Knowledgebase

Frostbite Grape Vine Leaves #900527

Asked May 07, 2025, 5:56 PM EDT

My grapevines had started to get leaves and some had small grape clusters starting. When we had several nights of below freezing, a large majority of the leaves got completely burned including several small grape clusters. Thankfully there were only a handful of grape clusters. In the past years, I have had small amounts of frostbite on a couple leaves but not all my vines My questions are- 1. will the grapevines get new leaves and continue to develop future grape clusters 2. should I try to remove the small dead leaves Thank you very much

Lane County Oregon

Expert Response

There are three parts of the vine that can be injured by frost, the buds, the shoots (including flower clusters), and the trunk. It is hard to assess bud damage without dissecting a few of the buds to look at the tissue (refer to WSU publication below for assessing bud damage). Based on the photos, it looks like the shoots and inflorescences were the parts that were injured. You should inspect the trunk for splitting or cracking.

You will likely see a significant reduction in yield this year, but the vines should recover. Studies out of the University of California have shown that taking no action is often the best approach (refer to this UC article) and that removing damaged shoots did not improve yield, and was not cost-effective. NC State provides advice on managing frost injury based on the stage of growth (refer to this NC State publication). This publication states that if at EL-12 or lower, you should remove severely damaged shoots back to the cordon to force dormant buds to break. It is hard to tell based on the photos, but it looks like you are at about EL-12 where you have 4-6 leaves per shoot that have unfolded, and inflorescences are clearly visible. I suggest you read through the recommendations in the NC State publication and make a decision on whether you want to take action, or do nothing.

For additional information, refer to this WSU publication on Assessing and Managing Cold Damage in Washington Vineyards, and this OSU publication on Grapevine Training Systems for Managing Winter Cold Injury.

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