Grapevine trunk diseases such as Eutypa and Botryosphaeria dieback contribute to grapevine decline, reducing a vine’s productivity and longevity, and causing considerable economic loss to the Australian wine industry. Back in 1999, it was estimated that Eutypa dieback cost South Australian growers up to $2800 per hectare through lost production. Recent case studies where Eutypa-affected vines have been reworked have seen yield increases double.
Extensive research funded by Wine Australia underpins our understanding of how trunk pathogens infect vines through pruning wounds, colonise woody tissue and cause dieback of cordons and trunks. We also understand that best-practice management of trunk diseases is based on removing infected wood material and preventing infection through pruning wounds, and there has been a concerted effort to see best practice management adopted around the country.
With funding from Wine Australia, in November 2013, a technical delegation from the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) and the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre (NWGIC) undertook a deliberate three-pronged approach to assisting growers in Queensland – visiting vineyards to assess the problem, collecting samples and having them tested; running a technical workshop; and farm walks with practical ‘hands-on’ demonstration of how to fix the problem. This saw the knowledge and skills delivered directly to the growers, who then undertook remediation in their own vineyards.
As a direct result of winery visits, workshops and practical demonstrations from experts in trunk disease, Warren and Sue Smith of Pyramids Road Wines in Queensland’s Granite Belt have progressively been reworking their vineyard to both fix the problem of trunk dieback and implement preventative mechanisms to avoid the problem in the future. This early intervention – taking samples from the vineyard, having them analysed, and then showing the Smiths what to do about it – meant that the impact has been huge: ‘[We] couldn’t believe how much of a difference
it made to the vineyard’.
Funded by the Wine Australia regional program, this adoption format has been delivered in wine regions around the country and has resulted in similar stories of improved productivity and vine longevity.