"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
T...
In article ,
says...
Martin wrote:
You could try tasting one? That's pretty much how we did it. They
looked
kind of done a week or two back, but they were still very very sour.
Left
them for the extra 10-12 days and they were lovely.
If we leave them too long the birds eat them.
Odd, I don't think we've had any bird damage on the grapes. The buggers
nicked nearly all the cherries, and the wasps got a lot of the grapes
that
went over, but I haven't seen any birds near the grapes.
Black birds fly into the tunnel to steal ours which are shouded in fleece
to keep them off at present.
I had a yearly battle with the blackbirds - and even blue tits when it comes
to cherries -, and, last year went to great lengths to fit a net over the
cherry tree, fleece over the redcurrants (works!) and net over the
strawberries. The nets were useless, they just attract the birds to keep
divebombing until they either get in or knock the contents to the ground
where they can pick them up.
Proof of the pudding: this year I am ill, the strawberries and cherries went
unprotected. Strawberries just dried up with nothing eating them at all;
cherries fell to the ground fully ripe. Nobody ate them, not even the
birds.
Birds aren't stupid: you are just showing them what is good to eat by trying
to protect it. Sad thing is, many seem not even to know what wild food is
any more and the cherries that grow in the street are rarely touched by
either bird or child.
S
There is a slight colour change when ripe but the taste test is more fun!
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea