No need to be Mr Rogers but I am obviously an experienced grower to be in the position I am in and was looking for insight. Never seen bud rot spread so fast. We have been dealing with cut worms and caterpillars of every variety this year and of course with caterpillars comes bud rot. Just thought that this was unusual for a plant to go from green one day to bud rot on the entire plant the next day. As we had a low budget this being the first year at this location and not getting our license until June 26th we weren’t able to get compost for the soil. So unfortunately planting in unamended native clay soil has caused many issues for us, including verticillium wilt. Something I had never seen in dry California. What I think is that a plant with verticillium wilt drained down to the rest of this row as it was on a hill and it attacked quickly due to the rain. We will definitely be wary of this next year as I’ve researched verticillium stays in the soil for years. So we will need to proceed with caution and do our best to get proper amendments. We might sanitize the soil with H2O2 before we grade and til the land and amend and put a cover crop for the winter. The clay soil is tough to work with.
. I think we did pretty good for what we had. . So for being completely virgin soil and getting to where we are today id say it was a failure but a successful failure.
also hard to spray properly. I was in charge of 40 acres and our crew walked those 40 acres every night spraying plants. So we did have eyes on the plants every day but again it is hard to catch everything. Bad caterpillars this year - leave behind bud rot, so perhaps it Just spread rapidly due to cold rain and killed that row quickly. Of course we removed the plants and went caterpillar hunting as we were too close to harvest to spray anything that would kill them. I know what I am doing, just came here for advice as every season is different. I havent seen bud rot spread that quick ever. So thought maybe could be something different. I feel slightly attacked for asking a “stupid” question but thanks to everyone who was helpful.