I was thinking scale too...hard to tell with the poor focus. Black aphids. No matter, if the grapes are past season you could just let them have their fill pooping out what will eventually dry up anyway. This would also feed the predators bound to show up. Alternatively, hit them with a hose to dislodge. Follow up if they return (or if a stream of water fails to dislodge them which would be diagnostic) in a couple of weeks with insecticidal soap. edit: If this (these) are first year grape vines then it is worth battling for them. With first year you want as much sugars made as possible to help establish those roots, so removing feeders makes sense. Grape are so good at establishing that after a year the vine should be able to withstand a large amount of predation and I generally wouldn't bother. This post was edited by Fascist_Nation on Wed, Jul 23, 14 at 17:34

noma, the other problem not meantioned, is broad mites, you cant see them, but they devistate. the are so small they are known to travel on the legs of white flies! Ria, Be careful you don't have Broad Mites. I think you are holistic, use natural solutions, which is commendable, however, these wont work on Broad mites. I did what you did, more or less, twice striping all leaves; some eggs will still be left and the nightmare starts all over. Finally I used Forbid, specifically designed for mites; This seemed to do the trick. You might need to find out if this is your problem, since you did get some cuttongs from me, before I knew I had mites. Use macro mode on your camera and zoom way in. Take a look, and if necessary take consecutive images. Your eyes are sharp, you will probably see them. good luck, I hope you get them.

I'm about to try starting some Piper nigrum from seeds. I see this thread keeps popping up on the topic. I ordered some seeds online. I halfway expected red berry like seeds (ripened seeds, not fully dehydrated). What arrived was something that looked identical to black peppercorns from the spice bottle from the grocery store. The seller of these seeds says they are viable, so I'll give them a try. Other than warmth and humidity, are there any special requirements. I plan to soak them overnight before planting them. Is that a good idea or not? Then I plan to put them in small peat-pots with seed starting mix. I was thinking maybe mix in a bit of sand as well, and cover the seeds with a very light layer of just sand (about 1/8 inch or so, just covering the seeds). I'll keep those peat pots in a small plastic "seed starting greenhouse" that I have. To keep the humidity high in that, I was going to put some gravel on the bottom, and put a bit of water in the bottom. I don't want the seed pot sitting in water, because I'm guessing it wants drained soil/starting mix, but I also want the humidity high. I have a heating pad to keep the thing warm (about 80F, which should be fine, right?), and I'll have it under red/blue (mostly red) LED grow lights on a timer. How long do Piper nigrum seeds take to germinate? days? weeks? months?

According to the latest UMass Landscape Message: "European pine sawfly caterpillars are active. Inspect host foliage (primarily mugo pine) for the yellow, blocky patches, which are the eggs embedded within the needles or look for the tiny dark-colored larvae clustered at the needle tips. In most regions of the state, the caterpillars are now active. This pest feeds voraciously and grows rapidly. Needles will be consumed down to the stems. Needles with eggs or stems with larvae can be pruned away and destroyed when this pest occurs in limited numbers. Otherwise, treat the larvae with a product that contains spinosad or use one of the registered pyrethroid insecticides. Very small larvae can be treated with insecticidal soap effectively." Claire