# Help with potential grape disease



## spaniel (Jul 13, 2013)

My Foch have many leave which, rather than ending in the normal shape, have a tendril/hair-like look. So instead of having the smooth edges it is frilly or hair-like. If the experts here can't get it from that I can post a pic, I just didn't take one today while the light was good. There is no spotting, discoloration or other signs of disease. I've searched online and found no pics which match up with this.

My Oberlin Noir seems to have a few leaves like this, but nowhere to the extent of the Foch.


----------



## Pumpkinman (Jul 13, 2013)

Spaniel, please post a pic, it will be much easier to diagnose.


----------



## spaniel (Jul 13, 2013)

Pumpkinman said:


> Spaniel, please post a pic, it will be much easier to diagnose.



Will do tomorrow when I have adequate light.


----------



## lawrstin (Jul 14, 2013)

Is it Eutypa Dieback Disease?


----------



## grapeman (Jul 14, 2013)

It could be 2, 4-D damage from the description. http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/HO/DW-10-W.pdf


----------



## spaniel (Jul 14, 2013)

grapeman said:


> It could be 2, 4-D damage from the description. http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/HO/DW-10-W.pdf



Bingo. I figured you'd know. 

Other than the leaf disfigurement, the damage appears pretty minor. The vines are setting a decent crop.

Of course I don't use 2,4-D anywhere! My vines are across the road from some neighbor's lawns, and there is the possibility it could have drifted from there. In fact I planted a row of redbuds between my vines and the road to catch any drift after some damage more significant than this right after I started the vineyard (that year, I could smell it in the air a couple days prior to the damage being evident).

I did apply a residual along with glyphosate to keep a strip clear underneath the vines. I calculated a rate which should have been a safe margin below what it recommended for use with grape vines -- as it did not stop all weeds from growing I'm pretty certain I applied less than the recommended rate. I was a bit neurotic about keeping the vines safe and erring on the side of to little! But I will have to look into it and eliminate that application as a potential cause. I don't remember the herbicide name off the top of my head.

Thanks again.


----------



## BMeloche (Jul 14, 2013)

I have allot of 2, 4-D damage this year being so close to a large bean field. I also had black rot in several spots this year which I hope we have removed and gotten under control. Save the foch, I think you have a winner with that one!


----------



## spaniel (Jul 14, 2013)

BMeloche said:


> I have allot of 2, 4-D damage this year being so close to a large bean field. I also had black rot in several spots this year which I hope we have removed and gotten under control. Save the foch, I think you have a winner with that one!



Thanks...the Foch from last year is young but I just cracked a bottle the other day and it has potential. A definite improvement over my first attempt, the MLF seems to have really helped.

The residual I used was simazine. All the research I've done indicates this was not the cause of the damage I see; must have been 2,4-D. I'm planting some more large shrubs to thicken the drift break next year, that's about all I can do. The Foch are clearly the most sensitive of all the varieties I have. The Oberlin Noir only have a few leaves showing damage and the Cayuga none. I recall talking to a local winery a few years ago and they said they used to like using Foch, but that the entire vineyard they used to buy from in southern Indiana was wiped out a few years earlier by 2,4-D drift.


----------



## grapeman (Jul 14, 2013)

2,4-D injury can occur from a gas cloud drift, not just spray drift so a hedge will not protect them. You will need to speak with the person doing the spraying and make sure they only spray when there is a slight breeze blowing AWAY from your vines.


----------



## spaniel (Jul 14, 2013)

grapeman said:


> 2,4-D injury can occur from a gas cloud drift, not just spray drift so a hedge will not protect them. You will need to speak with the person doing the spraying and make sure they only spray when there is a slight breeze blowing AWAY from your vines.



My thought was that the hedge/tree row was better than nothing. Clearly, the damage this time was not nearly as significant as it was last time.

The person who sprays the lawns nearest me is my neighbor and aware of the vines and issue. In fact he was gone this week so he could not have applied any spray. For all I know this came from a farm field further away....not much I can do about that.


----------

