Black-rot is a difficult fungal disease that affects the vines when rainfall is plentiful. And it has been plentiful, so say the least, in France this spring and early summer. Black-rot (as it is called also in French, perhaps because the disease was the “imported” from North America in the late 1800s) attacks both leaves and grapes.
This year it is been particularly present in parts of southern Rhone Valley and the Languedoc, where some vines have symptoms of both leaves, grapes, trunk and canes. Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Carignan are especially at risk.
The organic growers are particularly worried. They must work carefully in the vineyard and, for example, remove all infected branches and grapes. Spraying with copper can possibly help but black-rot is much more resistant to copper than downy mildew. Yet another plague for the wine growers in this year of horrors without end for the vineyards.
Read more vitisphere.com. (Picture: grey rot.)
