Journal | July 10, 2024
Spotted Lanternfly Update
Our newest invasive species, the Spotted Lanternfly (SLF) has been sucking sap in the vines since May. The populations have been high, but we’ve not been too worried about damage to the vines. The SLF nymphs were small (they weren’t able to ingest much sap), and the vines were growing robustly, producing an overabundance of sap.
Things have changed. The nymphs are now large and soon to become adults. The vines have stopped growing and need to conserve nutrients to ripen grapes. If the drought continues the vines may start to show signs of stress. The SLF could soon negatively affect both the ability of the vines to ripen their crop and to store carbohydrates to survive a cold winter.
So reluctantly we will spray. This is something that we had hoped to avoid, but now it is apparent that we are playing with fire. A fire that can’t be turned around once a certain threshold is reached.
Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Hardscrabble Journal: July 10, 2024