GRAPE DISEASE CONTROL, 2015 Wayne F. Wilcox, Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, NY State Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva NY 14456 (
[email protected]) After a 1-year hiatus, it’s time once again for the (almost) annual update and review on controlling the fungal diseases that grape growers must regularly contend with in our eastern climate. As always, I’d like to acknowledge the outstanding team of grape pathologists here in Geneva, which includes bacteriologists (Tom Burr’s program) and virologists (Marc Fuchs’s program) in addition to those of us who work on fungal diseases: faculty colleagues and cooperators (David Gadoury, Bob Seem, Lance-Cadle-Davidson); research technicians (including the phoenix-like Duane Riegel, Dave Combs, and Judy Burr); and graduate students and post-docs too numerous to mention here. It truly is the combined research efforts of all of these people that serve as the basis for most of the following. THE WINTER FROM HELL We won’t dwell upon it, but there are going to be some consequences this coming season as a result of our recently-concluded (or so it’s starting to appear) WFH. It’s beyond the scope of this screed to discuss and sometimes lament many of the more obvious issues, but there are a couple of disease-related points that are worth covering briefly: • Phomopsis infection of new suckers. This issue falls into the “observation/speculation” category rather than one that contains relatively well-established facts. That being said, the last time (2004) that upstate NY had winter temperatures that killed top wood in a significant number of locations, I (and others) noticed that sucker growth destined to become new trunks developed an awful lot of Phomopsis infection during the early growing season.