Disease, girdling pest, or wind?

[ChuckD]

So this morning I got a better look at the vines and I have questions! If you read my JB thread you know I pulled the grow tubes off and the next day they were beat up pretty bad by the wind. So looking closer some appear to have suffered injuries like I get when I don’t properly harden off my garden seedlings but some of the leaves have a black and shrunken petiole at the leaf base.



One vine in particular has probably lost half its leaves. I looked up the vine girdling beetle here but that doesn’t look like this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

On the plus side I’m only finding a few JB’s a day.

 

[ChuckD]

So has anyone seen this in their vines? I looked at a lot of websites last night and can’t find anything. It does appear to be only in one row of Marquette.

 

[VinesnBines]

I can’t say. The second picture looks like wind damage. Watch for some new growth. I expect it will recover.

 

[ChuckD]

I can’t say. The second picture looks like wind damage. Watch for some new growth. I expect it will recover.

Thanks. I hope you are right. Today those leaves are brown and dried to a crisp. What has me worried is that the damage is mostly on Marquette vines in close proximity to each other.

 

[VinesnBines]

I can understand the worry. It sounds like wind damage. The shoots are still tender in the tubes so they needed to harden off for winter so the tubes need to come off in late summer. It is bad luck that you had a wind storm right after pulling the tubes.

Are the vines self rooted? If so you probably have nothing at all to worry about. If they are grafted, watch for new growth above the graft and I agree, it is really hard to tell if the growth is above or below the graft. You will be able to tell by the leaves on the new growth.

I hope someone else can give you a little more help. I say just try not to worry. Famous last words.

 

[ChuckD]

Are the vines self rooted? If so you probably have nothing at all to worry about.

Yep, all self rooted hybrids. So far the damage doesn’t seem to be spreading so maybe it was physical injury.

 

[VinesnBines]

I noticed a couple bearing canes broke loose under the fruit weight but still appeared to be attached. The cane eventually withered.

Take two glasses of wine and call us in the morning.

 

[BigH]

My vote is wind damage combined with the use of grow tubes. My evidence

1. Some arborists oppose staking young trees because they feel it results in a taller tree with a weaker trunk. The theory is that young trees exposed to wind devote more energy to building a strong trunk. If you remove the wind stress, the genes that respond to that stress don't kick in
2. Experienced gardeners who start veggies in a greenhouse will setup fans to blow over the baby plants while they live indoors. The same theory applies. You have to expose the young plants to some wind stress to make the strong trunck genes kick in.

You have inadvertently removed all that wind stress, so the vines focused on height instead of tissue strength.

Despite that, I am still an advocate of grow tubes. You have to pick your poison, and I will take wind damage over deer, rabbit and herbicide damage. Based on the pic, it doesn't look like this sporadic damage is going to set you back.

PS: be on the lookout for signs of drought stress. Drooping leaves is one sign

H

 

[ChuckD]

Thanks. I have had damage from not sufficiently hardening off pepper and tomato plants. Some of it does look similar.

Some of the lower leaves were ripped up a little and are now drying out. There may have been some mildew in the tubes as well but all of the leaves that had outgrown the tubes look good.

90 again today and we’re supposed to get rain this evening. If not, I’ll be watering vines tomorrow! We’ve had no appreciable rain in a month.