GRAPEVINE trunk disease costs the Australian wine sector millions of dollars in lost production each year, but now grape growers have a new tool to better manage its impact.
The University of Adelaide and Wine Australia have joined forces with the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) to update the Grape Assess app – released in June this year – with the latest research on grapevine trunk disease, adding to the existing range of grapevine disease and disorder evaluations within the app.
Eileen Scott, Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of Adelaide’s School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, said the updated app simplified the assessment and management of grapevine trunk disease.
“The Grape Assess update builds on the strength of the app’s existing assessment of powdery mildew and other conditions,” Professor Scott said.
“The update has embedded the latest grapevine trunk disease research in a convenient tool that will help grape growers to make an assessment in the vineyard and then email the information, which includes GPS coordinates, to themselves to better target management of the disease.”
Wine Australia research, development and extension general manager Dr Liz Waters said the update to Grape Assess was undertaken in collaboration with grape growers and researchers to strengthen its existing application.
“We are delighted with the update to Grape Assess and to see our research community continue to lead the way globally in developing management tools for grapevine trunk disease,” Dr Waters said.
“The update is also timely as growers are moving into the perfect conditions for assessment, which should be done during spring when the grapevine shoots are between 30-70cm long and before the canopy gets too big and hides symptoms.”
Working with grape growers, advisers and Dr Mark Sosnowski from SARDI, the update will help determine the loss of productive canopy due to the grapevine trunk diseases eutypa and botryosphaeria dieback.
Extra fields have been added to Grape Assess to estimate yield impact and reference images for canopy loss have been included.
Grape Assess also facilitates assessment of multiple grapevine diseases and disorders including bunch rot, downy mildew, insect damage, sunburn and powdery mildew.
Grape Assess can be freely downloaded from the Android and Apple app stores.
