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Plant Protectors
 Sunridge has been experimenting
for some time now with an affordable means of protecting young vines.
We have come up with a plant protector that will protect the young leaves
from herbicide sprays, small animal feeding and wind damage. Our plant
protector also does something else. When planting dormant vines, the top
of our protector can be closed, which simulates a humid greenhouse environment,
enabling the vine to push buds with no drying out. This can take the place
of mounding. The purpose of mounding is to help keep the vine buds from
desiccating while the roots are taking hold. This new method of sealing
the top of our plant protector will mimic mounding and will lower labor
costs. Once the roots take hold and the vine buds push, the plant protector
can be opened or unsealed in a flash (no shovel needed). Ask your vineyard
representative or call the office for more information.
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Pierces disease  Pierces disease is a serious threat to California's wine and table grape industry. It has demanded the full attention of the USDA and numerous public and private agencies alike. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Bakersfield area. To date the General Beale Road Pilot Project has yielded positive results in the fight against the Glassy Winged Sharp Shooter (GWSS), the vector which spreads Pierces Disease. "What the project is showing is that the GWSS is manageable, not some invincible Goliath," says Steve Maniaci, production manager for Sunridge Nurseries.
Counts of GWSS are down sharply from last year in the project southeast of Bakersfield. A combination of integrated pest management efforts, including chemical applications, and co-ordination between researchers and growers has helped drive down GWSS numbers. The plan has also recently implemented the release of biological predators such as Gonatocerus ashmeadi, a parasitic wasp that attacks GWSS egg masses. This multi faceted combination of chemical application and biological control will undoubtedly prevail in the battle against pierced disease. While Kern County wages its war against the GWSS, Sunridge Nurseries has implemented its own control policies. This includes chemical spraying and a state of the art nursery facility, which utilizes among other things, insect screening on all in-house plants, and a visual inspection of every vine sold to our customers. This aggressive control policy has yielded very positive results, of all the millions of vines shipped in the past few years, not one GWSS has been found in any of the shipments. Furthermore, while Kern County does have the GWSS, there have been very few incidences of Pierces Disease and the probability of the disease spreading throughout the area is extremely low. |