Even last year, described as ‘near perfect’ in Wine GB’s recent 2023 harvest report, pests and diseases caused problems, so the record yields achieved by growers could have been higher still.
Discussing the factors of interest to GB wine growers, the report states that mildews and botrytis were both worse than in 2022, which is not surprising given the summer and autumn rainfall.
It goes on to note that Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) was considerably worse than in previous years, which is probably due to the lower acidities in 2023, especially in the increased area of red varieties.
The Certis Belchim ‘Successful vine growing’ guide provides solutions to these major challenges amongst a broad range of pests and diseases that can affect GB vines.
It also provides guidance on vineyard hygiene, controlling damage from slugs and competition from weeds and suckers.
Crucially for sustainability, the Certis Belchim range of vine protection products include biorationals which are approved for use in organic vineyards. These can be integrated with conventional chemistry in modern IPM approaches to vine agronomy.
The GB area in production is estimated to have risen by 50% over the last four years (Wine GB and industry estimates), so there are likely to be plenty of new growers that need to get up to speed with tackling pests and diseases.
Certis Belchim horticulture crop manager Libby Rowland says: “The new edition of the guide is a great learning resource for new growers and a useful reference for experienced growers when walking crops and making crop protection decisions with their BASIS qualified agronomists.”
It can be downloaded now as a pdf by visiting www.certisbelchim.co.uk/viticulture
