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Bob Morris

Grape leaf drop hints at root, trunk issues

BOB MORRIS
June 4, 2012 - 11:19 pm
 

Question: I am having a serious problem with my grapevine. It seems to have stopped growing and is losing leaves. I used a lot of bone meal on the plants, and I am wondering if I have over-fertilized it? The ground is never dry; the flower bed it's in is on the same drippers as prior years.

Here is what I could determine from the picture and your comments:

I saw some good, strong growth from some of the vines, but there appeared to be a fair amount of unproductive wood in the canopy. I am wondering if there is quite a bit of dead wood in that vine.

You reported leaf drop, and I could see some scorching in the leaves. The grape bunches looked very healthy, so I am guessing that something happened rather quickly to the vine. I rather doubt that applying bone meal, even in fairly large amounts, would cause this leaf drop and leaf scorching unless it was applied to the base of the vine in large amounts.

Bob Morris is a professor emeritus in horticulture with the University of Nevada and can be reached at extremehort@aol.com. Visit his blog at
xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com.

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