(Wines&Vines) - Growing grapevines in the upper Midwest and New England is a challenging task in many ways. Winters can be long and quite cold; summers are often shorter than necessary to encourage full ripening of grapes; and too frequently there is an abundance of rain during some part of the growing season.

One consequence of these conditions is the pressure from diseases such as downy mildew, powdery mildew, botrytis and bunch rot. It is not unusual for growers in a wet year to have to spray more than 15 times between bloom and harvest.