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Some information on the prevention of Esca disease through good pruning practices and the choice of appropriate training systems.
Grapevine trunk diseases are considered the most destructive of the diseases that have affected the grapevine in the last 3 decades and are a source of growing concern in all wine producing districts.
The economic cost for dead plant replacements can be estimated at $1.5 billion per year (Hofstetter et al., 2012).
Trunk diseases are very dangerous for the sustainability of wine heritage because the pathogens responsible attack the permanent organs, causing sooner or later the death of the plants.
Esca, Eutypa and Botryosphaeria are the main culprits of these trunk diseases. Once the adult plants are infected, even those replanted to replace them can be attacked.
Other diseases such as Petri’s disease, or Blackfoot (Campylocarpon, Cylindrocladiella, Dactylonectria, Ilyonectria and Neonectria spp.) are the diseases which most affect the young plants, reducing productivity and longevity and causing considerable economic damage (Gramaje and Armengol, 2011).
Lecomte (2021), illustrated very well the influence of the training system and the methods of pruning on the development of esca in a recent publication available in IVES Technical Reviews https://doi.org/10.20870/IVES-TR.2021.4734.
(The publication is available in Italian in the attachments of this post)
“The main conclusion is that very simplified farming systems and too strict pruning regimes must be avoided in a context of prevention and control of Esca disease, especially for susceptible varieties.”
What are the main causes of the development of Esca disease?
– Climatic factors
– Incorrect pruning practices
– Use of electric shears
– Incorrect choice of training system
– Incorrect distance between plants and rows
What to do to prevent and/or reduce the impact of Esca disease?
– Avoid the concentration of pruning wounds (e.g. avoid the crown head for the Guyot training system);
– Allow the vegetative points to branch and elongate on the spurred cordon instead of removing them;
– Avoid using electric shears;
– Rethink the planting distance of the row by increasing it to obtain enough space for development, to be able to apply the pruning methods described by SIMONIT&SIRCH, both for the Guyot and the Spurred Cordon.
<font face=”inherit”>- Adapt and review the technical </font>specifications<font face=”inherit”> of the designated production areas in the context of a global reflection of planting densities, training systems and pruning techniques. These three elements act in unison. </font>
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This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by Luca.
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