Vine Leaf Disease and AI

Wine production has a very long tradition in Germany and goes back to the Celts. Our home regions Palatinate and Baden are characterized by viticulture. During tours and walks in the vineyards, we noticed the leaf diseases on the vine leaves. The annual yield and quality of the grapes directly reflect the “vitality” of the vines. Grapevines are susceptible to numerous diseases caused by bacteria, fungi or viruses and represent a major problem in viticulture. The rapid spread of the pest can lead to the death of entire vines and larger areas under cultivation. Early detection of the pest infestation is therefore essential in order to be able to initiate appropriate countermeasures for pest control. At the beginning of our project we focused on the most important and most common leaf diseases in spring and summer: powdery mildew, downy mildew, blackwood disease and Esca disease. We photographed infected grape leaves, examined and classified them. In autumn we added the yellow and red autumn colors of the grape leaves to the data set.