An Update on The Grape

Getting close to harvest time on our grape vine, pictured above.

I'm guessing about a week till these two bunches are ripe. Maybe another week or two of ripening for the rest of the plant.

I decided to pick a test cluster, just for gauging the ripeness of course...

Here is the test cluster.

After washing, the wife and I sat back with an adult beverage and sampled.

You might see a few split grapes on the bunch. That is the result of botrytis, a fungus that affects the grapes. I treat with sulfur, but it's hard to get 100% of the grapes not to split.

Oh, the test? Yeah, they passed...they were delicious!

Darryl 
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Battling the Smut!

The grapevine is the focus of our most intense efforts in the summer. This is when the fruit is ripening and, if we're not careful, we could lose the entire crop if we fail to pay attention.

Our vine is a Ruby Red Seedless that produces delicious, medium size, red berries.

We've chronicled our other efforts at keeping the birds and rodents away from it with our wire and netting barrier.  Another problem is fungus.

Ruby Reds are a little more susceptible to fungus than most grapes. When prepping the plant at the beginning of the season, I sprinkle liberally with sulfur dust and then again when the fruit starts really showing, usually in June.

Still, as you can see at the top, the fruit is starting to turn to the ripe color but the dirty black stuff is smut...a type of fungus.

Left untreated, it will split the fruit open before ripening.

So I got some sulfur dust, poured some in a spray bottle, filled with water, and started spraying. And spraying, and spraying.  Plant's about soaked in a sulfur solution now.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the fruit will make it to the end of summer harvest...

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved