A Detailed Guide to the Latest Control Methods for Grape Sour Rot
When growing grapes, many diseases can occur, and they harm grape leaves, fruits, flowers and other organs to varying degrees, having a very large impact on the growth of the grape plant. Sour rot is one of them, and sour rot occurs almost every year in various parts of our country. The affected area is not small either. It causes large areas of grape berries to rot, affecting both yield and quality. So what are the symptoms of sour rot? How should it be controlled? Let's take a look!
1. Symptoms
Sour rot mainly harms grape berries. After the berries are infected, you will find that the flesh and skin of the affected berries cannot stick together. The wound also turns white, the flesh begins to rot, and liquid appears outside the skin along with a foul odor, and later it gradually flows out of the berry. Some red insects also appear around the berries; upon identification, these insects are small vinegar flies. After the liquid flows out of the berry, the places it passes over, such as leaves, flowers and shoots, all begin to rot. In the end, the entire plant dies completely.
2. Control Methods
Reduce damage: This disease occurs mostly on various split berries and berries with wounds, so we need to reduce the occurrence of berry splitting. Berry splitting is most likely to occur when the soil is heavily watered or when it rains after a period of continuous drought. We should maintain regular watering, replenish water in time during dry weather, and pay attention to drainage when there is too much standing water. During the growing period, attention should be paid to applying calcium fertilizer, because a lack of calcium fertilizer in grapes can also cause berry splitting and other problems.
Control diseases: A large part of the reason sour rot occurs is because of other diseases, such as anthracnose, gray mold and so on. So while controlling sour rot, we must also do a good job of preventing other diseases. The peak period of these diseases is during the bunch-closing and bagging stage of grapes, because after bagging no chemicals can be used, and before bagging the orchard fruit disinfection work was not done well either; the poor ventilation inside the bag and the high temperature make it easy for diseases to breed. Rotten berries, split berries and diseased berries should be picked off in time to reduce the spread of pathogens.
Strengthen management: Strengthening orchard management is the most basic thing. When planting, we have a bad habit, which is that we like to plant different grape varieties mixed together. In fact, this is wrong, because different varieties differ in their growth stages, nutritional needs and even the diseases that harm them, causing some early-maturing varieties with a high incidence of pests and diseases to pass diseases on to late-maturing varieties, and sour rot may be one of them. During topdressing, attention should be paid to the application of nitrogen fertilizer; it must not be applied in a one-sided or excessive way, to prevent excessive vegetative growth. Then carry out pruning and training work in time to improve the ventilation of the orchard and prevent bacteria from breeding.
The above is a brief introduction to the symptoms and control methods of sour rot. Sour rot is a secondary infection disease, very harmful to grapes, and also quite contagious. In severe cases, it may cause an entire orchard to be infected, leading to total loss of production. So everyone must do a good job of control, and reduce the incidence of various diseases as well as some physiological phenomena such as berry splitting, in order to effectively prevent the occurrence of sour rot and improve yield and quality.