Recent Posts
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Since we are entering the time when most of you are thinking about harvesting (and I know some are well along already, depending on location and variety), I will be posting a weekly outlook for rainfall each Saturday to give you an idea of what to expect. If you need more specific daily forecasts for…
Posted in: Weather -
With the increase in sugars, veraison kicks off the period to start managing drosophilid flies (e.g. spotted wing drosophila (SWD)), which can considerably help suppress sour rot in your vulnerable grapes. The drosophilid flies are active nearly year round in these parts, but near veraison, as the brix levels in wine grapes reach approximately 15…
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Some of our earlier harvested varieties, like Blanc du Bois, in west GA have their harvest start scheduled very soon! While many of you still have several weeks before harvest begins, it is time to refresh on things to keep in mind when making harvest decisions. Harvest Decision Considerations: Repost from 2018 by Cain: https://site.extension.uga.edu/viticulture/2018/08/harvest-update-good-luck/…
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Please join us on August 16th for a mid season meeting to discuss current conditions and look towards harvest. With our new Viticulture Specialist Sarah Lowder on board, we look forward to bringing more frequent workshops back to the industry. Please click on the pdf link below to go to registration page. $20 gets you…
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Hello all, Next week we will be discussing making wines with other fruit. We have a wine maker from Iowa who will be our main presenter. If you have experience in making fruit wine, we’d love for you to join our conversation and tell of your experiences. See flyer below and click the link or…
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We often think about pruning as a winter activity. However, this process starts much earlier in the year. Vines under stress are much more easily identified during the summer. Residual effects from cold damage or trunk disease issues, while they can appear early in the season, are often becoming more apparent as we move forward…
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In Georgia and the Southeast as a whole, we grow vinifera, muscadine and other native grapes, and various hybrids. The acid profiles of these grapes are highly variable, and they will contribute to the quality of wines produced. Dr. Abhinav Mishra (UGA Food Science Department) will be conducting some preliminary experiments to explore the acid…
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We do now have an option for fungicide resistance testing of several pathogens of wine grapes. These include pathogens associated with powdery mildew, downy mildew, ripe rot, and Botrytis. Now is a good time to test, as pathogens are being observed in some vineyards, and testing now can allow you to switch fungicide classes to…
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Some of you may have already conducted leaf removal in your vineyards, but some of you are now getting into the early fruit development stage where leaf removal is considered more of the ‘standard’ time point. See some of lovely pictures of some fresh leaf removal from Bill Cox. Q: Why remove leaves? A: Fruit-zone…
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Out in the Watkinsville Hort Farm this morning I noticed some Japanese beetles – the season is upon us! Below is some information that Dr. Brett Blaauw posted previously that some of you may find helpful. Let me know what ya’ll are seeing in your own vineyards – how has it compared to previous years?…