What is the PhytoPatholoBot and how does it work?
No, not at all. Philip told me one is caused by a fungus and the other one is caused by a fungal organism. Kind of like a water mold. Okay. But the effect is low-key similar.
The name is very descriptive of powdery mildew. It just looks like some white powder on the top of the leaves. And if you look at downy mildew infected leaves, on the top of the leaves, you're going to get sort of a yellowing color, sort of like an oil spot.
You can tell which leaves are affected because they're like flaky or dirty looking. Powdery mildew creates cracks or lesions in the grapes, and downy mildew makes them more shrivelly and discolored.
That's a sad state for these poor plants. Okay.
And these types of mildew, they aren't just gross looking, they're also really bad for the plants and their grapes.
It reduces photosynthesis. It also reduces like crop yields as well. It can also affect grape quality.
And Emily, once that mildew sets in, it's really hard to shake. What do you mean? So Philip lives in New Mexico where downy mildew isn't as much of an issue, right? Because it's so dry. And that's true also in California, which is where the majority of U.S. grapes are produced. But he says that powdery mildew, the fungus spread disease, is capable of spreading anywhere.
It can even overwinter, which means it survives through the cold season and then infects new leaves when it rains in the spring.
When you get that rainfall, that rain splash, they sort of start the growing process of the fungus on the leaf. It develops spores and then those spores splash onto the new leaf, you know, in the spring. So that's sort of that disease cycle.
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