After over ten years of applied research across the state and over a year of publication preparation, we are happy to release a practical overview and management guide on Pierce’s disease. During the late 1990’s, this bacterial pathogen was devastating vineyards in the Texas Hill Country and was moving into production areas north and west of where it was thought to occur. A cooperative research between USDA/APHIS and Texas A&M research and extension personnel as well as colleagues at the University of Houston-Downtown and the University of Texas at Tyler provided funding for us to begin to answer the pertinent questions about the transmission and epidemiology of Pierce’s disease in Texas.
This guide reviews the history of the disease in Texas, California and other grape producing regions of the country. The results of eight years of insect trapping have resulted in a rouges gallery of insect vectors as well as a review of some of the field conditions that impact vector number and disease incidence. In addition, practical management information and a review of ongoing work will provide growers in Texas and other growing areas east of the Rockies with a new resource to aid in the management of this disease. This guide can be downloaded and freely distributed from the following url:
Hope you all find this useful.
jk
