Buds have been ravaged

[ChrisA]

Hi guys,

I'm new to the forum and I've had a some bad luck, i pruned back my vine which I've had for only 1 season already and it had a good 5 or 6 buds on it that I have been monitoring.

I've gone to check it today and something has eaten all off them to the nub!

What shall or even can I do next?
Will new growth shoot from anywhere else?

Cheers

Chris

 

[salcoco]

first guess is deer. second guess grape beetle. might not be the right name for it but it it eats the center of the bud. a spray with Seven will take care of the beetle. normally there is three buds dormant at the location of the bud and regrowth is possible with the first one gone. not sure what happens if bud gnawed down to the wood.

 

[BigH]

Don't lose any sleep just yet. A shoot will likely emerge from somewhere, ether from a basal bud or a sucker shoot. If you have grafted vines, be careful not to keep a sucker from below the graft union.

H

 

[wildhair]

My experience with deer is that buds are too small for them to mess with. They simply eat the entire branch - they like the tender new shoots after winter. But they prefer my apple tree shoots to my grape vines.

A smaller critter, likely some type of rodent (squirrel or mice) might eat the buds. Try spraying them with a hot pepper spray or dusting them with a hot chili powder, cumin, etc. That will even keep a lot of bugs from eating them.