CropWatch Downy mildew

26 October 2010
DOWNY MILDEW ALERT
Current weather forecasts are predicting conditions will be conducive for a downy
mildew infection t when rains start late Thursday and into Friday. This alert is issued
by the Adelaide Hills Wine Region to ensure that growers have a chance to review
their spray plans and take steps to minimise risk during this period. The normal
CropWatch bulletin will be issued early next week to report on whether or not an
infection period occurred over the weekend.
Downy mildew primary infections occur when soils are damp, rain of at least 10mm
occurs, temperatures are above 10°C and vine leaves are wet for 24 hours. With the Odd “spots”
coming weather all conditions are favourable for disease. However, a cold mass of air
coming in on Saturday may reduce temperatures to below those required for infection. Downy oilspots

Preparation for a primary infection event

Protectant application – pre-infection sprays
Cropwatch recommends that a protectant (pre-infection) spray be applied to prevent
risk of downy mildew as part of a standard preventive fungicide program. The addition
of Copper, Captan or Mancozeb will protect vine tissue from a primary infection. The
fungicide program should include sprays every 14 days at this time of the season.
Most vineyards should be close to completion of the first application program. Rain
events will wash off the protectant chemicals and for every 5mm of rainfall received, a
day of protection will be lost. Rainfall of 20mm will reduce back the period of
protection to 10 days in a 14 day program.
Post-infection sprays
When a primary infection has occurred managers may opt to use a post-infection
spray within 3-5 days to prevent the development of oilspots. These sprays must be
Courtesy - Nicholas. P,.
applied in this period to be effective. One of the Group 4 (Group Y) chemicals should Magarey, P, Wachtel, M.
be used with the active ingredient of Metalaxyl together with a pre-infection protectant. Diseases and Pests,
Winetitles
Products with copper include Axiom Plus® and Ridomil Gold® and with Mancozeb
include Axiom MZ® and Ridomil Gold MZ®. www.winetitles.com/dia
gnosis/index.asp
Oilspot monitoring
Regardless of the method for protection that managers have chosen they should be
monitoring their vineyards carefully for evidence of oilspots. These may occur in
protected vineyards where there has been a row missed or poor spray coverage. If
these areas are missed, and a secondary infection occurs, this would be devastating
particularly this early in the season. Flowers are highly susceptible to infection and
readily trap downy mildew spores.

Further updates
The next Cropwatch bulletin will be issued
early next week and will indicate if weather
conditions were conducive for disease. This
season has a high risk forecast for downy
mildew so it would pay to review spray
programs now.
PWATCH – 1 JANUARY 2011
CropWatch SA is a name registered to RWIDC, Riverland. The Adelaide Hills Wine Region CropWatch service is provided by Hamilton Viticulture.
Information is general in nature. Always seek professional advice specific to your vineyard. All photos (c) Hamilton Viticulture unless noted.
Contact: natasha@adelaidehills.com.au.