2013 Grape Pest Management Guidelines - online!

Hi folks,

I hope everyone is enjoying their spring (at least that's what it's called on the Calendar?!)...  There has been great press about the NS Wine Industry in the papers and online lately and it's great to see people getting the recognition they deserve! 

Although it seems like spring and thoughts of pest management are a long ways off, just thought I'd let you all know that the 2013 Grape Pest Management Guide has been fully updated with all the newest product registrations and is online.  The guide has changed format from our previous versions and is more in line with the rest of our pest guides.  Instead of listing products/pests by plant stage of development, we've just done it by Pest and listed in the comment secions when you should begin scouting and spraying for each!  If you have any questions on the guide, please do not hesitate to contact me! 

Please note there are no products registered for control of Spotted Wing Drosophila yet, however, we expect that there will be a number of emergency use registrations granted in advance of the season, these will be posted in a separate document on our website as they become available. 

You can download your copy of the guide here.

Introductory Grape Production Workshop!

Hi folks,

Are you just thinking about getting started in grapes, or have you been experimenting on your own?  If you'd like to learn more, please plan to attend our Introductory Grape ProductionWorkshop on Friday March 1st at St. Bridgets Hall in Shubenacadie! 

You can learn the basics of growing grapes, soil testing, what varieties that are best suited to NS, and some of the costs involved in getting started!  Please register early by calling Theresa at 902-893-6575. 

Artisan Distillers Workshop - Feb 25th-Mar. 1st

Distillery Workshop in 2013
(Workshop for Fruit Producers, Wineries, Distilleries and Other Producers)

 

. . . an intensive boot camp . . . you can attain all the information needed to start a distillery business

 

This is a comprehensive course which covers the fundamental technical aspects of distilling and equipment, as well as the business side: licensing, marketing, distribution and sales.  See attached brochure for the list of trainers andfurther information on registration.

Dates: February 25 to March 1, 2013 (5 days)
Registration Deadline: Friday, February 15, 2013
Workshop Locations: Howard Johnsons Dutch Inn, Cornwall, PE and
                               Matos Winery and Distillery, St. Catherines, PE

Payment must be received no later than February 15, 2013.

Cheques (payable to BioFoodTech) may be mailed to: BioFoodTech
ATTN: Distillery Workshop (#2-13-000)
P.O. Box 2000, Charlottetown, PE C1A 7N8

Cheques may also be dropped off to:
BioFoodTech
101 Belvedere Avenue
Charlottetown, PE

Please contact Janet Docherty at jvdocher@biofoodtech.ca or 902-368-5226.

Canadian Minor Use Program

Hi Folks,

I made a presentation to the GGANS Board last week on the National Minor Use Pesticide Program so thought I'd post some of the information I passed on to them, here as well!

For information on the National Minor Use Pesticides Program, click here.  To see a list of the minor use registrations on grapes, click here.  And click here, to see a list of current projects that are still being worked on. 

If anyone has any pest issues that they feel do not currently have adequate solutions for, please let me know by the end of December so they can be included in the NS Priority List for the 2013 Priority Setting Meeting.  

Merry Christmas and All the Best in 2013 to you and yours!

Herbicide Drift Webinar - November 3rd, 2012

Hi Folks,

I hope the harvest has been going well!  I receive a number of grape e-newsletter and something interesting came across my desk today that I thought I should share!  I'm not sure if any of you have participated in 'webinars' before - but it's a great way to get timely information without having to travel to a meeting.  You just register, log onto the website at the appointed time and you can see the live presentation and ask questions, it's just like being there but without all the hassle!   Here's some information on an upcoming webinar on Herbicide drift! 

Special Webinar Announcement

The  Nebraska Winery and Grape Growers Association, University of Nebraska Viticulture, and The Northern Grapes Project are pleased to announce a cooperative seminar and webinar provided through Southeast Community College Continuing Education in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Herbicide Drift Seminar and Webinar

Saturday, November 3^rd, 2012

 

Herbicide drift has been a problem for America’s vineyards for decades.  It arrests plant growth, may cause plant death, and kills the crop.  The early spring this year created conditions that exposed many northern states vineyards to high levels of damage and economic loss from 2,4-D.  The NWGGA ad hoc 2,4-D Committee has been working on your behalf, bringing together resources help you understand the damage pesticide drift can cause in your vineyard and what resources you have available to you before, during and after a drift incident.  This seminar is a cooperative effort of NWGGA, University of Nebraska Viticulture,  and The Northern Grapes Project.  In this seminar, you will learn the history of harmful herbicides, how drift occurs, the visual symptoms of each 2,4-D, glyphosate and dicamba and the harm they can do to grapes, how to mitigate the damage to rescue your plants, how to estimate your losses to a drift incident, how Driftwatch and similar programs work for you, how various states Departments of Agriculture Pesticide Investigation work and their objectives, examples of current and past investigations, differing statutes between states, what’s coming in the future – good and bad, your responsibilities when drift happens to you, and what your liability can become for the pesticides you spray in your vineyard. 

 

Web participants

Registration is free, but required.  To register, fill out the online form posted at:

https://cornell.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_cvF8oriwkQLOcAZ

 

Registration is open until 8am (eastern) on November 1st.  Prior to the webinar, those who registered will be sent the web address (URL) and connection instructions for the session.  This email will likely come from the Southeast Community College Continuing Education office.  PLEASE NOTE: Only those who complete the online registration form will receive connection details to participate in the webinar. Even if you have registered for past webinars through the Northern Grapes Project, you still must register for this webinar in order to receive the email.

 

Due to the limited number of connections, we encourage web participants to “buddy-up” in groups of three or more. 

 

The Northern Grapes Project is funded by the USDA’s Specialty Crops Research Initiative Program of the National Institute for Food and Agriculture, Project # 2011-51181-30850

When it rains, it pours, and when it pours... we get Botrytis!

Hi Folks,

The heavy rains we've been experiencing over the past few weeks have NOT been a welcome sight for grape growers... with such an early season and so many people close to harvest, this extra moisture is not what we needed.  I've been hearing reports of alot of splitting berries (especially in the Seyval and the Vinifera varieties).  If you maintained a good protectant spray program throughout the season and had good coverage before the clusters started to fill in, you will probably be better off than if you had not!  However in years like this where it was SO dry and so little disease pressure all along it's easy to get complacent and skip the odd spray here and there.  I think this fall is a harsh reminder of why those protectant sprays are so important - we never know what the weather is going to be like a week or two down the road, so best to be prepared for it.

There is no replacement for a good protectant program and it's hard to play 'catch up' after the fact but in conversations with Drs. Rick Delbridge and Paul Hildebrand, the best 'eradicants' are Switch or Pristine... however if you have a full blown infection they are not going to cure it... just hopefully keep them from getting worse if these wet conditions persist.  That said though, you need to watch PHI's for products as we are so close to harvest...Pristine has a 14day PHI and Switch a 7day PHI... Elevate, Scala and Vanguard are all excellent protectant materials but will not 'cure' the problem once the disease has become established.

You can check out all the products registered for Botrytis on my blog post below from earlier this year entitled 'Let's Talk about Botrytis'.

I thought I would share this article from Wayne Wilcox at Cornell entitled Understanding and Controlling Botrytis. 

For the wineries, I found an interesting article on Mark Cheins Penn State Wine Grape Growing website:  Fermenting with Botrytis 101

And finally we've been getting some questions about KMS (Potassium metabisulfite) and potential for inhibiting botrytis... I found this research article out of South Australia that suggests it has little effect on botrytis sporulation.  You can read the full article here.   

Next Vineyard Walk - Thursday, Sept 13th - 6pm - Annapolis Highlands, Bear River

Since we went 'east' for the last vineyard walk and a had a great turn out - we decided to go a little further west for the final one of 2012!  Please join us on Thursday evening (Sept 13th)  at Annapolis Highlands Vineyard at 6pm (sharp - the evenings are getting shorter...) for a tour of their vineyards and to share information on how the crop is doing!  (hopefully this torrential rainfall isn't causing too many problems!).   

To get to Annapolis Highlands: 

From Halifax: Take Hwy #101 west to Exit 23A. Turn left at the stop sign on the off ramp. Drive approximately 4 kms until you reach the next stop sign at Clementsvale Road. Turn right. Drive 1 km to our driveway on the right.

From Yarmouth: Take Hwy #101 east to Exit 23A. Turn left at the stop sign on the off ramp. Drive approximately 4 kms until you reach the next stop sign at Clementsvale Road. Turn right. Drive 1 km to our driveway on the right.

Looking forward to seeing everyone out for the last vineyard walk of 2012!! 


Also wanted to say a big Thank You to Joanne Moran and Will Wuhrer for organizing the GGANS Annual Tour last Friday - it was a great afternoon!!  :-)