# Anthracnose

- URL: https://backyardgrapes.com/diseases/anthracnose/
- Scientific name: Elsinoë ampelina
- Category: Fungal
- Affects: Leaves, Shoots & canes, Fruit clusters
- Severity: moderate
- Favored by: Warm, very wet springs; spreads by rain splash.
- Easily confused with: Phomopsis cane & leaf spot, Black rot

**Summary:** Sunken spots with dark margins on shoots and berries — the classic "bird's-eye rot".

**What to look for:**
- Small dark spots on leaves that dry out and drop away, leaving "shot holes".
- Sunken grey lesions with raised dark/purple margins on green shoots.
- Round berry spots with a grey centre and reddish-brown ring — "bird's-eye rot".
- Severe shoot lesions can crack and weaken the cane.

**Treatment — Cultural / prevention:**
- Prune out and destroy infected canes during dormancy.
- Improve airflow and avoid overhead irrigation.
- Remove infected debris from around the vine.

**Treatment — Organic / low-toxicity:**
- A dormant lime-sulphur spray before bud break reduces overwintering fungus.
- Copper sprays during wet spring weather.

**Treatment — Conventional (chemical):**
- Protectant fungicides (e.g. mancozeb) from early shoot growth through wet periods.

Anthracnose (*Elsinoë ampelina*) is sometimes called "bird's-eye rot" for the neat
ringed spots it leaves on berries. It is most damaging in warm, high-rainfall
regions and on vigorous young shoots.

Its trademark is the sunken lesion on green shoots with a sharply raised dark edge —
that shoot symptom is the easiest way to tell it apart from the flatter leaf spots of
black rot or phomopsis. A dormant-season lime-sulphur spray plus cane sanitation is
the backbone of control.

**Image credits:**
- Spots with ashy-gray centers on grape berries (Vitis 'Vidal Blanc') caused by anthracnose — [Missouri Botanical Garden](https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/insects-pests-and-problems/diseases/fruit-spots/anthracnose-of-grapes)
- Characteristic spots of anthracnose of grape on leaves (Vitis 'Vidal Blanc') — [Missouri Botanical Garden](https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/insects-pests-and-problems/diseases/fruit-spots/anthracnose-of-grapes)
- Anthracnose symptoms on a grape cane — [Ohio State University Extension (Ohioline)](https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/plpath-fru-15)

**Sources:**
- [Anthracnose of Grape](https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/plpath-fru-15) — Ohio State University Extension
- [Anthracnose (Elsinoe ampelina) in Grapes](https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/asset-external/anthracbose-elsinoe-ampelina-in-grapes/) — Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
- [Anthracnose of Grapes](https://fruitscout.mgcafe.uky.edu/anthracnose-grapes) — University of Kentucky Department of Plant Pathology