ISHS Acta Horticulturae 528: VII International Symposium on Grapevine Genetics and Breeding
GRAPEVINE GENETICS AND BREEDING FACING THE CHALLENGES OF THE 3rd MILLENNIUM |
| Author: | D. Boubals |
| Abstract:
Viticulture must be able to furnish natural and good-quality products while ensuring protection of the environment and food safety. Actually, cultural conditions restraining the vigour and the production of grapevines, associated to well-adapted trellising systems and added to the use of improved oenological techniques, allow obtaining fruits and wine of high quality. On another hand, viticulture ennobles the landscapes and its responsibility in the pollution of the natural environment can be considered as limited comparatively to many other cultures of major economic importance. For instance, the use of fertilizers is generally moderate and often non- existent, particularly for nitrogen. To control weeds, the applications of herbicides are more and more restrained to the rows and the techniques of soil cultivation seem operate a significant come-back, to restore the biological activity of the soils. Unfortunately, grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is a species very susceptible to many diseases and pests and need to be protected throughout its life cycle with a lot of applications of fungicides and insecticides. Among these diseases and pests, present in most of the viticultural countries, we can mention (but the list is not complete): The downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola), the powdery mildew (Uncinula necator), the gray mold (Botrytis cinerea), the black-rot (Guignardia Bidwellii), the anthracnose (Elsinoe ampelina), the European grape berry moths (Lobesia botrana, Eupoecilia ambiguella), the green leafhopper (Empoasca flavescens), the grapevine spider mites (Tetranychus urticae, Eotetranychus carpini, Panonychus ulmi). By integrated control it is possible to reduce the number of pesticide applications, but very few are the countries where the grapevine can be cultivated practically without chemical treatments: Sinkiang in the Northwestern China, Chili, Argentina (pro parte), Iran. Among the main parasites, only powdery mildew is present in these countries. Actually, very destructive diseases are spreading in France, and cannot easily be controlled. The Flavescence dorée and the black wood disease are phytoplasmas transmitted by the leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus and the fulgore Hyalesthes obsoletus. In the viticultural areas infected by Flavescence dorée, the grapegrowers and the nurserymen are obliged to apply systematically three insecticide treatments against the leafhopper, but the disease spreads inexorably like a new great plague, which recalls minding the Phylloxera disaster of the last century. The Eutypa dieback (Eutypa lata) and Esca (Stereum hirsutum, Phellinus ignarius,..) are wood fungus diseases which attack severely numerous premium wine-grape varieties. There are no efficient chemical treatments against Eutypa dieback and only preventive measures are usable to control the disease. Until now, the spreading of Esca in the French vineyards has been controlled by applications of sodium arsenite during winter, but this chemical is still prohibited in several European countries. We need also to keep in mind that the infectious degeneration, so-called "courtnoué", which is caused by the grape fanleaf virus (GFLV) and the arabis mosaic virus (ArMV), though known since half a century, continues to spread insidiously but inexorably in the old European vineyards. Some years ago, a new leafhopper (Metcalfa | |
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