Leaf Roll Disease. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Grape growers need to be on their toes as a new virus is making its way into vineyards according to WSU researcher, Naidu Rayapati.

RAYAPATI: Leaf roll disease is one of the, I would consider emerging virus disease problems impacting wine grapes in Washington State and indeed in the entire Pacific Northwest. As the industry is expanding this problem is becoming more and more apparent

Leaf roll disease is being spread by taking cuttings from infected vines and transplanting them.

RAYAPATI: Many growers are getting concerned because of this leaf roll disease largely because it affects the vigor of the grape as for less production and also it affects the quality of the grapes for making wines.

Those grapes have less sugars and that means a much poorer quality of wine. Rayapati says at this point there is no way to combat the disease.

RAYAPATI: One of the complex issues with leaf roll disease, in fact with many different virus disease problems is that there are no chemicals that we can use for curing an infected plant. For example if we have powdery mildew we have the effective fungicides we can apply at the right time to prevent the spread of powdery mildew. Whereas we don’t have such a luxury with virus disease problems.

More on Monday.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.