Friday 21 September 2012

When Are Wine Grapes Ready?

How can you tell when your wine grapes are ready to harvest.

There is no exact answer to this question, much of it is subjective but the short answer is probably later than you think. Commercial vineyards use a refractometer to measure sugar levels but the expense of getting one for home grape growing is hardly worth it.

So what physiological clues can be used to indicate the potential date of harvest.



1. Know your variety. Different varieties display the potential indicators differently so knowing when your variety usually ripens (early, mid season or late) is the best guideline. Of course this knowledge can only be gained over a number of growing seasons.

2. Stems turning woody. Lignification of the stems is a good indicator that the grapes are getting near to harvest.

3. Rachis turning woody. If the stalk joining the bunch to the stem is turning woody this too is pretty good indicator of ripeness.

4 Pedicels turning woody. If the little stalks joining individual grapes are turning woody this in itself can indicate that the seeds inside the grapes are hardening, therefore the grapes are getting ready to pick

5. Seeds getting hard/woody. You will have to bite into a grape to test this but if the seeds are getting hard or woody this can be the best indicator of all.

I reckon these Phoenix grapes have a week or ten days to go.

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