Hi,

I live in Reading and have white seeded grape vines. When is the right time
to harvest please? Shall I leave them when the colour changes yellow?


--
Ch. Rajinder Nijjhar, M.Sc.
Remember that to your Three moral "Gurus"
mother, father and Pandit, you render money,
To your spiritual "Satguru" Nanak Dev Ji/Christ Jesus,
you render your MUNN or "mind" AND,
To your "Sachae Paatshah" Gobind Singh Ji,
you render your TANN or "physical body" as sacrifice.
SACH is bitter but it leads you to heaven whilst
SATT is extremely bitter but it leads you to ANAND/Salvation.
Falsehoods or KOORRS are extremely sweet, MAKHAEON MITHHA,
but they lead you to Hell.
Unless you are a Hindu, you cannot be a Sikh, Khalsa or
Nirmallae Sant
For articles on sister Christian and Sikh communities, visit: -
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rajinde...ar/sikhism.htm
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rajinde...ar/starbet.jpg

Rajinder Nijjhar wrote:
I live in Reading and have white seeded grape vines. When is the right time
to harvest please? Shall I leave them when the colour changes yellow?

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.

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.

On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 Rajinder Nijjhar wrote:

I live in Reading and have white seeded grape vines. When is the right time
to harvest please? Shall I leave them when the colour changes yellow?

Hello Rajinder,

Glad that the cuttings I gave you are now producing.

My grapes are not yet ripe apart from those I am growing against the
house. I shall probably need to pick them by the last week in September
to take them over to France to process into wine with my grapes over
there.

Were your vines affected by the late frosts? If so they will have been
knocked back a couple of weeks. Anyway, the best way is to taste one.
Every day that you can leave them on the vine will see an improvement.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk

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.

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

(1) it depends considerably on what variety of grape you are growing what it looks like when it is ripe. The date of ripeness can vary considerably from one year to the next, as a glance at the harvest dates of any major French wine region will indicate.
(2) even major wine-grape growers will pick and test samples of grapes in order to decide when to harvest. Whilst the professionals will have a battery of chemical tests, for the amateur a simple test is to taste some.

David Rance wrote:
My grapes are not yet ripe apart from those I am growing against the
house. I shall probably need to pick them by the last week in September
to take them over to France to process into wine with my grapes over
there.

Ours against the house are ripe, and those hiding behind the hop on the
fence are ripe, but the ones at the back of the summerhouse don't look like
they're going to make it. :-(

"Rajinder Nijjhar" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I live in Reading and have white seeded grape vines. When is the right
time to harvest please? Shall I leave them when the colour changes yellow?

The right time is before the starlings decend and take the lot. Usually
about a day before you were going to pick them.

S

"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

Spamlet wrote:
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.

How strange. This year we did net the cherries for the first time,a nd for
the first time ever, we got a crop of about a dozen /really/ nice cherries.
We will net them earlier next year.

Our strawberries are always netted, even though we get enough that they
probably couldn't eat a noticable amount.

And our redcurrants did really well despite not being netted - the leaves
made a very good protective canopy over all of the currants and gooseberries
this year.

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.

I've found the slugs are good for findign the best strawberries!

wrote in message
...
Spamlet wrote:
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.

How strange. This year we did net the cherries for the first time,a nd
for
the first time ever, we got a crop of about a dozen /really/ nice
cherries.
We will net them earlier next year.

Our strawberries are always netted, even though we get enough that they
probably couldn't eat a noticable amount.

And our redcurrants did really well despite not being netted - the leaves
made a very good protective canopy over all of the currants and
gooseberries
this year.

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.

I've found the slugs are good for findign the best strawberries!

It tends to be little woodlice that hollow them out he they are
impossible, but the season was so dry this year that even they did not
manage to get in before the fruit dried on the plant. On the other hand,
for tha last few years we have had masses of wild strawberries, and the only
ones that got eaten were some on the patio which I netted; pounds and pounds
of them in the flower beds were ignored.

S

Sometimes. The year I tried to protect my redcurrants, blackbirds found a way in and ate the lot. I gave up protecting them, and now we manage to pick quite a few.

But unless I protect them like Fort Knox, the birds take every blueberry. Those are so delicious to them. And this year we tried to leave the gooseberries on as long as possible to get them ripe enough to eat raw, but magpies took most of them.

Hi,

Did get a good crop but they were not that sweet. May be good for wine
making.

Rajinder


"Rajinder Nijjhar" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I live in Reading and have white seeded grape vines. When is the right
time to harvest please? Shall I leave them when the colour changes yellow?


--
Ch. Rajinder Nijjhar, M.Sc.
Remember that to your Three moral "Gurus"
mother, father and Pandit, you render money,
To your spiritual "Satguru" Nanak Dev Ji/Christ Jesus,
you render your MUNN or "mind" AND,
To your "Sachae Paatshah" Gobind Singh Ji,
you render your TANN or "physical body" as sacrifice.
SACH is bitter but it leads you to heaven whilst
SATT is extremely bitter but it leads you to ANAND/Salvation.
Falsehoods or KOORRS are extremely sweet, MAKHAEON MITHHA,
but they lead you to Hell.
Unless you are a Hindu, you cannot be a Sikh, Khalsa or
Nirmallae Sant
For articles on sister Christian and Sikh communities, visit: -
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rajinde...ar/sikhism.htm
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rajinde...ar/starbet.jpg

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 Rajinder Nijjhar wrote:

Did get a good crop but they were not that sweet.

We haven't had enough sun.

May be good for wine making.

You'll need to add sugar. My experience this year is that you'll need to
add about 2 oz. sugar per gallon.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk