News and Announcements!
Rick Dunst, Viticulturist, Double A Vineyards, Inc.
As Double A Vineyards has grown over the years, we have received more and more questions from growers regarding crop protection programs for vineyards and where to purchase products. We are pleased to announce the introduction of a line of crop protection products that is now available to our customers. There are several grape diseases that can cause crop loss directly, through infection of fruit, or indirectly, through loss of leaf area. Various insects feed on grape flowers, fruit, leaves, and roots, resulting in decreased productivity. Weeds can compete with grapevines for water and nutrients resulting in reduced vine capacity. While the use of cultural methods of pest control are encouraged, responsible use of pesticides is often necessary to produce full yields of high quality fruit. Currently available pest management solutions to these common vineyard problems are listed at the end of this article.
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Danielle Huber, Marketing Specialist, Double A Vineyards
How does it go again? “Rally up the troops!” Or is it “All hands on deck!” Whatever it may be now is the time where we need everyone on board for a non-stop, full speed ahead, shipping extravaganza. From now until the end of May each of the employees at Double A Vineyards lives and breathes shipping, and if they happen to squeeze any sleep in there, they dream shipping too. I’m sure many of you who are located in the upper North East like we are, are thinking to yourselves, vines already? Well, keep in mind Double A Vineyards ships their products all over the country (except for California, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington -due to state regulation). So many of our friendly warmer weather states are ready to get them in the ground! Now, while this all may sound a bit exaggerated, it’s really not at all. From now until the end of shipping we will have as many (or as little) as 300 orders being sent out each Monday. These orders could be comprised of 5 vines for a small home grower or 5,000 vines for one of our larger commercial growers. Whatever it may be, we’ve got to be ready to get our hands dirty.
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Rick Dunst, Viticulturist, Double A Vineyards, Inc.
With Jim Kamas, Assistant Professor & ExtensionSpecialist – Pomology & Viticulture, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Fredericksburg, Texas
Grape growers in southern regions of the United States face a potential problem not encountered by growers in more northern regions–Pierce’s disease (PD) of grape. An excellent resource, Pierce’s Disease Overview and Management Guide – A Resource For Grape Growers in Texas and Other Eastern U.S. Growing Regions, has recently been published by a team of researchers at Texas AgriLife Extension Service and the University of Houston-Downtown. This article will provide a brief summary of the information provided in this publication, as well as information about grape varietal susceptibility to this potentially devastating disease.
The link for the PD Overview and Management Guide can befound at:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/files/2010/10/Texas-Grape-Growers-PD-Management-Guide.pdf
Pierce’s disease was first reported near Anaheim, Californiain 1883, and by 1885 about half of the vineyard acreage near Anaheim was dead. In the 1920s, Central Valley vineyards were affected, and by the 1930s, the first statewide epidemic was reported in California. The disease has always been cyclic, but the introduction of Glassy-winged sharp shooter into southern California in the late 1990s dramatically changed the threat this disease poses in California. Since then, numerous researchers have begun to unravel the origins and cause of the disease on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. Researchers now understand that PD moved from Texas to California on infected nursery stock, and it is now endemic in many parts of California. Unfortunately, and for reasons not completely understood, the known range of Pierce’s Disease has moved further north than originally thought, into northern areas of the Gulf States, southern Missouri, Arizona and New Mexico and coastal areas of North Carolina and Virginia. Possible reasons for the northern spread of PD include warmer climate, increased cold hardiness of the pathogen, and, as Jim likes to say “an increase in researchers looking for the disease.”
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