I have a small vineyard in the Fayetteville area. It’s 8 years old. Black rot and other fungi has become worse each year. I’ve tried a number of fungicides with no avail. Most of my grape plants are the Fredonia cultivar. Does anybody have any ideas?
Regards, Markgrapes.
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You should be able to control disease on that variety with the proper sprays, but in a wet area like Fayetteville, it may be necessary to spray every 7-10 days, and before symptoms appear. Most fungicides are preventative not curative. The other option would be to pull them up and plant muscadines or something more disease resistant with a lower spray frequency needed.
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I have invested a lot in my small vineyard . I am also desperate. Has anybody tried treating the soil around the plants with copper sulfate or some other anti fungal agent?
That’s not going to be productive and would likely be undesirable for soil health over time. I don’t understand your issue if you are following a strict spray schedule with the correct fungicides, and are getting good spray coverage.
Fungicides, if the correct ones are used at the proper intervals, and if you are getting good spray coverage, work. Period. It’s possible to grow even pure vinifera in wet humid regions like Virginia and northern Arkansas and still get a crop with an aggressive spray schedule. You have to stay on top of it and spray a lot, but it’s possible and it’s regularly done. The variety you are growing has more resistance to disease than vinifera does, so it’s definitely possible to grow with a good spray schedule . The fact that you are struggling every season tells me either your spray coverage is poor, you’re using the wrong fungicides, or the timing/frequency of your sprays is not right.
Since you say you have invested “a lot” in your vineyard and are “desperate” I assume we are talking about more than a half dozen vines and are talking at least a semi-commercial operation. If that’s the case I would recommend you reach out to your local AG agent and go over your spray schedule to make sure it’s adequate, make sure your sprayer is calibrated properly, and make sure that you’re getting adequate spray penetration into your canopy.
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