I planted two grape vines earlier this summer, one Concord and one mystery grape that a nice woman gave me. The Concord looked nice and healthy, but then it started doing this thing. On the stem of a perfectly healthy-looking leaf, up near the leaf, a brownish spot would appear. Within a day or two, the stem would just dissolve through at that point, and the leaf would fall off, still green and healthy-looking. Pretty much all the original leaves fell off, but new ones have grown in. Now they're starting to fall off. The mystery grape has had the same problem, but on a much smaller scale. The plants are about eight feet apart, in a sunny, well-drained location. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), August 24, 2000

Answers

The latest issue of Organic Gardening (Sept/Oct 2000) has an article on grapes. I don't know anything about growing grapes, but this sounded like it MIGHT be your problem:

Black rot attacks leaves, shoots, tendrils, and young stems, which show small, dark, elliptical cankers. The baking soda and bordeaux mixture is effective against black rot, but it's critical to spray when shoots are 18 and 24 inches long, just before bloom, just after bloom, and about 2 weeks later.

Bordeaux mixture is something you can buy, consists of copper sulfate, slaked lime, water, and salt. Dissolve 1 tablespoon of baking soda in a gallon of water, with bordeaux misture added according to label instructions, per their instructions.

Hope this helps!


-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), August 25, 2000.

Just looked at the website for Organic Gardening -- there is an online article about growing grapes (though nothing about diseases).

Their main site is: Organic Gardening

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), August 25, 2000.

If you live in the South, it could be fire blight.

-- Barbara C. Fischer (cen12205@centurytel.net), August 31, 2000.