By Terence Bradshaw

Many vineyards are in bloom across Vermont, and inflorescence looks good and bodes well for a promising year. As I’ve been saying all along, be sure to maintain spray coverage for the next couple of weeks; to remove any diseased tissue as you find it; and to do your best to maintain an open canopy (more on that in a minute). All of the main diseases, including downy mildew, should be active now, so fungicide choice should cover all of the bases. That likely means applying a mix of materials that have multiple modes of action, like mancozeb (watch the 66-day preharvest interval) or captan and a strobilurin (Flint, Abound) or DMI (Rally, Elite, etc.). There are some good premix materials available that cover two modes of action, like Inspire Super and Pristine, but even they could use some protectant activity from mancozeb or captan to improve efficacy and reduce resistance development. The New England Small Fruit Management Guide has a good table that outlines the efficacy of the main fungicide materials available to growers. For organic growers, a rotation of sulfur and copper is pretty common now, but be sure to watch for signs of phytotoxicity. Coverage maintained for the next few weeks will pay off by allowing you to relax a bit for the second half of the summer.

Wild grape bloom occurred on June 19 in South Burlington, which sets the clock for grape berry moth management. The first overwintering generation is rarely significant enough to warrant a management spray except in vineyards that have had extreme damage in previous years. Each generation requires about 820 degree days (base 47°F, or DDb47°F) to complete, and the first generation typically emerges around the time of wild grape bloom. So if we use June 9 as our ‘biofix’ and track DDb47°F, we can estimate the best time to treat for the more damaging later generations.

This is made easy by the Network for Environment and Weather Applications (NEWA) system, which I coordinate for Vermont. The network includes twelve on-site weather stations (all located at orchards) and six airports, and imports data in near real-time for use in pest models. It is free to use, and growers can locate the site nearest them and develop a best-guess of phomopsis, black rot, and downy mildew infection periods as well as a sense of the grape berry moth generational development.

Plant tissue sampling is one of the best ways to plan fertility management in your vineyard, and now is one of the important times for collecting samples. Petiole samples may be collected at bloom or veraison, and comparisons between years or blocks should be based on the same time of collection. The benefit of a bloom sampling is that it gives you time to make corrections, if needed, during the present growing season.

Samples should be collected separately for each cultivar or block. In each sample, a random collection of 75-100 petioles should be collected from throughout the planting. Petioles should be collected from the most recent fully expanded leaf on the shoot, not across from the fruit cluster as is collected for a bloom sample. Just remove the whole leaf and snip the petiole (the leaf ‘stem’ off with your pruners. Gently wash each sample in water with a drop of dish detergent, then rinse fully and place in an open-top paper bag to dry. The closest analytical lab for grape petiole analysis that also provides pretty comprehensive management recommendations is the . There is a great section in Appendix A of the Wine Grape Production Guide for Eastern North America (which every grower should have a copy of on the bookshelf, ready to grab with short reach) which helps to guide fertilizer application rates based on soil and petiole samples. If you have a copy of those to send to me, I’d be happy to help you with the numbers as well.

Finally, I have two events to mention. First is a reminder of the July 9 Canopy Management Workshop we will hold at Ellison Estate Vineyard in Grand Isle. Please preregister here to attend.

The second is a UVM Horticulture Research & Education Center Research Open House that we will hold at the farm in South Burlington on August 6. Researchers with projects across the farm and working in multiple disciplines will showcase our work. I will host a tour of the research vineyard, and will have a pre-harvest management workshop at which we will discuss bird protection, late-season canopy and crop management, and preharvest sampling procedures to optimized juice quality at harvest. Watch for details on that event in the next week or so, but plan on it happening in the later afternoon around 3:00.

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification,

no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.

Always read the label before using any pesticide.

The label is the legal document for the product use.

Disregard any information in this message if it is in conflict with the

label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the

University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM

Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

By Terence Bradshaw

June 19, 2019

It’s always impressive to me how fast grapevines can go from zero to full foliage in a matter of a couple of weeks. Vines at the UVM Horticulture Research & Education Center are generally at 16-24” shoot growth. We’re not quite at “Immediate Pre-Bloom” stage, but not far off, either. Now is a critical time for disease management. As we mention in our initial IPM strategy for winegrapes, all of the major diseases save for late-season fruit rots are sensitive to management right now. That means that fungicide applications should be made, using a material or materials with broad range of coverage against powdery mildew (PM), downy mildew (DM), black rot (BR), anthracnose (Ant), and that last bit of phomopsis (Ph) for the season. Generally, this means a combination of materials, including a protectant (mancozeb, most effective against Ph, BR, PM, or captan (Ph, DM)) plus a systemic or more narrow-spectrum material. Those may include Vivando / Quintec (PM only); a DMI material like myclobutanil or tebuconazole ((BR, PM); or a strobilurin (BR, PM, also excellent against botrytis so save until later in the season in July if you have issues with that disease). I’ll mention other materials with excellent efficacy against DM and botrytis later when those diseases are of greater relative concern.

For organic growers, be sure to maintain your copper and/or sulfur sprays, watch for phytotoxicity, and remove diseased leaves and clusters as soon as you see them. It’s been a wet spring, although a bit drier since grape budbreak that earlier in the year. I expect diseases will be pretty significant problems for growers this year, so stay alert.

Insect activity is usually pretty quiet at this time of the season. Keep an eye out for bloom on wild grapes, as that sets the clock for the degree day model used to time management of grape berry moth (GBM). We typically add BT (Dipel, Javelin, etc.) or another material specifically active against lepidopteran pests soon after bloom at the earliest, so there’s time before we consider managing for this pest. GBM isn’t always a problem in every Vermont vineyard, we’ll talk about scouting for that pest in an upcoming bulletin.

We are seeing a bit of grape tumid gall (GTGM) in the UVM vineyard this year. This is an infrequent pest that causes visually striking but (usually) relatively insignificant damage to the vines, and management practices are not recommended against them. However, serious cases can affect fruit clusters, especially in La Crescent and Marquette, so any signs of them in clusters may warrant treatment. I discussed this pest in a post on June 8, 2017:

This insect is similar to phylloxera in that the larvae feeds on leaf tissue which responds by forming a protective gall around it. GTGM is different in that it also affects rachises and fruit, and when the galls become fully engorged, can look pretty dramatic.

Figure 1. Grape tumid gall on a fruit cluster in midsummer. UVM vineyard, 2009.

GTGM is an midge insect (small fly) that lays eggs on grapevines. Flies are ephemeral and only live a day or so; management should not be targeted at adults. Hatching larvae burrow into vine tissue and are thus protected from contact insecticides. In most vineyards, GTGM is considered a minor pest or even a curiosity as the galls can be quite drastic-looking. That said, I have been hearing reports of high levels of GTGM in vineyard this year, and some of these vineyards reported them last year under different management, so I suspect that certain vineyards have increasing and potentially problematic populations.

Figure 2. GTGM on Marquette, UVM vineyard, 2010..

Vineyards should be scouted before assuming you have a problem with this pest. There is no threshold established, as most growers tolerate low levels of damage. However, I have heard reports of 50% or more leaves affected in some vineyards, and I can’t imagine how that wouldn’t negatively affect vine productivity.

Figure 3. GTGM on inflorescence. UVM vineyard, 2011.

Sanitation is an important method of reducing GTGM populations and may be enough in low-pressure situations. Galls can be crushed if seen on leaves, or severely affected leaves removed and destroyed. In organic vineyards, as always, this should be the first line of defense since spray options are minimal. If the extent of damage is beyond physical removal, an application of Movento is the best (only) recommended option I can find. Movento is a systemic insecticide with a unique mode of action and is listed as posing low risk to wildlife, and as non-toxic to fish and birds. It is best used at first sign of galls, practically speaking, as scouting for hatching larvae (which hatch from microscopic eggs) is difficult under normal field conditions.

GTGM may be distinguished from phylloxera by the gall surface, which is smooth compared to phylloxera which is bumpy or warty. Movento is effective against phylloxera as well as GTGM and has a long residual control period, so may be a good material if either or both of those pests are common in your vineyard.

More information on GTGM may be found in this Cornell fact sheet: https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/43134/tumid-gallmaker-FS-NYSIPM.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Horticulture: There are two good times to collect petiole samples to assess vine nutrient status, bloom and veraison. Generally, you should stick with whichever timing you have been using so that you may compare to past tests. Dr. Joe Fiola at University of Maryland has a good fact sheet on petiole sampling. We recommend the Cornell Nutrient Analysis Laboratory for petiole sampling, as they have extensive experience in providing nutrient recommendations for grapes. Should nutrient applications be needed, this is a good time to apply boron, magnesium, and nitrogen as they are needed during this period of rapid shoot and fruit growth.

Other activities that I don’t need to tell you about: shoot thinning can continue, but shoots aren’t lignified at the base enough to comb them, they’ll just break off. Keep the vineyard mowed to improve airflow, but a golf course mowing regime isn’t necessary unless that’s your aesthetic choice. Keep the in-row weeds down however you can, but most herbicides should be put away for now because of likelihood of vine damage.

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification,

no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.

Always read the label before using any pesticide.

The label is the legal document for the product use.

Disregard any information in this message if it is in conflict with the

label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the

University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM

Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

By Terence Bradshaw

I’m probably a tad late on getting this out for some growers. The growing season continues to be cool and wet, and grapevines at the UVM Horticulture Research & Education Center are showing about four to five inches of shoot growth. We are beginning to enter a critical time for disease management. Growers should consider applying a protective fungicide soon that has activity against phomopsis in particular, although anthracnose and, to a lesser degree, black rot may be active, especially in high inoculum vineyards. The primary disease of concern at this point is phomopsis, as rachis infection at this point in the season is may cause significant fruit loss at harvest. Anthracnose may also be active at this point. Most growers would do best to cover early this week with a contact fungicide like mancozeb or captan.

Organic growers are in for a bit more work. The standard fungicides, copper and sulfur, have only fair efficacy against this disease at best, and in a couple of weeks when black rot becomes the next disease of concern, those materials will have even less efficacy against that disease. The first line of defense in an organic vineyard is a strict sanitation program. This includes removing all mummies still in the canopy (not dropping on the ground, but actually removing them from the vineyard) as well as any obviously diseased wood. Phomopsis and anthracnose both overwinter largely on infected wood in the canopy, and removing this wood during dormant pruning or now is essential to reducing disease pressure. Stubs left at the ends of spurs should now be removed since you can see where this year’s shoot growth will resume (at the developing shoot)- these stubs will die and may become infected with phomopsis this season (or were last season) .

Removing stubs at end of retained spurs.

It is worth noting that both copper and sulfur (including lime sulfur) can cause phytotoxicity on certain cultivars. Dr. Patty McManus summarized her research on copper and sulfur sensitivity in cold-hardy grapes in the 2/8/16 Northern Grapes newsletter, and I’ll summarize it to say that Brianna should receive no copper; and Frontenac (all types), LaCrescent, Leon Millot, Marechal Foch, Marquette, and St. Croix should receive no more than 2-3 copper sprays per season. Save those for later when black rot and downy mildew become bigger concerns. Sulfur sensitivity was observed on several cultivars, and its use (including lime sulfur) is discouraged on Foch, Millot, Brianna, and Louise Swenson; with limited (2-3) applications suggested on LaCrescent and St. Croix.

So, if you have removed all diseased wood and are ready to cover your vineyard for protection against phomopsis and anthracnose, the best choices is likely lime sulfur applied at two quarts per acre in sufficient water (25-30 gallons should do it) to wet the canopy. Lime sulfur is hot stuff: caustic, corrosive, and noxious. Use appropriate personal protective equipment and spray in cooler weather to reduce phytotoxicity. Powdered sulfur may also be a good choice, I would suggest 3-5 pounds per acre at this stage.

Organic growers should absolutely begin application of something at this stage in combination with keeping up sanitation of all dead or infected wood , rachises, and other grapevine debris- sulfur, one of the bicarbonate materials (e.g., Armicarb, Kaligreen, etc.), or a biofungicide like Serenade, Sonata, Regalia, or Double Nickel may be used, although there is little good efficacy data on that last class of materials.

I mentioned sanitation- now is a good time to get out and clean up the ‘nubs’ left at the ends of spurs after pruning that will die out and serve as reservoirs for phomopsis and other diseases. While you’re at it, this is an especially good time to thin shoots. Cold hardy grapes trained to a high-wire trellis and in good health can support about six shoots per foot of canopy; select the best developing shoots and break off the others now while they are easily breakable with your fingers. Maria Smith and Dr. Michela Centinari at Penn State recently wrote a good summary of shoot thinning available here. I suggest reading it on the deck this holiday weekend with a nice glass of wine, and getting out in the vineyard next week to set this year’s crop on the right track.

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification,

no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.

Always read the label before using any pesticide.

The label is the legal document for the product use.

Disregard any information in this message if it is in conflict with the

label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the

University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM

Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.