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January 2016 WINES&VINES 157 WINE EAST WINE INDUSTRY NEWS C ollege Station, Texas— Af t e r m o r e t h a n 1 0 0 years of fighting a fungus that causes cotton root rot—and then four years of testing a new chemical product—researchers at Texas A&M AgriLife Research have found a way to stop the ef- fects of that disease in vineyards in Texas and other parts of the Southwest. Dr. David Appel, professor of plant pathology and Texas A&M AgriLife extension specialist, told Wines & Vines that cotton root rot has replaced Pierce's disease as the major disease of concern in the Texas Hill Country and Gulf Coast viticultural regions. Caused by the fungus Phymatotrichopsis omnivora, cotton root rot attacks more than 2,000 species of plants including cotton, grapevines and other fruits and nut trees. The fungus prefers calcareous clay loam soils with a pH between 7.0 and 8.5, in regions with high sum- mer temperatures, according to the plant disease handbook from Texas A&M University. Cotton root rot is also present in Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico, all of which have similar types of soil and environmental conditions. Wine East Covering Eastern North America Victory Over Century-Old Grapevine Fungus The fungus produces seed-like organisms called sclerotia that can survive in the soil for decades and then detect the roots of a suscep- tible crop growing near it. When the fungus finds grapevine roots in vineyards, it will attack, and healthy looking vines wilt. The leaves turn brown but stay at- tached to the vine, and within two weeks the vine dies. In 2008, two AgriLife exten- sion researchers decided to test all fungicides that had been devel- oped for other crop diseases since the 1990s. One product, flutriafol (also known as TopGuard Terra), which had been created to control soybean rust, appeared to control cotton root rot in cotton. AgriLife researchers worked with grape- growers and FMC, the manufac- turer of TopGuard Terra, to determine the impact of that prod- uct on vineyards. Dr. Appel and Sheila McBride of the Texas A&M AgriLife Exten- sion Service established field trials in vineyards in Travis County (the area around Austin, Texas), Bur- net County (northwest of Austin) and Real County (west of San An- tonio, Texas). One newly planted vineyard already was showing signs of the disease, and two other vineyards were known to have the fungus present. Repeated trials proved to the team that flutriafol was effective in controlling cotton root rot dis- ease in vineyards. McBride stated, "We are getting increased vine survival and much less mortality in treated groups." As a result of their work, the Texas Department of Agriculture approved a 24C registration for the use of flutriafol on grapes. —Linda Jones McKee We believe that every packaging solution should be as unique as the wine it packages. Suppliers of Wine Bottles, Corks, Caps and Closures 888-539-3922 • WWW.PLANWITHWATERLOO.COM Cotton root rot kills vines in two weeks.