Grape disease risks from the NEWA

Here are snapshots from the last week, showing the number of days with the risk of each disease: Ph = Phomopsis, PW = Powdery mildew, BR = Black rot, and DM = Downy mildew. N/A means there is no data or some issues with the NEWA (which seemed to be more this week. I will report to the NEWA…)

Downy mildew risk forecast

In addition, we generated downy mildew forecasted risk based on the past seven days of weather and an 8-day forecast. Please click the figure below to enlarge. The rains from last week and forecasted rain events pose high-risk events for several locations across Virginia. This effort has been supported by the VA Wine Board and Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium.

Yellow Tulip Poplar Weevil outbreaks

Several growers reported an outbreak of an insect in their vineyards. I sent samples to Dr. Doug Pfeiffer, who identified them as Yellow Tulip Popular Weevil (the link will open a PDF from VCE Extension). This insect is also called sassafras or magnolia weevils. As the name implies, it is a pest of poplar and other trees. I see many of them in our experimental vineyards, but I have not observed any damage caused by them.

On that note, we have another insect that may look like this weevil, the grape curculio. You can find more information about this pest from the VA Fruit Page and Bugwood.org. Grape curculio causes feeding damage on leaves, so you should be able to see damage on vines. However, when you are in doubt, please get in touch with your local Extension office.