Preparing for budburst

Have you noticed budburst is a little earlier than it used to be? Research published in the Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research (Nov 30, 2022)1, has confirmed this.

The date of budburst in Sunraysia and the Riverland is statistically earlier.

Interestingly, the Swan Hill date hasn’t changed by a significantly different margin.

With this in mind, now is the time to start thinking about spring vineyard activities.

For example, your first fortnightly powdery protectant spray within two weeks of budburst, and have the vineyard floor ready for frost preventive management.

The spray diary will be available soon.

The only change for 2023/24 is the removal of chlormequat. The European union maximum residue limit (MRL) for chlormequat in dried grapes delivered into Europe was reduced significantly in 2018, down to 0.05 mg/kg.

Three years of trials by DFA have shown that the application of chlormequat at

Hello from the communications desk…

We’re pleased to announce in this edition that Dried Fruits Australia has entered into an Industry Communications Project with Hort Innovation. The project officially began in May and will run until May, 2027.

The Dried Grape Industry Communications Project encompasses all communications activities of DFA, including production of the fortnightly Currant News, quarterly Vine magazine and social media, including label rates results in residues in dried vine fruit of between 3 to 7 times the EU limit. From an agronomic point of view, the trial also demonstrated no difference in berry set or yield of carinas from the use of chlormequat.

July has been a busy month. On 11 July, an enthusiastic crowd of 29 turned out to observe the mechanical winter pruning of vines on Shaw swingarm trellis.

Machines operated by Warren Lloyd and Ashley Johnstone were demonstrated. Participants also had the opportunity to assess Ashley’s vines that had been winter pruned mechanically last year. The vines have produced healthy canes for this year’s crop.

Another field walk was conducted on Warren and Rowena Smart’s block, looking at the latch mechanism for their Shaw swingarm system. The latch or “hook lock” has saved a significant amount of time in preventing arms from coming loose with a full crop load.

Dried vine fruit growers have also been developing their business skills in July.

Business Skills for the Future is a three-day workshop completed on three separate days.

Day one and two are completed as a group workshop, and day three is

Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

This project works alongside DFA field officer Stephen Kelly and the Dried Grape Production Innovation and Adoption Program 2021-2026 to communicate across a range of mediums dried grape research and development initiatives, events, best practices on-farm, productivity data, biosecurity information and sustainability practices.

If you do not receive our fortnightly Currant News newsletter, please email your details (name, company/ role in industry) to communications@ driedfruitsaustralia.org.au to an optional one-on-one session to look at issues you have identified.

Three dried fruit growers and two block owners with vacant land have participated in the first workshop.

Participants said the workshop was a “real eye opener” and encouraged all growers to participate. The workshops were fully funded by Agriculture Victoria, and I will organise more workshops for growers who are interested.v

Stephen Kelly

Dried Fruits Australia field officer 03 5023 5174 projects@driedfruitsaustralia.org.au

C. Liles, D. C. Verdon-Kidd, "Spatial and Temporal Trends in the Timing of Budburst for Australian Wine Regions", Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research, vol. 2022, Article ID 8121995, 17 pages, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/8121995 be added to our mailing list.

If you have an industry story to share, please get in touch.v

Megan Frankel-Vaughan communications@ driedfruitsaustralia.org.au