Vine Status
Our Chardonnay vines are nearing harvest. The only issue is that we only have a few clusters…
Grape Disease Risks: 8/19-8/26/2026
NEWA is an Agricultural Weather Station Network, and we are part of the team. Here is a snapshot from last week showing the number of days with risk for each disease: Ph = Phomopsis, PW = Powdery mildew, BR = Black rot, and DM = Downy mildew. N/A means there is no data or issues with the NEWA. I am waiting to hear back from the weather station company about fixing the one in Stafford. Note: Since we are out of the critical period for black rot and Phomopsis, you can ignore them.
Unlike the last 2-3 weeks, the number of days with downy mildew risk was low in many locations, except Bristol, where the number of days with downy mildew infection risk has been more than 4 out of 8 days in the past 5-6 weeks.
For detailed recommendations, please refer to the previous week’s posting.
Downy mildew forecast
Please click the table above to enlarge. Finally, we are looking at a relatively dry week ahead. I hope things will calm down toward the harvest. Even if you are not bearing fruit this year, you still want your vines to keep healthy canopies so that they can survive the winter and produce healthy canes or spurs for next year.
The downy mildew forecasting effort is supported by the Virginia Wine Board.
Reminder: The next monthly virtual vineyard meeting is next Thursday (9/3/2026) at 1 PM.
We hope to see many of you at the meeting. 🙂
