updated 08/22/08

How to Harvest Grapes

Muscadines

You pick muscadines one at a time unlike bunch grapes like seedless concords or Jacques. They are kind of like blueberries. They need to be the right color for the variety, be a little bit soft or plump to be really sweet and tender skinned. There will be some sugar in the hard berries but don't pick them till they are plump. Look for the rows marked with Early Fry [bronze] and Ison [black] They will be the ripest. When ripe they should run about 19% sugar. Unlike blueberries muscadines fill the bucket quick.

Table Grapes (includes concord seedless-types & Jacques grapes)

Table grapes are harvested in bunches. You do not pick single berries. The bunch must be cut off from the main stem. If it is torn off it will make an infection court (create an open wound on the plant) for Botryosphaeria and Eutypa fungi which can cause death of the cordon [which is the main arm supported by the wire] or even the whole vine.

This means that if you want to harvest these types of grapes you need to bring snippers. Snippers with pointed noses are best and so we do not allow children to pick grapes. We do not want them running with tools or cutting their own fingers. They can go with you into the grape fields and hold the bucket. Note that it will take two hands to cut off a bunch of grapes-one to hold the bunch and one to operate the snippers.

The Happy Berry has three varieties of seedless concord table grapes: Venus, Mars and Jupiter. How do you know when they are ripe? All three turn dark blue. Look for bunches with uniform dark blue color. If there is a red tinge they are not ready but will be in a few days. Be aware that the bunches on a vine do not ripen all at once- so you walk along looking for the dark blue bunches.

We also have one yellow variety of table grapes, Neptune. We will post more about the Neptune grapes later.

We look forward to seeing you on in the fields!

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