Pruning Challenges at Chiesa del Carmine

This spring, we discovered the presence of ‘Bostrico’ (Sinoxylon perforans) in our vineyards on the Carmine Estate when undertaking the management of the productive areas on our vineyards. The larva and entrance hole were observed in all vineyards and this beetle digs tunnels inside the vineyard canes, causing them to break and in the most serious cases even the death of vegetative points or plants. These tunnels are an easy way for fungal infections to enter the vines and can lead to far more serious diseases such as: bait and apoplexia. The fight begins by removing dried and infested shoots and on the removal and destruction of the remains of the pruning.

The damage is caused above all by adults who, towards the end of summer-autumn, dig nutrition galleries at the base or on the nodes of the vintage shoots. The attacks cause a reduction of the lymphatic flow compromising the production. The damage caused to the branches for the following vintage is very serious: in fact, these are easily broken during bending operations.

These insects prefer to burrow into deadwood and so the Carmine Estate adopted the following strategy to manage this problem. During pruning, our workers prepared bundles of shoots as seen in the photo above, approximately 20/30 shoots a bundle around 40/50cms long which were positioned on the end posts of various plots at a frequency of 8 to 10 bundles a hectare. The idea is that the insects are drawn to these bundles in their search for dead wood to burrow into and this strategy would allow us to capture the largest number of insects. These bundles will then have to be removed and burnt by mid-May, along with the rest of the prunings, thus decimating this unwanted insect population.