debor039

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.

We are looking for an agricultural technician position in my lab, which is located in Winchester, VA. The main duty is assisting various vineyard and experimental operations in our vineyards and other field plots, such as canopy management, weed management, and treatment applications. It is a part-time position, but the position will be held year around. During the winter months, duties will be mostly inside, assisting vine propagations, pruning, etc. We are looking for someone who enjoys working in vineyards and with good communication skills. The other requirements are: valid driver license, basic computer (Word, Excel, etc.) skills, and willingness to learn new things. If you know someone who is interested in, please let them know to apply for this position through the link below. The posting will close on 4/1. https://listings.jobs.vt.edu/postings/74676

The cold temperature during this winter probably resulted in many trunk splitting or scarring on less winter hardy vines.  I am planning to conduct a quick study on the effect of protective paint on the development of crown gall.  If you have vines with split or scars, especially on the young vines (1-2 years on the ground), please let me know.  It will be one-time application, so, it won't take much of your time.

It looks like the winter is finally over.  I hope everybody is ready for the new season. We will start off our season with a vineyard meeting at Cardinal Point Winery at Afton.  The meeting is from 11AM until 3PM or so (note: please bring your lunch).  One of the major focus of the day will be frost protection.  We will also cover seasonal updates as well. Also, I have changed a few things on this blog.  Other than little more modern look to it, the major additions are project pages.  Our lab has several active projects going on right now, and we are finding more about our pathogens that will lead to the development of better management tools.  These page should explain more about our activities.  I will add more pages, but for a starter, I have added trunk disease project page.  As a part of our activities, I have also updated our recommendations for trunk disease management, so,  please take a look. 

We will have two IPM workshops this week. At Ingleside vineyard (http://www.inglesidevineyards.com/) on this Thursday (the 6th).  They are located in the northern neck area At Beliveau Estate (http://www.beliveauestate.com/) on this Friday (the 7th).  They are close to Roanoke. If you can make it to these meetings, that would be great. Also, we rescheduled the Nelson county meeting.  It will be held on March 21st.  I think the location will be the same, Nelson county extension office. If you have not done, please check our new Pest Management guides for 2014 season.  The links are under "Resources" at the right hand side of this blog.  I will come up with a 2014 version of my workbook soon.

Due to the inclement weather, we decided to postpone our IPM meeting at Nelson county.  I will post a new date once we come up with one. Stay warm and be safe!

There is a supplemental label for the use of Luna Tranquility with wine grape (you can click this link to download.  It will open Google Doc, but you can download via clicking print icon on Google Drive) .  Luna Tranquility is a sister fungicide to Luna Experience.  It has a fluopyram (FRAC group 7 = SDHI, medium risk) mixed with a pyrimethanil (FRAC group 9, the same as Scala).  As a product, it has an efficacy against powdery mildew and Botrytis . ž Application rate is 16-24 fl oz/A, and the maximum usage allowed is 54.7 fl oz/A per season; however, as usual, we recommend not to use it more than twice a season for management of fungicide resistance.  PHI is 7 days, which is shorter than that of Luna Experience (14-days).  It has a 12-h REI, but it does not have the 5-day cane work restriction as Luna Experience has.   We have tested in Winchester in 2013 season, and both Luna Experience (FRAC groups 7 + 3) and Tranquility provided excellent c...