Vine-Disease Toll In Hawke’s Bay

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31221, 19 November 1966, Page 16

Vine-Disease Toll In Hawke’s Bay

"The Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, November 18. Twenty per cent of the vineyards in the Hawke's Bay area had been attacked by the deadly root aphid phyloxera and would have to be replaced immediately, the Government viticulturist, Mr F. Berrysmith, said in Auckland.

He said that even the unaffected vineyards in the area would eventually have to be pulled up and regrown to ensure that the menace was stamped out completely. However, the new cultivation would be spread over a number of years and the wine production of the area would not substantially be affected.

The disease which a century ago decimated the vineyards of France, was first identified in the province at Te Awanga. near Hastings, in December, 1964. It has since been discovered at Eskdale and other wine-growing districts in the province. Wine growers quickly obtained phyloxera-resistant root stock for grafting and established small nurseries.

They have now started the long, costly and arduous process of replacing the estimated half-million vines in Hawke’s Bay. The replacement task will take many years.

Some of the vineyards have not yet been attacked and they will be the last in which the vines will be replaced. Gradually all the vines will be pulled and the ground fallowed before replanting.

Resistant vines have been grown for a long time in most parts of the world including the Auckland province where phyloxera invaded vineyards before the turn of the century.

Hawke's Bay had always been regarded as free of the disease but it is now believed it has been present at Te Awanga for as much as a decade. It was noticed some years ago that vines at Te Awanga were ailing. It was believed that the enemy was a nematode and it was during an inspection in 1964 that phyloxera was identified.

Wine-growers were alarmed by the discovery because of the reputation of the disease as a swiftly spreading vine-

killer. But they have been surprised by the slow progress it has made in the province.

The new root stock being established now is Mourvedre X rupestris 1202 which is, however, already vulnerable to a certain virus. Government researchers are working on new varieties believed to be resistant to both phyloxera and nematodes but many wine-growers are working against time and cannot afford to wait for the development of superior vines.