Fish Out The Nets.

After spending all year tending the vines It would be dispiriting in the extreme to see your luscious crop of grapes taken by birds. Birds and wasps are the crop's main danger during the ripening process and while, because of the season we had, I don't expect to see huge numbers of wasps this year the same can't be said of birds.

Grape vines evolved for their seeds to be dispersed by birds. And as valid now as it was when grape species first emerged birds find grapes irrisestable. Birds will eat the grapes long before we humans consider them ripe.

While for some it may be a romantic notion to share some of your crop with the birds the plain fact is that birds don't share. If you want to keep your grapes for yourself, after all that is the reason we have taken such care of the vines so far, then the only effective answer is to net them.

Let's see our feathery friends get through this!