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Field day: Use of Protective Covers to Reduce Fungicide Usages in (Organic) Wine Grape Production in Virginia 5 September 2018 1 – 4 pm AHS AREC 595 Laurel Grove Rd. Winchester VA 22602 Mizuho Nita, Ph.D, Virginia Tech Nita24@vt.edu The total acreage of certified organic grape production in the US has increased from 12,575 acres in 1995 to 38,664 acres in 2011. However, only three Virginia vineyards have been approved by the USDA for their organic management practices for wine grape production, and only two have a winery as of 2018. The main reason why organic wine grape production is not common in VA or any other states located the east of Rockies is fungal diseases, which are driven by frequent rain events during summer months. Thus, the Nita lab has established two experimental vineyards with financial aid from the USDA/NIFA VDACS Specialty Crop Research Initiative Block Grant in 2012. Although we identified several cultivars that may do well with the organic practice, there are...

Thanks again for coming to today's vineyard meeting. I learned quite a bit! Here are my handouts (sorry for not bringing enough today!!) 1) Sprayer calibration handout  (will open a PDF file) 2) Sprayer calibration aid (spreadsheet) (In order to use it, please download onto your computer [File -> Download as...]) 3) Seasonal grape disease reminder  (will open a PDF file)

Here are my presentation materials from recent meetings. It will open a new window with a PDF file. 1) Slides from beginner's workshop on 6 June 2018. 2) Handout from the VVA summer technical meeting on 12 June 2018

There will be a meeting in the 23rd of June (Sat) at Rivah Vineyards at The Grove, Kinsale, Virginia. The meeting starts at 6:30 PM. If you are in the Northern neck or surrounding area, please join us.

A few people asked me about the specific location for tomorrow's VVA summer technical meeting. The meeting will be held at Brown Bear vineyards (Formally Spring Hills), and the nearest address is: 229 Spring House Lane, Woodstock VA 22664. Tremain prepared a set of screenshots to help you get there. (Click the images to expand) Spring House Lane is off from Alonzaville Rd. Your GPS may overshoot. When you see the vineyard in front of you, you should see the farm road on your right to get to the garage/barn. See you tomorrow!

Thank you for who attended NJ's "Grape Expectations" meeting two weeks ago. (I think it is a very cool name for an Extension meeting.) Sorry for not able to post my presentation sooner. I have been out for other meetings. Click here for slides from my presentation. It will open a PDF file on Google Drive.

Here are slides from my student's presentations. The link will open a PDF file on Google Drive. Please note that many of data presented here are still preliminary and we are working on publications. 1) Wong and Nita " Evaluation of Rhizobium vitis ARK-1, A Biological Control Agent For Crown Gall of Grapevine, Using R. vitis Isolates From Virginia Vineyards " 2) Oliver and Nita " Laboratory and field fungicide testing for control of Colletotrichum species isolated from Virginia vineyards "

Thank you again for those of you attended one of my sessions. Here are links to my presentations. It will open PDF files on Google Drive. 1) Interactive grape disease management 2) Advanced topic in grape disease management: Fungicide resistance Please note that we will have more meetings coming up: 16 March 2018 Pruning workshop at Breaux Vineyards (Northern Virginia) 17 April 2018 Vineyard IPM workshop at Early Mountain Vineyards (Central Virginia) 6 June 2018 “Beginner’s” Grape Growing workshop Virginia Tech’s AHS Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Winchester VA We hope to see you there!

It was very nice to see you all at the Weekend Warrior Grape IPM workshop. I think we had a very good time with lots of discussions. Hopefully to see you at other meetings. Here is a list of materials that we covered during the meeting. Prioritization in vineyards (Tremain Hatch) VCE overview (Mark Sutphin) Grape weed management (Tremain Hatch on behalf of Dr. Jeff Derr) Interactive grape disease management (Mizuho Nita) Fungicide application template (will open a Google Drive spreadsheet, in order to save, click "file" and select "download as..." Please remember that this one is just an example. You need to come up with your own!) Please note that there is another version, under "Resources" on the right-hand side of this blog. It is in a different format, but essentially the same type of tool. Template used in the exercise (pdf) List of chemical with FRAC codes  (pdf)

The meeting tomorrow is called "Weekend warrior workshop". This is our first attempt to target growers who have very limited time to manage their vineyard. What we originally imagined as the target audience was someone who has another job during the week and can only spend time during the weekends, but it can be applicable for someone who has several operations.  We will discuss time management and prioritization of tasks, and develop a template for disease weed, and insect management. It will be held at Winchester AREC (595 Laurel Grove Rd., Winchester, VA) on 4/1 (Sat), starting 10 AM and probably goes on until 2 or 3 PM. If you are interested in,  please RSVP using this link , or just show up. Our station is a bit far from restaurants, so, you do need to bring your own lunch.

Thank you all for coming to our IPM workshop today. Here are my slides from today (it will open a new window for Google Drive). As I mentioned at the workshop, this exercise is to help you developing a backbone of your program. You need to adjust it for your vineyard(s). Our next meeting is called "Weekend warrior workshop". This is our first attempt to target growers who have very limited time to manage their vineyard. What we originally imagined as the target audience was someone who has another job during the week and can only spend time during the weekends, but it can be applicable for someone who has several operations. We will discuss time management and prioritization of tasks, and develop a template for disease and insect management. It will be held at Winchester AREC on 4/1 (Sat), starting 10 AM. If you are interested in, please RSVP using this link.

I think many of you have received Tony's newsletter about upcoming vineyard IPM workshops. Here's the same information about workshops, just in case you are not a recipient of the newsletter. (hint: if you have not, I recommend getting touch with Tremain (thatch at vt.edu) so that he can sign you up for Tony's newsletter.) I hope to see you in one of these two meetings. Hopefully, we don't get as much snow as the original forecast... 2017 Upcoming meetings *Please register at the link provided for these upcoming meetings if you plan to attend, this will give us a headcount for printing purposes as well as a means to contact you if the meeting schedule changes due to road conditions. Program name Location Meeting details and registration* information 15-Mar IPM meeting – Pre-season training for vineyard pest management Early Mountain Vineyards, Central Virginia Virginia Cooperative Extension https://goo.gl/forms/BiwGpR839b6xzHBi2 The...

It's bit off-topic for this blog, but we have a series of presentations at a local Master Gardener class tonight. Here are slides and handouts for the meeting. The major topic is plant pathology and we cover signs and symptoms of diseases, abiotic disorders, nutrient management, plant disease management, and plant sample submission tips. Thus, some of regular audiences of this blog maybe interested in too. If you click on the link, it will open a new window for Google Drive that contains a PDF file of each presentation. Introduction to Plant Pathology, and Plant Disease Management Fundamentals (Two presentations in one)  by Mizuho Nita A table of over-the-counter fungicides and their target grape diseases Plant Abiotic Disorders  by Charlotte Oliver  Nutrient Management  by Amanda Bly  Explanation of Soil Tests (a link to VCE publication) Plant disease Clinic Sample Preparation and submission  by Charlotte Oliver  If you are attend...

I have several presentations at the upcoming VVA meeting. Here are handouts for my presentations. If click the link, it will open a new window for Google Drive that contains the handouts. All files are in PDF format. 1) Fundamentals of integrated grape disease management 2) Grape pathology updates 3) Low input fungicide regimen and cultivar selection for disease management in southeast VA The last presentation is based on my recent book chapter, which is free for you to download. Please click the link here to visit the publisher's website. Unfortunately, I won't present these talks, but Tony and Charlotte (my PhD student) will present them on my behalf. I will be at each presentation to answer any questions you may have. I will also be around throughout the meeting. I am looking forward to see you during the meeting!

First of all, Happy New Year! I hope you had a nice holiday season. Here's a table of upcoming vineyard meetings. 2017 Upcoming Virginia Vineyard Extension Meetings Program name Location Meeting details and registration information 24-Jan Pruning Workshop Honah Lee Vineyard, Central Virginia https://goo.gl/forms/J48R5RKwlFg76ckw2 23-Feb New Grower Workshop Charlottesville http://www.virginiavineyardsassociation.com/2016/12/winter-technical-meeting-registration-opens/ 24-Feb VVA Winter Technical Meeting Charlottesville http://www.virginiavineyardsassociation.com/2016/12/winter-technical-meeting-registration-opens/ 7-Mar Pruning workshop Breaux Vineyards, Northern Virginia More information coming soon 16-Mar IPM meeting – Pre-season training for vineyard pest management Early Mountain Vineyards, Central Virginia More information coming soon 9-Mar...

Thanks again for those of you who were able to attend IPM workshops.  I hope you enjoyed the meetings, and if you have any suggestions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. Here are copy of fungicide updates and interactive fungicide planning presentations. 2016 Fungicide updates ( Please note: I just learned that Luna Tranquility won't be available for grape...  Too bad since it would be a good material for Botrytis management.  We still have Luna Experience, but there will be a label language change for grape.  I will post it once I learn more about it.) Interactive fungicide planning. Also, I think many of you have already participated, but there is a survey for evaluation of my Extension activities.  If you could spend 3-4 min of your time to answer it, I would greatly appreciate. (This is the same as the one Tremain sent out and I distributed at the VVA and other meetings.) https://virginiatech.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_eQGl7C8eYx23blX This is ...

There are several extension activities in the next few weeks that you maybe interested in. 1) IPM workshop at Early Mountain Vineyards This will be a full day IPM workshop to cover viticulture, entomology, weed science, plant pathology, and legal and safety updates. This will count towards VA private pesticide applicator license hours (full credit for category 90). Date: Feb. 16th 2016.   Agenda 9:30 Introduction and overview of workshop 9:45 Viticulture updates – Tony Wolf 10:15 Worker Protection Standards- Roberto Quintero 11:00 Entomology updates - Doug Pfeiffer 11:45 Weed science updates - Jeff Derr 12:30 Lunch ( please bring a lunch ) 13:15 Laws and regulations - Roberto Quintero 14:15 Pathology Updates- Mizuho Nita 15:00 Interactive Scheduling – in teams 16:00 Meeting Adjourns   2) Interactive Integrated Grape Disease Management workshop at Dobson, NC This will be a half-day IPM workshop that focus on grape disease management and legal and safety updates. This will also ...

Here are handouts from my presentations from the VVA meeting. 1) Slides from "Interactive Grape Disease Management Workshop" 2) Results from the "planning session". Please note that this is the results of answers from randomly selected people, and I am providing this as a note from the workshop.  Although it looks "OK", this is not what we recommend. 3) Slides from "Biology and Management of Grapevine Crown Gall" It was very nice to see you all at the meeting.  As usual, I really enjoy talking to all of you! If you have missed the VVA, there will be two meetings that we will host: 1) IPM workshop at Early Mountain Vineyards on 16 Feb from 9:30 AM 2) Interactive grape disease management workshop at Surry county Extension Center (210 North Main St., Dobson, NC 27017) on 18 Feb from 1:00 PM. I will post details of these meeting in a few days.