Wine-Grower-News #60 September 12, 2008

Midwest & Industry Institute: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Wine

Information in this issue includes:

Report from DMACC Assessment Seminar Transitioning to Organics Workshop IWGA announces 2009 Annual Conference Largest Wine Trade Show East of the Rockies - Mark Your Calendars! Show n Tell Crown Gall – What to Do? Movento Insecticide – New for – Labeled for Comments from Readers Quotes of the Week Neeto-Keeno WWW Stuff

Report from DMACC Berry Assessment Seminar

Approximately 35 people attended the Berry Assessment Seminar held at the Des Moines Area Community College this Wednesday (9-10-08). This seminar was taught by Gianni Trioli from Vinidea, Italy. Mr. Triloi spent four hours teaching us berry sampling and tasting procedures to determine overall ripeness. These techniques was developed by the ICV (Institut Cooperatif du Vin) in France and in Italy.

The berry sensory analysis procedure involved a lot of squeezing of the berries, squirting the pulp into your mouth, picking out seeds with your tongue, tasting, and sniffing. The analytical score sheet we used involved rating 19 different grape descriptors on a scale of 1 to 4. The following descriptors were used:

Visual & Tactile Tasting Evaluation Berry Pulp Skin Seeds

Berry Softness Detachment Disintegration Color Berry Color Sweetness Tannin Intensity Hardness Stalk Removal Acidity Acidity Tannin Astringency Herbaceousness Tannin Astringency Aroma Fruit Aroma Herbaceousness Tannin Intensity Fruity Aroma

After practicing with several cultivars, we were then given another score sheet to determine the overall maturity level of each cultivar. The four descriptors used to determine the overall maturity were: 1 Technological Pulp Ripeness Skin Ripeness Aromatic Pulp Ripeness Seed Ripeness

I enjoyed the class and felt it was worth the price of $135. With practice, using berry sensory analysis along with the normal pH, °Brix and TA testing will give the winemaker at better feel when to harvest and how to process the grapes to make a better wine. I want to thank Randall Vos the instructor at DMACC for all his efforts is getting this class held here in Iowa.

The Intitut Cooperatif du Vin is a large worldwide wine advisory company composed of over 70 winemaking and viticulture consultants and 10 specialized wine labs located around the world. They currently work with over 1,000 private clients and 500 cooperative wineries. They have an EXCELLENT WWW site “Internet Journal of Viticulture and Enology” where one can search for information. I was very impressed with what was available after I registered with a user name and password. You can check this out here: http://www.infowine.com

(Above Left) Approximately 35 people attended the Berry Sensory Analysis class held at DMACC on Wednesday evening (9-10-08). (Above Right) Gianni Trioli from Vinidea, Italy teaches the class.

Transitioning to Organics Workshop

What: How to – Growing Organic Grain, Fruits & Vegetables Workshop When: 9 AM to 5 PM, Tuesday, September 23, 2008 Where: AM – ISU Neely-Kinyon Research Farm, Greenfield, IA http://www.ag.iastate.edu/farms/neely.php (2 mi. south of Greenfield on Hwy 25) PM – Henry A. Wallace County Life Center, 2773 290th St., Orient, IA http://www.henryawallacecenter.com/ Agenda: 9 AM to Noon, Organic Grain Production & Marketing – Neely-Kinyon Farm 12:30 Lunch – Henry A.Wallace Country Life Center 1 PM to 5 PM – Organic Fruit & Vegetable Production – Henry A. Wallace Center Speakers: AM Organic Grain Production & Marketing Dr. Kathleen Delate, ISU Extension Organic Specialist Dr. Craig Chase, ISU Extension Farm Management Specialist 2 Lowell Rheinheimer, Organic Valley Family of Farms PM Organic Fruit & Vegetable Production Diane Weiland, HAW Country Life Center Director Jayne Livingston, HAW Country Life Center Director Garden Manager Dr. Eldon Everhart, ISU Extension Horticulture Specialist Cost: Free Registration Deadline: Monday, September 15, 2008 Register: for AM, PM or both by contacting Kathy Rohrig at 641-743-8412 or [email protected] Sponsored by: ISU Extension, ISU Leopold Center, and Sustainable Agriculture & Research PDP Details & Flyer here: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/adair/news/organicworkshops.htm

IWGA announces 2009 Annual Conference

September 7, 2008 (Des Moines, IA) The Iowa Wine Growers Association (IWGA) has announced it’s ninth annual conference and wine tourism symposium to be held March 20 and 21, 2009 at the Holiday Inn Des Moines-Airport Conference Center, 6111 Fleur Drive. Des Moines IA 50321.

The 2009 conference will focus on the needs of the Midwest grape and wine industry, but is expected to draw participants from many other states and .

A Wine Tourism Symposium is scheduled for Friday. Speakers from regions with established and flourishing industries (OH, NC, NY, WA) will reveal strategies for helping winemakers and grapegrowers achieve similar success in establishing their regions as exciting tourist destinations. Winery owners and staff, growers, state associations, wine trail managers and tourism departments shouldn’t miss this!

Saturday will involve concurrent viticulture, enology and marketing sessions that will address topics and concerns of specific interest to winemakers and grapegrowers.

Expect to visit a large vendor area and also share the enthusiasm with others at the wine reception and banquet.

The Iowa Wine Growers Association invites you to join them for what is expected to be an exciting ninth annual conference. We hope to see you March 20 and 21, 2009. “Remember to save the date!”.

More details available shortly at http://www.iowawinegrowers.org For information on attending or becoming a vendor, please contact Joan O’Brien at [email protected].

Largest Wine Trade Show East of the Rockies - Mark Your Calendars!

What: 33rd Annual Wineries Unlimited Trade Show and Seminar When: March, 10-13, 2009 Where: Valley Forge Convention Center, King of Prussia, PA. Program Details & Registration: http://www.vwm-online.com/wu Note: This is the largest wine trade show East of the Rockies and will feature four days of seminars specifically geared to members and issues of the Eastern industry, with two days of a trade exposition (March 11-12th).

3 Show n Tell

Lisa Smiley, Midwest Grape & Wine Industry Institute Program Assistant attended last Saturday’s Grape Breeding Open House at the University of Minnesota’s Horticulture Research Center near Chanhassen, MN. Lisa sent me the following photos to share with you.

Peter Hemstad, (above) University of MN grape Breeder leading tour of grape breeding vineyards.

(Above) John Thull, University of MN vineyard manager leading discussion in French vinifera vineyard. Note the J-trellis system with the trunks angled to the trellis wire. This allows the trunks to be laid down and buried each winter for cold protection.

University of MN research vineyards.

(Left) University of MN Vinifera Vineyard.

4 (Right) Dennis Portz, ISU Graduate Student and friend Amy Higgins taste some of the grapes put on display.

PS: I don’t remember them allowing me to taste these grapes when I attended this event several years ago!

(Above) Pandora Sphinx moth larva. Taken by (Above) at Summerset Winery Tim Abel of Ledgestone Vineyards, Greenleaf, 24.8° Brix and 3.24 pH 9-11-08 WI. Check out Pandora Sphinx moth larva in issue #55 of Winegrower News here: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Wine/Resources/winegrowernews55august112008.htm

(Left) David Klodd, vineyard manager and winemaker at Summerset Winery in Indianola shows off their new hydraulic 360° bin rotator they purchased from Totall Attachments in Ontario, Canada. http://www.totall.net

The MACX bins will comfortably hold 1200 lbs of grapes. These come from Decade Products in Grand Rapids, MI http://www.decadeproducts.com/ 5 Crown Gall – What to Do?

Crown Gall of grapes, Agrobacterium is a common disease of grapes throughout the world. This bacteria, specific to grapes only is commonly found in the soil of vineyards but not in non-vineyard soils. This indicates that it was hauled into the vineyard via the that were planted or cuttings from other vineyards. Once a is infected, the bacteria is forever found in the sap and can quickly be transferred to other in the vineyard via pruning shears, hedging equipment and sap sucking insects or nematodes in the soil. The primary source of infection comes from the planting stock planted in the vineyard.

Crown Gall will likely become more of a problem Crown Gall on Frontenac in our vineyards as our industry matures and our vineyards get older. In the past I have occasionally come across it on cold sensitive cultivars that were planted a little too far north and on other cultivars located in the wetter soil types of a vineyard. One grower I talked to told me that he commonly sees it on vines planted near some walnut he has. This would make some sense due to the natural herbicide (juglone) commonly found in the husks, leaves and exuded by the roots of walnut trees. I was recently very surprised to find a 4 year old very well maintained Frontenac vineyard with approximately 30% of the showing crown gall. None of the typical reasons for crown gall symptoms seemed present in this vineyard. The plants did all come from the same nursery. The forest derived Ladoga soils the vineyard was planted in were probably wetter this year than what one would like. But, I was still very surprised. Half of the parentage of Frontenac comes from wild Vitis riparia grape, very cold tolerant and normally is very tolerant to wetter soil areas.

What is unique about the crown gall bacteria is that it actually changes the DNA of the grape . The grape plant may never show the typical callus gall growth on the trunk, cordon or canes until winter damage, mechanical damage, over cropping or some other stress factor causes it to express itself by the typical undifferentiated cell growth seen as galls on the trunk. The primary cause of crown gall comes from cold damaged trunks. Galls do not form on the roots, but root necrosis can occur. These galls typically start out red in color and then later turn brown the older they age. The leaves of severely galled plants will often turn red and/or yellow prematurely around harvest time. There is no cure for crown Red –Yellow Leaves on Crown Gall gall. Kerosene and some copper compounds have infected St. Vincent Grape been used to dry up the galls, but it does not remove

6 the bacteria from the plant. There has been some success in inoculating clean plant material with a non-galling strain of Agrobacterium vitis, F2/5 to keep infections of gall creating strains from infesting plants, but 50% efficacy is about all that can be expected.

There is a quiet movement arising from Universities and Industry around the country to find a way for nurseries to test and sell only crown gall free plant material. Unfortunately our technology is not quite ready for this yet. There are tests that can be used to determine the presence of Agrobacterium vitis in plants but they are fairly expensive (approximately $50 at several University laboratories) and they are not that effective in identifying low levels of infection in propagation material. A faster, more effective and cheaper methodology is needed. Our ISU Plant & Insect Diagnostic Clinic is in the process of setting up the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) methodology to do these tests in the near future. The cost of this test will probably be in the $40 to $50 range. You would need to discuss this with our clinic before submitting a sample: http://www.plantpath.iastate.edu/pdc/

There are management options one can use to manage a crown call infected vineyard. One option is to tear out the vineyard and not plant grapes for anywhere from 2-5 years. Most will recommend management options that allow the vineyard to continue on and produce.

Here are the primary methods suggested to protect against and manage crown gall in a vineyard:

1. Plant disease free vines. (Easier said than done.) 2. Plant adapted cold tolerant cultivars. 3. Plant in well drained upland vineyard sites. 4. Avoid wounding the trunk via mechanical damage. 5. Avoid late season watering or nitrogen applications that will delay the fall hardening process. 6. Infested vines should be trained to a multiple trunk system to allow production on one trunk when the other galled trunk is removed. Suckers can then me trained upward as a future trunk. 7. Do not create additional stress by over cropping vines. 8. The bacteria is in the plant sap. Pruning shears and hedging equipment can spread the disease into uninfected areas of the vineyard. A 10 -25% % bleach solution or 70% alcohol solution can be used to sterilize equipment.

Additional Information:

1. Bacterial Crown Gall of Fruit Crops, Ohio State Univ.: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3301.html 2. Grape Crown Gall Biology & Strategies for Control, Dr. Thomas Burr, Cornell Uni. Sept. 05: http://agronomy.unl.edu/viticulture/AUGUST%20SEPTEMBER%202005.pdf 3. Scientists Search for Crown Gall Controls, 4-15-05, Vol. 6, Good Fruit Grower: http://www.goodfruit.com/issues.php?article=673&issue=23 4. Search the presentation abstracts of the latest Annual Crown Gall Conference held in Dec.07: http://depts.washington.edu/agro/crowngall28/CG07abstracts.pdf 5. Crown Gall of Grape (Agrobacterium vitis), Ministry of Agriculture & Lands, British Columbia: http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/grapeipm/crowngall.htm 6. Crown Gall of Grape, Penn State Univ: http://grape.cas.psu.edu/Diseases/Crown%20Gall/Crown%20gall%20of%20grape.pdf 7. Crown Gall, Univ. of Guelph: http://www.uoguelph.ca/pdc/Factsheets/Diseases/CrownGall.html

PS: Send me an e-mail and/or pic’s if you have seen crown gall in your vineyard. I would be interested in how many vineyards are affected by this. [email protected] 7 Movento Insecticide – New for Grapes – Labeled for Phylloxera

Movento, a unique new insecticide from Bayer Crop Science was registered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) earlier this summer. The active ingredient, “spirotetramat” is a Lipid Biosynthesis Inhibitor (LBI) that has a 2-way up and down systemic activity within plants. It is active primarily by ingestion by immature sucking insects. It also has significant impact on exposed female adults reducing the fertility of their offspring and survival of offspring.

Movento is labeled for use on vegetables, stone fruits, grapes, citrus, nuts, Christmas trees and hops. It is a General Use pesticide requiring no license to purchase or apply. It will be sold as a 22.4% - 2 lbs. active ingredient per gallon liquid suspension concentrate. It should be kept from freezing. It has a 24 hour Re-entry Interval, 7 day Pre-harvest Interval and 30 day minimum re- application interval for grapes. The grape label shows that it controls mealybugs, phylloxera and whiteflies at the 6-8 oz. per acre rate. Ground applications should me be made with a minimum of 15 gallons per acre of water. A spreading/penetrating adjuvant is required. Because of this, it is not recommended to tank mix with either sulfur or Captan. The label also precautions the user that some of these adjuvants have caused damage to grape berries/clusters when applied after the initiation of bloom to table and fresh market grapes. There are no such restrictions for raisin, wine or juice grapes.

This product is potentially toxic to honey bee larvae through residues in pollen and nectar, but not to adult honey bees. Applicators need to keep this product away from bodies of water because it is toxic to invertebrates, shrimp and oysters.

Visit Bayer Crop Science to view description, label and MSDS sheet here: http://www.bayercropscienceus.com/products_and_seeds/insecticides/movento.html

Comments from Readers

“Hi Mike,

Thanks for including the Vineyard Readings from ISU Research Farms in your newsletter. They let us confirm that our readings are accurate or not.”

--- Norm Wilson, Liberty Hills Vineyard, New Virginia, IA – 9-7-08

Quotes of the Week

“Timely Tip: Crop Yield and Ripening Grape berries reach their maximum weight at 18 to 20° Brix (depending on the variety). The weight then gradually declines as soluble solids increase. Decreases in berry weight are a function of variety, cultural practices, (irrigation, nutrition, trellis system, etc.), and vineyard location. Generally, berry weight decreases 1% to 3% per point increase in °Brix.”

--- Sept. 2005 Univ. of NE Vine Lines newsletter: http://agronomy.unl.edu/viticulture/AUGUST%20SEPTEMBER%202005.pdf

______8 “When and how the harvest takes place is quite possibly the most important part of the entire grape growing or winemaking process.”

--- Finger Lakes Vineyard Notes, Sept. 2008, #6: http://www.goodfruit.com/issues.php

Neeto-Keeno WWW Stuff

1. Winegrape Network (Excellent grape growing/winemaking educational resources from Texas A&m): http://www.txwines.org/information.asp 2. The WineWeb – List of all the wineries in the U.S. : http://www.wineweb.com/ 3. Virginia Tech Wine/Enology Grape Chemistry Group (one of the best commercial winemaking sites on the WWW) Bookmark this one: http://www.vtwines.info/ 4. Minnesota Wine Tours: http://www.minnesotawinetours.com/ 5. Subscribe Free to Good Fruit Grower and be able to search read past issues: http://www.goodfruit.com/issues.php

Post & View Classified Ads here: http://iowawinegrowers.org

Free IWGA Buy/Sell Grape Exchange: http://www.iowawinegrowers.org/

Past issues archived as html: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Wine/Resources/winegrowernews.htm Past issues archived as pdf: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/ag/newsletters/winegrowers.html

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