Hi folks. I come to you today with something I've never seen a grapevine do before - it's like it's rusting completely away; the fruit is withering on the vine shortly before it reaches optimal ripeness. This is a friend's vine, and she asked me for help because Canada is a grape-growing country and she assumed I'd have some knowledge of it. Apparently when it's healthy it produces sweet table grapes. The vine is somewhere in the neigbourhood of 50-60 years old; it was planted by my friend's dad who recently passed on, and she'd like for it to survive. I'm clueless - I've only ever grown Concords, and that was in a very different climate. Hence the pleas for help!
http://www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl/directory/faculty/delafuente/lab/multimedia/ It seems unlikely but maybe (pierce's disease) xylella fastidiosa? http://www.scielo.br/pdf/tpp/v33n6/v33n6a07.pdf
Maybe not so unlikely as you think. We have serious leafhopper populations here, and the symptoms certainly match. Hmmmm. More research for me!
