Easy Choice.

It is sometimes difficult to decide if a grape vine is strong enough to carry fruit, even if it's only one cluster. Particularly if you are growing a new variety you are naturally curious about the fruit but wary of letting the vine crop too soon.

The small Regent plant in the greenhouse is growing a flower cluster but as it's far too small to carry any fruit it's a very easy decision to remove it. However I shall wait a couple of weeks for the cluster to develop further and the shoot to elongate more in order to remove it with the least damage to the developing shoot.

You will also notice a second smaller shoot below the main one. That too will be removed in a week or two so all the plants energy is channeled into the remaining shoot.

The Merzling is the first outdoor grape vine to break bud this year. Chardonnay is the variety that usually is the first out of the blocks but Merzling has beaten the Chardonnay to it.