What happened to my young vines?

[KWPR]

We are in our second year with our little vineyard (80 Syrah vines) on the central coast of California. This year we pruned to establish the main trunk for future growth. Now on some of my vines I've got these rather large clusters of what looks like hundreds of tiny leaves. Please see the photo and let me know if you have seen this and what to do for it. Thanks so much.
Karen

 

[sour_grapes]

I find the picture a little unclear, but aren't those just your vine's flowers?

 

[CK55]

future growth. Now on some of my vines I've got these rather large clusters of what looks like hundr

What part of the Central Coast are you in? Whats the closest AVA, i live basically in the Arroyo Grande AVA

 

[KWPR]

Thanks for your replies. I will try to take better pictures and upload them. We live in Paso Robles near downtown so our AVA would be Paso Robles (not one on the sub-AVAs).
Karen

 

[CK55]

Thanks for your replies. I will try to take better pictures and upload them. We live in Paso Robles near downtown so our AVA would be Paso Robles (not one on the sub-AVAs).
Karen

Thats a great area, lots of great wine. You should get almost the same climate a bit warmer but mostly the same as what ive got. I would recommend looking into how others in the area are growing your varietal. Maybe swing by a winery and ask if they would give you tips. it has worked for me

 

[KWPR]

Well, we had our mentor from our home wine/beer making club over and he was stumped. He says it's not flowers. We contacted the grower (Duarte) and they have offered to send the field rep out for a look. I will post when I find out more.

 

[pdq250]

Well, we had our mentor from our home wine/beer making club over and he was stumped. He says it's not flowers. We contacted the grower (Duarte) and they have offered to send the field rep out for a look. I will post when I find out more.

Good afternoon KWPR, I live also in Paso and a member of Wines and Stine's. We may have met. The photo is a little hard to see the vine up close. Have you used any herbicide? If so that could be your problem as the leaves look damaged.

 

[KWPR]

Good afternoon KWPR, I live also in Paso and a member of Wines and Stine's. We may have met. The photo is a little hard to see the vine up close. Have you used any herbicide? If so that could be your problem as the leaves look damaged.

Wow! Small world. We have met (I just looked you up in the membership directory). I recently joined the board of directors as webmaster (replacing Ed) so you may know who I am.
Regarding pesticides, that's what the grower rep thought it was when she looked at the pictures. The only thing we had sprayed up until that time was Neem oil, mixed to the appropriate ratio. However now that I think of it, we did have someone out to spray the weeds on our hill. He stayed far away from the vines, but now I'm wondering about drift. If that is the problem do you think they will recover or will we have to replace them?

 

[garymc]

If the spray used for the weeds on the hill was 2,4-D or dicamba, it could be the problem. It looks like chemical damage. 2,4-D is a growth regulator and your vines look like they tried to open a million buds. Grapes are very sensitive to 2,4-D for one thing. For another thing, you can spray when the wind is still or blowing away from your grapes and the next day if there are certain atmospheric conditions, the 2,4-D will form a vapor that rises up and drifts. It has been known to drift for a mile. Time will only tell if your vines will come out of this. Assuming replacement would occur over the winter, you could at least give them until then to see how they do. I've had muscadines (granted, they have some differences from vinifera grapes) get the leaves killed crispy brown and I cut back finger thickness wood, thinking it would make it easier to dig them up later. I got busy and didn't get the "dead" one pulled up before spring and it budded and leafed out a foot off the ground. You just never know.