New Tool Protecting Michigan Grapevines From Viruses; Helping Wine Industry

Michigan State university researchers share study testing for viruses in grapevines to help growers manage crops

Michigan’s grape and wine industry has a $6.3 billion annual economic impact.

That’s according to the National Association of American Wineries.

Protecting grapevines from viruses is imperative, and the first step in virus control is knowing which ones are most prevalent.

Timothy Miles is an associate professor and small fruit and hop pathologist at Michigan State University.

His team conducted a study applying diagnostic testing.

“Traverse City, Southwest Michigan are kind of the grape hub area for wine grape production, but we also have a relatively big juice grape industry too in Southwest Michigan, and so samples were collected from all those places, and we determined which viruses we tended to have in different regions.”

The Michigan grape industry faces unique challenges including growing multiple cultivars of wine and juice grapes in the state with varying susceptibility to viruses.

Also, plants sourced from multiple U.S. locations which increases the risk of bringing virus-infected plants to Michigan.

“One thing that's a little unique about Michigan, we don't really have a full-fledged nursery, and ‘nursery’ would be places growers would buy grapevines from. And that's kind of an important aspect of plant viruses, and how we deal with them

Miles says the study’s biggest benefit is Michigan growers can now test for viruses through MSU’s Plant and Pest Diagnostic Laboratory.