More on Grape Vine Disease

More on Grape Vine Disease. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Dr. Naidu A. Rayapati, Assistant Professor (Virology) at WSU's IAREC has been researching several grape vine diseases including leaf roll and fan leaf. RAYAPATI: We're also finding some other disease problems that seems to be of minor insignificance at the present time but perhaps could become a major problem if we don't pay attention. For example fan leaf disease is one of the emerging problems that we have been finding. So far we were able to detect fan leaf virus in four different cultivars. He says those came from 4 geographically distinct vineyards and that has led to an interesting finding. RAYAPATI: And our research has also shown that the spread of fan leaf disease is occurring through infected cuttings rather than through nematode vector. Because we have not been able to detect the specific vector of fan leaf disease Additional research clearly indicates that whatever spread that is happening is due to dissemination of infected cuttings. That means no way of using a pesticide to combat the problem. Rayapati says that is fortunate in that it makes eliminating the disease easier. RAYAPATI: We can take out the infected vines instead of taking the entire vineyard and then we can replant with virus free cuttings. More on Monday. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.