Wood disease · Grapevine
Esca: mark in summer the vines you will deal with in winter
Phaeomoniella chlamydospora, Phaeoacremonium minimum and Fomitiporia mediterranea
Esca rots the wood from the inside and shows on the leaf in summer. We fly when it shows and mark each vine with symptoms, so at pruning you know which to clean out or pull, without having to look for them.
We have not flown this problem ourselves yet. We work it out with you, on your field.
The problem
A wood disease that cannot be cured
It is caused by several fungi that rot the wood from the inside and enter through pruning cuts, especially big ones; that is why it is more common in old vineyards. In summer the leaf is spotted between the veins, yellow in white varieties and reddish in red varieties, in a tiger-stripe pattern, and the bunches dry up. In its fast form, apoplexy, the vine wilts all at once.
It cannot be cured. What is left is cutting out the diseased wood or pulling the vine, and protecting pruning cuts. Symptoms come and go: a sick vine may show nothing one year.
How it works
A summer flight to work in winter
1
We fly in summer
When the leaf shows the spots. In winter it is no use: the disease is inside the trunk and cannot be seen from above.
2
We send you the map
Each vine with symptoms, with its position. They are usually single vines, not big patches. Only the vines that show symptoms that year appear.
3
You confirm and act at pruning
With the map you go straight to each vine. In red varieties it can be mistaken for other vine diseases: if in doubt, have it tested.
Where it shows up
In the vineyard
- Grapevine
It is found in all wine regions. It weighs more in old vineyards and where pruning is done with big cuts.
What farmers ask us
Esca: your field questions
Can you see it in winter, without leaves?
No. The rot is inside the trunk and the drone only sees the vine from the outside. We fly in summer, when it shows on the leaf.
Is it worth repeating the flight another year?
Yes. Symptoms do not come back every year on the same vine, so two summers in a row give a more complete map.
Does it pass from vine to vine?
Not like a patch that advances: it enters through pruning cuts. Protecting them is the way to slow it down.
Know someone this would help?
Send them this page. If they have esca in their fields, you save them some searching.