Name (also Agrobacterium disease, blight, plant cancer) for a plant disease. It is feared on fruit trees as "root goitre". It mainly affects the above-ground perennial wood (rarely the annual wood). On vines, it is caused by the bacterium Agrobacterium vitis and occurs particularly after frosty winters with prolonged temperatures below minus 15 °Celsius, which damages the vines.

It manifests itself in spring as light brown galls (growths, cankers) on the lower part of the trunk, usually above the grafting site, which can later extend up the trunk in the shape of a lath. As the disease progresses, the proliferating and darkening tissue grows out of the bark, often causing the vine to die years later. The picture shows the disease in an advanced stage on a Müller-Thurgau vine.
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Thomas Götz
Weinberater, Weinblogger und Journalist; Schwendi