Site preparation is the first step to preventing pests and diseases from becoming a problem in the vineyard, and in the case of crown gall disease, that approach seems to be working. Dr. Ken Eastwell, plant pathologist at Washington State University’s Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center at Prosser, told growers at the British Columbia Wine Institute’s annual viticulture conference that greater awareness has helped prevent and control crown gall in Washington’s vineyards. “The first defense is exclusion. You need to keep crown gall out of the site from the very beginning,” Eastwell said. Crown gall usually follows a traumatic […]