-coming meetings Eastern Section American Society for Enology and Viticulture annual meeting (7 – 8 July): The ASEV/ES meeting will occur on-line this summer. See https://www.asev-es.org/ for details on the meeting, which will include research presentations and a panel discussion entitled “Future Grape Cultivars for Eastern North American Growers”. Eastern Viticulture and Enology Forum (13 July): The July 13th meeting is the next of a series of 4 virtual meetings organized by viticulture and enology extension specialists at Penn State, Cornell, and Virginia Tech. In addition to regional round-ups of seasonal progress, specialists from around the eastern US address pre-submitted questions from participants. Registration instructions and additional information about the meetings can be found on the attached Word document. Virginia Viney...

It looks like we all received much-needed rains, which is good for vine growth. However, since most of our vines are still within the critical period for cluster infection by downy mildew, powdery mildew, and black rot (~ until 6 weeks after bloom for V. vinifera , ~ 4 weeks for V. labrusca ), it also means that we may have had risk events for disease infection. Since the month of May was dry, I think the overall disease risk is low for downy, black rot, and other diseases that are driven by rain (e.g., ripe rot and Botrytis), but I just want to go over recent NEWA outputs.  Disease risks from the recent rain events Westfield (Close to Bristol, VA) It seems that the southwest VA received quite a bit of rain over the past two weeks! I would think many cultivars are close to the end of the critical period, but if you are concerned, a DMI fungicide and a Ridomil or Phos-acid product are effective for black rot and downy mildew, respectively. These materials can be applied a few days a...