Advisors and winegrowers tackle severe fungal disease using drone-based data

Esca is a harmful fungal trunk disease threatening vineyards across Luxembourg’s Mosel Valley. Using drone-based remote sensing, an innovative programme called MonESCA has transformed five years of regional data analysis into training and guidelines so that winegrowers can put measures in place to protect their vines. Miriam Machwitz from the Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology, leading MonESCA, explains the importance of the programme: “The research findings support winegrowers in taking earlier and better-targeted long-term management decisions to protect their vineyards from Esca, which can be a very unpredictable and damaging disease.”

Sixty per cent of the fifty winegrowers surveyed at the start of the programme stated their vines were affected by Esca. Thanks to MonESCA, they can now gain a better understanding of the disease, prevention techniques, and actions needed to heal vines. Gentle pruning, re-grafting, trunk surgery, replanting, the reset method, etc., the guidelines and training present how to carry out targeted interventions to prevent disease development or act as efficiently as possible to avoid the death of plants and the loss of their harvest. They also present which varieties are the most resistant and best adapted to the local context.

Corinne Kox and her employees from the Domaine L & R Kox winery attended the training. “Through the data collected, we know more about how the disease takes hold in our region and how to use gentle pruning as a preventive measure”, says Corinne.

The knowledge shared is based on the analysis of the data collected, combined with international studies to give a clear picture of the disease in the region. Since the disease appears on single plants and not in a pattern, very high-resolution data acquired by drones can be used to monitor the disease effectively in the long term. The results demonstrate correlations between the appearance of symptoms and factors such as soil moisture, variety, pruning technique, vine age, and extreme weather events.

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