# Black rot solutions



## rgindustries2000 (Jul 26, 2017)

Good evening fellow farmers.

Question- I am in year three of my backyard vineyard and finally ready for a harvest this fall. I see a lot of my clusters have I believe black rot as grapes are all shriveled up. Do I need to cut all these off to save the ones that do not Yet have the disease or is this season now a waste? Does the fungus spread from cluster to cluster? I do not have a lot of clusters I would like to see the one so I do have succeed. I did spray ortho fungicide/insecticide on them twice once I noticed.


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## BigH (Jul 26, 2017)

Unfortunately, once you see black rot in clusters, it is pretty much too late to act. There is a good chance that all the clusters on infected vines will shrivel up and raisin on you. 

Consider this a valuable lesson.Your spray program should start a touch after bud break and continue throughout the growing season, right up until you hit pre-harvest intervals on your sprays. Grape clusters are supposed to be immune to black rot infections once they reach veraison, as long as you sprayed and kept the plant free of infection earlier in the year.

Also, make sure that you practice good hygiene in the vineyard. All of the clusters that shrivel up need to be collected and disposed of away from the vineyard. Keep the vineyard floor clean of leaves and pruning trash.

Google "Midwest Small Fruit and Grape Spray Guide", download the PDF, and read the the entire section for grapes. Lots of big words in there. It can be intimidating at first, but it boils down to picking a few fungicides from different families and rotating them throughout the year. You will need to learn about pre-harvest intervals too. You will want to have at least one fungicide and something to spray with when bud break happens next spring. For me, that is Manzate (aka Mancozeb) and a Hudson backpack sprayer). Some of the other threads in hear list some of the fungicides taht others are using.

Good luck.
H


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## KevinL (Jul 26, 2017)

Yeah. I lost a good deal of my Frontenac to Black rot, and some Niagara Grapes to powdery mildew. I ended up using Immunox (Myclobutanil) about two weeks ago and I haven't had the disease spread to any other clusters since. Veraison is just starting now. 

I'll make sure to have a good program set up for next year, and count this one as a lesson learned. The humidity in Illinois where I am seems to make for a good environment for Black Rot.


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## rgindustries2000 (Jul 27, 2017)

Thank you both! I will do research on fungicides and hopefully start out next year on a better foot. Hopefully I can salvage the remaining good clusters- Cayuga. Thank you again!

PS. what can I spray in the vine rows that will kill the weeds and grass but not the vines. Right now I mow between each vine and row but I see at commercial vineyard they do not have anything between each vine, therefore preventing diseases from growing. 

PSS. I have a 24 vine vineyard i planted 3 years ago. All Cayuga as I am in Connecticut. Thanks again.


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## jgmillr1 (Jul 27, 2017)

Just like the fungicide&insecticide spray programs for your grapes, there are a variety of herbicides you can use under the vines. However, some of the herbicides used commercially are "restricted use pesticides" that require you to have an applicator license with the state. And other herbicides have restrictions on the age of the grapevines or whether they are bearing fruit.

Probably the most effective and most available herbicide for you is to use some formulation of round-up (ie. glyphosate) as a post-emergent burn down. Be very careful though! The spray will not harm woody trunks but can be absorbed by green suckers at the base of the vine and be drawn into the vine where it can injure your grapevine. So I would prune off or protect suckers you want to keep and carefully spray around the vines with this.

You can also apply a per-emergent herbicide such as Surflan that works well with newly established vines.


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## bumblebeetuna (Jul 28, 2017)

Glyphosate is a systematic herbicide and will kill root systems also can hurt the vine if you have growth at the bottom of your vines. Glufosinate is a burn down and will kill anything green. If you accidentally hit a leaf or two on the vine it will kill that leaf but no more.


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## rgindustries2000 (Nov 21, 2017)

Good afternoon fellow farmers.

Just wanted to update you on my first harvest, post black rot. I ended up getting 11.3 lbs of grapes(24 vines), not alot at all but I am still very excited about it. All the tips you guys gave me I will be applying next year so as to not lose any grapes. Here are two photos of my cayuga ageing. You can see the first is initial harvest and crush, and the second is after my first racking. Thank you again for your assistance, glad I joined this group.


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## KevinL (Nov 29, 2017)

I've got a battery powered backpack sprayer all ready for next year. When I get a chance to sit down with a calendar and the spray guide, I'll get my spray program written out and see what I need to order. I intend to keep the black rot completely under control. 

After the birds and the chipmunks had their fill, I pulled in 11 pounds of Frontenac, and 1.5 pounds of Vidal this year. I've got 1 gallon that I've racked once that seems to be coming along.


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## Jack7033 (Dec 12, 2017)

On diseases. Start early in the growing season. Rotate spray materials to prevent amunity as diseases evolve. 
Preventing is easier than eradicating after they are present. 
Has anyone tried a new spray material called Thymeguard. Supposedly organic. 
Jack.


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