Two weeks of 80’s and 70’s surely moved things forward.  When I checked our Chardonnay buds last week, it was swelling, but was still tight, but now it looks like they are ready to go at any moment. (Note: these are 4-yr old young vines.  Also, sorry for out of focus pictures.  I forgot to take my camera with me yesterday.)

Hopefully, it will go well with a longer than usual growing season, and we end up having early harvest this year!!

The first disease to be concerned is, as usual, Phomopsis.  The best management strategy against Phomopsis is use of a protective fungicide such as mancozeb or captan, since we do not have any material with curative activity.

Also, since we had a warm dry early summer before Irene, many of us saw quite a bit of powdery mildew.  Chances are, we have a plenty of inoculum.  Although we do not typically see powdery mildew until later in the season, with this warm winter, I am not sure what will happen.  I know it is not the best IPM practice, but with given conditions, I think it is a good practice to tank-mix mancozeb with sulfur (2-3 lb/A) to have some insurance against early season powdery mildew.