For many across Nova Scotia this return of wet weather is a great relief to deal with wildfire issues. For grape growers, the rain means a return to new shoot growth and challenges.
Since this has been a
dry spring there have been few disease infection periods for early season grape
diseases. However, the frequent rainfall forecast for the next several days
will ramp up the potential for infection. Last week's Vineyard Grower Q and A on Zoom discussed early season disease controls and conditions for anthracnose,
downy mildew, powdery mildew and phomopsis.
Young soft tissue is highly susceptible, especially tissue close to the ground (suckers!) are very close to those overwintering sources of inoculum (downy mildew from old fruit infections and leaf debris from 2022) and impacted by spores falling down from the rough bark areas (overwintering ascospores from powdery mildew) and inoculum residing on 2- and 3-year-old wood (phomopsis).
Be sure to check out the tables and links on fungicide efficacy in the presentation and be sure to keep regular coverage. All growth is important, especially suckers being retrained to form new trunks for future years.
If you have questions reach out and we will do our best to answer them Viticulture@perennia.ca.
Looking forward to seeing everyone I can next
week (June 15 to 17)!
