Figure 1. A bundle of healthy grafted grape vines. These vines are moist, have healthy roots, and are clearly labeled.

Spring is a good time to plant new grapevines as the soil is warm and moist enough to support early growth and vines get plenty of time to get established during the growing season that follows. When your order of vines arrives, make sure that your planting material is of good quality before it is planted.

Source Planting Materials from Quality Nurseries

The best way to begin ensuring that you have good, healthy and productive grapevines is to source planting material from nurseries that provide clean materials or certified vines. Planting material from nurseries that follow quality assurance protocols reduces the chances of getting diseased or weak planting material.
Certified material means cuttings come from a source block that was properly managed, subjected to regular inspections for insect pests, disease damage, and tested for virus right from propagation through packaging. These nurseries also go through independent third party audits.

Make sure that planting material comes with documents or labels that will help in tracing plants back to the original source. Each bundle of vines should have proper labels describing primary information such as variety, clone, rootstock and some kind of batch number. Make sure your planting material was shipped promptly after packing and came in a temperature-controlled vehicle. Presently there are no certified nurseries in New Jersey; however, there are several certified nurseries available in California and few in Oregon, Washington and New York. [Read more…]

Date: March 31, 2015
Location: RAREC, 121 Northville Road, Bridgeton, NJ 08302
 

Rutgers University and the NJ Center for Wine Research and Education will be hosting a “Grape IPM School” on March 31st in Bridgeton, NJ. Experts from Michigan, Virginia and Ohio will be joining Rutgers to share their knowledge about key insect pests, diseases and weed identification. This workshop is aimed at growers of all experience levels.

Please pre-register (856-455-3100 or bradbury@aesop.rutgers.edu)
Space is limited. See attached flyer for details.

Grape IPM School Flyer

With all the snow and cold weather it’s hard to believe that it’s March already and Spring is right around the corner! It’s time to start planning your pest management programs.

For the first time, we are hosting an all-day “Grape IPM School”. The aim of this “school” is to introduce and update wine grape growers of all experience levels to the key pest issues they face. We will discuss the basics of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and how to apply it to your vineyard. We have invited regional experts who will share their expertise on how to use IPM to scout for and manage grape berry moth, grape root borer, plant viruses and diseases, among others.

Please join us at the Rutgers Agricultural Research and Extension Center (RAREC), 121 Northville Rd., Bridgeton on MARCH 31st.  Mark your calendars, more details to follow….

South Jersey vineyard and winery managers are invited to an Alert Meeting at Auburn Road Vineyard and Winery, 117 Sharptown-Pilesgrove Road, Woodstown, NJ on Monday September 29th at 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM.

Do you have plants that look like this?
It may be a virus symptom.

We often see red leaves in vineyards at this time of the season, which can result from many causes including viruses, mineral deficiencies, trunk injury, and crown gall. In a season like 2014, following a damaging winter, the most common causes include the aftereffects of cold injury to the woody parts of the vines and the subsequent crown gall infections.

There are several well-documented types of viruses known to have serious deleterious effects on the performance of grape vines with names like Grape Leaf Roll and Grape Fan Leaf. A newly identified virus, generally called Red Blotch, is present in New Jersey vineyards. Red Blotch biology and potential impact on vineyard performance is yet to be worked out.

[Read more…]