This year’s vine pests. These are the prospects for the future.
2023. August 24.In recent years, more and more people are getting involved in viticulture, and with it, in wine-making.
The culture was introduced to Pannonia, which is today’s Serem region of Croatia, by the Emperor Probus.
Unfortunately, however, climate change is causing grapes to suffer more and more from diseases and pests.
In the future it will be even more difficult.
In this article, we look at the pests and problems we are facing this season.
Diseases and pests
The renaissance of plant protection is no coincidence, since its origins can be traced back to the cultivation of grapes, and most plant protection products are therefore invented for this fruit.
As early as the 19th century.
In the 19th century, the need to face up to the pathogens and pests that had entered Europe made it necessary to take action.
At that time, one of these diseases was of American origin, and it was powdery mildew, which still plagues growers today.
European grape varieties are highly susceptible to the fungus and experts at the time believed that resistant American varieties could be used to prevent the spread of the fungus.
However, it was at this time that phylloxera came into the picture, and in 1875 it was introduced to our country.
The old Hungarian grape varieties slowly disappeared because of the pernicious pest, followed by the Italian Riesling, the Furmint and the Lime Leaf.
Recently, the demand for quality wine has increased dramatically, and we are buying more and more expensive alcohol.
That is why more attention has been paid to plant protection, which cannot be done with a single product for all pests and diseases.
The vines and plantations must be constantly monitored to ensure that all pests are controlled.
What are we facing?
The first and most damaging pathogen is the soil-borne grapevine root-knot nematode.
In order to control powdery mildew, we started to import and plant vines from Europe of American origin, but these rootstocks brought phylloxera to the continent, which spread throughout the continent in a few years.
The problem is that the pest can completely destroy the vine by sucking the roots of the vine, which causes nodules to form on the roots.
The plant becomes weak and in most cases dies completely.
However, it should be mentioned here that the American species can tolerate these pests, so they are not destroyed.
Prevention is only possible with the right soil.
It does not occur in soils with a quartz content of at least 75%, as the outer cover of phylloxera cannot survive this high quartz content.
Therefore, the only option on bound soils is grafting on American species. 
On the roots of young vines, you should also watch out for chanterelle beetle, horsefly, boll weevil larvae and some nematode species.
Bacterial cell proliferation is also not uncommon, but the first and most important thing to do is to destroy the rootstock immediately and never replace it with woody plants for at least 6 years.
What about insect pests?
In this context, we have to deal with a number of species that can damage the crop, the flowers as well as the cluster.
One of these that is back this year is the saddle vine moth, which although it has not caused much damage in recent years, now seems to be back again.
As it is a multigenerational species, the first generation in the caterpillar stage will gnaw the barely flowering or already attached bunches.
It also destroys buds and stems.
The second generation chews the inside of the green berry.
Prevention and control can only be achieved with pheromone traps.
An even more damaging species is the variegated vine weevil, which is three generations old and therefore also strikes three times.
The grey mould rot that develops at the site of the chewing can really damage the plant.
But the good news is that this can also be controlled, using light traps, sex pheromone traps or aerosol traps.