Bunch thinning Bunch thinning requires testing Extract from an article by Mary Cole , School of Wine and Food Science, Charles Sturt University Pests and diseases can impact significantly on the quality and quantity of a crop and much time and expense is used in designing a program of management where the grower produces a top quality product at an economic price.
Many diseases are host specific, that is, they develop only on a single host.
So control of grey mould in a vineyard is very difficult when the weeds in between the rows and any vegetation surrounding the vineyard can act as alternative hosts. Nevertheless, most of the infections will develop from grapevine debris in and around the vineyard itself. Botrytis also can cause significant post-harvest loss of grapes during cool storage. Botrytis infection does not have to be bad. Under certain conditions, botrytis infected winegrapes can shrivel slowly, accumulating grape sugars and aromas characteristic of the infection resulting in a condition called noble rot.