In France, sanitary pressure has reached record levels. Cognac vintages 2023 and 2024 made it clear: downy mildew is striking earlier every year. Mild winters and frequent rain boost contamination risks and make vineyard operations harder to conduct.

And the pressure isn’t just biological. Regulation is tightening too. Active substances are being withdrawn, and allowed spray doses are shrinking. Growers must now rethink protection strategies and adapt them to both the new climate conditions and the rulebook.

Three levers: practices, optimal spraying, and data

How do we respond? By working on three fronts.

• Cultural practices such as leaf removal and careful nitrogen management improve canopy aeration and limit vigor, making vines less susceptible.
• Optimized spraying is also crucial: precise sprayer calibration and targeted applications boost efficiency while reducing inputs.
• Technology brings the final lever, helping growers anticipate risks instead of reacting to them.

Decision support: the grower’s co-pilot

Decision Support Tools (DSTs) analyze agronomic and weather data to deliver clear answers. Is the vineyard at risk of downy mildew in this moment? When will the next contamination event strike? By modeling vine growth and pathogen cycles, these tools highlight critical windows for action.

“With the climate becoming more unpredictable, DSTs are turning into essential allies — especially when paired with accurate weather forecasts. Cross-checking several sources of data sharpens decision-making.”
— Nathalie Poppe, Technical Manager, Phloème Conseil

Vintel®: seeing the invisible

Among crop protection tools, Vintel® is making its mark. It combines phenological models, epidemiological simulations, and treatment performance analysis. Its edge? The ability to “see the invisible.” By estimating pathogen development before symptoms appear — from winter egg maturation to first infections — Vintel® gives growers a head start.

Drawing on weather station data and forecast models, it helps pinpoint the best moment to spray and renew coverage, saving time and inputs while increasing effectiveness.

Innovation meets experience

Of course, no tool replaces the grower’s eye. But they can enrich it.

“Vintel® stands out for its ability to anticipate symptom emergence and track winter egg maturation. It helps growers fine-tune their protection plans. Experience remains essential — but DSTs bring valuable support alongside it.”
— Nathalie Poppe, Technical Manager, Phloème Conseil

A new roadmap for vineyard protection

Climate change and regulations are rewriting the rules of vineyard management. The only sustainable path combines good vineyard practices, precise treatments, and technological innovation. By blending field experience with digital precision, the wine industry has the keys to building durable protection strategies — and safeguarding vineyards for the next generation.

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L’article Fighting vine fungal diseases in times of climate change est apparu en premier sur Vintel®.

What diseases commonly affect vines in summer?

Oidium and Black Rot are two pathogens that can seriously affect leaves and bunches during growth and veraison. Powdery mildew, in particular, does not require rain or leaf wetness to develop, making it a threat even in summer, which is generally a less rainy period.Black Rot, on the other hand, poses the greatest threat to vines during the critical phenological phase between the fall of the flower caps and veraison.

Post-veraison, grey rot, or botrytis, is particularly problematic. This fungus feeds on the sugars contained in the berries, damaging the bunches and encouraging the development of acid rot. It also imparts unpleasant odours and flavours to the wines produced.

Major consequences for vineyard health and wine quality

The impact of these diseases on vineyard health can be devastating, reducing both yield and quality of the harvest. Grapes affected by these pathogens often lead to wines with undesirable aromas and tastes, far from the desired quality level.

Prevention : an effective strategy

Proactive control and prevention strategies are essential to protect vineyards from these summer diseases.

Vineyard maintenance for optimum management

It is important to select resistant grape varieties and prune properly to improve air circulation and reduce humidity, which limits the development of pathogens. Frequent inspection of the vines allows early detection of the first signs of disease. It is crucial to intervene immediately when symptoms appear to prevent the spread of disease.
The application of specific fungicides and biocontrol products, such as plant extracts or antagonistic micro-organisms, must be carried out in accordance with recommended treatment schedules or the predictions of disease DSTs (Decision Support Tools).
In the case of a plot sensitive to black rot, it is useful to use anti-mildew or anti-oidium products that also have an anti-black rot action to have a comprehensive defense strategy.

Vigilance for high-performance vineyards

Even in the drier summer months, we must not lower our guard. Vigilance and early intervention are crucial to maintaining healthy vineyards and guaranteeing high-quality wine production. Decision support systems (DSS), such as Vintel®, provide precise alerts on disease pressures. This enables winegrowers to optimise treatment timings and implement effective preventive measures, thereby enhancing vine protection and securing the future harvest against summer diseases.

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L’article Vine diseases in summer: prevention is better than cure est apparu en premier sur Vintel®.

Downy mildew, a significant impact on plants and yields

Downy mildew, caused by the pathogen Plasmopara viticola, attacks various parts of the vine: leaves, bunches and berries. This disease has several negative effects:

It reduces the leaf surface used for photosynthesis. Affected leaves exhibit oily yellow spots on their upper surface and white mold on their underside.

It damages the berries turning them brown and crushed, consequently decreasing the quality and yield of the harvest.

It weakens the shoots, preventing shoot development and wood formation, making winter pruning more difficult. These combined effects reduce the vine’s reserves, compromise berry growth and make the plants more vulnerable.

What conditions are conducive to risk?

The development of downy mildew is favoured by specific climatic conditions:

Ideal temperatures for the spread of the disease are between 20 and 25°C with a humidity level of 85% or more.
Prolonged rainfall, dew and morning fog exacerbate the risk of contamination.
Periods of vigorous vine growth, when new shoots are most vulnerable, are particularly critical. In addition, certain grape varieties, such as Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Merlot, are particularly sensitive to mildew.

Appropriate treatment and prevention methods

Copper-based fungicides and specific systemic products are commonly used to combat downy mildew. It is essential to alternate the types of fungicide used to prevent the pathogen from developing resistance. In addition, combining substances with different modes of action and creating spatial heterogeneity in their application helps to prevent the development of pathogen resistance.

Various cultivation techniques can prevent downy mildew, such as pruning to improve air circulation around the plants, removing infected debris to reduce sources of contamination, and ensuring effective drainage to avoid puddle formation. Green pruning eliminates unnecessary shoots and promotes shoot aeration; maintaining a cover crop protects the soil and reduces water or contaminated soil splashes. Trellising and leaf removal also improve aeration. Finally, controlling plant vigour by limiting fertilization prevents excessive growth, which is conducive to powdery mildew.

Protecting vines effictively

For an effective protection against downy mildew, it is essential to follow reliable weather forecasts when planning treatments, to avoid water stagnation around the plants, and, in years with high disease pressure, to ensure a continuous phytosanitary protection without excessively long intervals between treatments. It is also important to regularly check the functionality and efficiency of sprayers, and to use decision-support systems such as Vintel to receive risk alerts on downy mildew and other diseases

Proactive, well-informed management is key to effective powdery mildew control. By combining different strategies, winegrowers can protect their vines and ensure the quality of their harvest inspite of the challenges posed by the unfavourable climate conditions of 2024.

L’article Downy mildew in vines: understanding, preventing and treating effectively est apparu en premier sur Vintel®.

Over time, the high disease pressure and lack of genetically resistant cultivars have encouraged the use of large amounts of pesticides in vineyards to preserve yields and quality. Every year, around 2 million tons of different pesticides are used worldwide, and this amount is predicted to rise with the increase of disease resistance.

However phytosanitary treatments should be carefully planned by selecting the optimal timing for application and determining the type and dosage of chemicals to be used. This approach aims at minimizing the environmental and human health impacts while reducing the overall phytosanitary costs forgrowers.

When are vines at risk of disease?

It is crucial to precisely evaluate the current disease risk by integrating various pieces of information. This integration can be exemplified though the disease triangle, a well-established concept in plant pathology. According to this conceptual model, the actual development of a disease requires the simultaneous presence of three critical factors: a susceptible host, a virulent pathogen, and an environment conducive to disease development.

While it’s generally easy to determine the presence of a pathogen in a given region, assessing plant susceptibility and climatic propensity to disease can be more complex. Each disease reacts to specific weather conditions and attacks the plant during specific windows of vulnerability, often associated with particular phenological phases. For example, grapevines are susceptible to powdery mildew from the stage when the leaves are half-spread to the stage when the berries become resistant to penetration by the fungus, before the ripening process begins. So, to assess the real risk of disease, it is necessary to take into account not only the impact of weather conditions on powdery mildew, but also the vulnerability of vines at different phenological stages.

Predicting plant-environment-pathogen interactions and treatment efficacy

The complexity of plant-environment-pathogen interactions can pose challenges in evaluating actual disease risk and making rapid, effective phytosanitary decisions. To address these issues, precision viticulture utilizes tools that simultaneously consider all contributing factors. One effective approach is the integration of plant phenological models with disease models within a Decision Support System (DSS).

This method involves simulating the interaction between disease development and plant vulnerability. This combined modeling approach allows an accurate assessment of risk by aligning the various stages of disease progression with susceptible phenology. The resulting information facilitates more targeted and timely interventions, enhancing the effectiveness of disease management in vineyards.

Furthermore, model based DSS can predict the duration of treatment efficacy and the likelihood of wash-off if rain occurs. This means that treatment renewal is no longer a matter of speculation but based on more empirical grounds. Excess applications are avoided because growers know the protection level of their plants and can therefore save money and decrease environmental impacts while maintaining vineyard health, grape quality, and ultimately increase their profitability.

The key to a successful protection strategy: Anticipating risk

Finally, DSS offer the benefit of forecasting imminent risks using weather. Planning treatments in advance is essential to guarantee sufficient protection, especially considering that phytosanitary products for fungal diseases primarily act preventively rather than curatively. Sometimes a few days of advance can make a huge difference on final disease levels and save the yield.

The case of Italy in 2023: When experience is not enough

For example, in 2023, an unusually wet start to the growing season in southern and central Italy led to a devastating outbreak of downy mildew. The combination of frequent rain and warm temperatures in May and June created ideal conditions for fungal growth in regions where such diseases were historically rare, resulting in significant yield losses.

Many growers reacted slowly because they underestimated the risk, assuming their vineyards were historically less prone to disease. Consequently, they initiated treatments too late, unable to contain the infections in time.

In such situations, the integration of DSS, offering predictive insights into disease risk, proves invaluable for formulating effective phytosanitary strategies to protect yield.  As climate-change driven disruptions become more frequent, growers will increasingly struggle to rely solely on past experiences to predict risks. Thus, the significance of predictive tools like those described will only grow more evident as time progresses.

If you’d like to find out more about Vintel and its disease module, click here for a free trial.

L’article Predicting disease risk: how models and DSS can help you to protect your grapes est apparu en premier sur Vintel®.