Recent Posts
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Much of the wine grape pathology research we have conducted in Georgia over the last 2-3 years has been associated with resistance management of fungal pathogens such as downy mildew, powdery mildew, Botrytis and others. Alternation or tank-mixing of different fungicide classes is critical for prevention of resistance development. Under the direction of Dr. Walt…
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Vineyards in many of the northern counties of Georgia have received cold damage on multiple occasions this year. The most recent damage occurred 10 May, which means that grapes were phenologically more advanced that one would have observed with past frost/freeze events. In fact, this is the latest event of this nature that I remember…
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See below for a message from our Associate Dean relative new funds that are available for helping farmers. I am not sure whether wine grape producers could benefit from these funds or not, but I am sure that muscadine producers for fresh market consumption could benefit. At a minimum, I would follow up to ask…
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It is time for tissue sampling in grapes. Student workers were taking samples today in our research vineyards, as we are in full bloom in the Athens area. I suspect that the bloom will vary by variety and location, but all of us are close. I am providing more information than you might want for…
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This has been a tough year for growing grapes in northern Georgia. Climatologists know that neutral years like this one, when there is no El Nino or La Nina in place, are often years with a lot of ups and downs in temperature, and this has certainly been no exception. You can see that in…
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Mark Hoffman, viticulturist for NCSU, sent me the following information this morning. There will be a pertinent webinar on responding to COVID in winery operations. The webinar will take place on Monday, May 18th from 12-1:30 PM, and is titled “Re”wine”ing the Clock in a Post-COVID World: ensuring personal safety & production efficiency as winery operations…
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University personnel and industry members collaborated to develop the newly pubished (today, 4/27/2020) UGA Extension Bulletin: Watson Training System for Bunch Wine Grapes. Here is a link to the publication: https://secure.caes.uga.edu/extension/publications/files/pdf/B%201522_2.PDF Growers in GA and TX often train Pierce’s disease (PD)-tolerant bunch wine grape cultivars using the Watson System. The extension publication outlines considerations for…
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Frost damage to varying extents has been reported in vineyards in GA, TN, NC, VA, MD, and PA. Spring frost may still be a threat for some vineyards located in more northern growing regions in the eastern US. For example, according to one online source, a 50% chance of 32 deg. F temperatures remain through…
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It has been a difficult start to the year for many. Frost has been persistent in this relatively “early” growing season. The most recent frost events have occurred late enough that tissues likely would have been damaged if a frost occurred on a similar calendar date in several previous seasons. On March 5, a blog…
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Please see these links for a list of management considerations for bunch grape and muscadine vineyards. These were developed by Mark Hoffmann and other NC State Extension Specialists. https://grapes.ces.ncsu.edu/2020/03/bunch-grape-vineyard-covid-19-chores-march-april/ https://grapes.ces.ncsu.edu/2020/03/muscadine-covid-19-chores-march-april-2020/