Mildew: Its not just in your shower

We should have known that we would not be the exception to the rule.

We started to notice that some of our Cab Franc vines were looking a little rough; their leaves were starting to turn colors, shrivel up and fall off. It could have been the grow tubes. It could also be mildew. I noticed some mildew on a few leaves in the past, but disregarded it as an aberration and went about my business. Now it seems that those infected leaves may have spread mildew to others.

Mildew is not particular to Virginia, but it is prevalent because of the humidity. Most vineyards have to spray a variety of fungicides to keep the mildew under control. The problem doesn't end there, however, because the number of mildews and fungicides are many.

The three most common types of mildew are powdery, downy and phomopsis. Each produces distinct symptoms and affects the vine differently. The mildew can be ID'ed based on the discoloration of the leaf and the side of the leaf that hosts the midew spores.

Mildew is treated various ways; the constant being that the treatment regimen must vary. Mildew adapts quickly to one type of fungicide if used extensively. In fact, most fungicide instructions recommend at most two consecutive applications and no more than four the entire season.

The fungicide that we found locally was neem oil based. Neem oil is an organic treatment that specifically targets powdery mildew. It was applied on July 19, 2008. The results seem good so far. We are travelling down to Culpeper on Saturday, July 26 to see for ourselves.

Pictures and updated blathering will follow.