# EARLY RIPENING GRAPES



## NorthernWinos (Aug 9, 2006)

Never before have the juice grapes begun ripening this early, must be the drought and intense heat....

BETA GRAPES







VALIANT GRAPES





 
Both are a very hardy Concord type grape.....
Usually I just make breakfast juice with them and in the past have made jelly.The last batch of Welch's Concord Wine I added a few quarts of drinking juice, just to see if it would change it any, couldn't tell any difference.
We haven't watered the older grapes, they are out there making it on their own...they are juicy and getting sweet...an amazing fruit....but look at how they grow in the wine producing areas of California and Europe, hot, dry and gravely soil...so they must have gotten what they like around here this year...No diseases either and didn't spray to try out the new products....

THEN THERE IS THE SWEETCORN....

The early variety has come and gone, the main crop was too young a few days ago and today it is getting ripe...had to freeze up some today...






Round One....17 pakages...






Round 2 tomorrow...
Never before have I froze sweetcorn this early in the season....We did water it, the ears are smaller than normal, but good...





So the heat units and growing degrees won out this year....but unirrigated corps are a failure...


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## bilbo-in-maine (Aug 10, 2006)

In Minnesota you have been hotter and dryer than we in Maine all summer, and as you say, that must be why your grapes have begun turning color already. Our 4 table grape varieties still haven't started turning. I'm wondering if an opposite effect is at work, i.e., too much water retarding ripening. Tomatoes are still green, even though they are up to normal size by now. Local farmers who put in corn again after losing the first planting to devastating rains and flooding early in the summer have stalks maybe waist high with a harvest nowhere in sight. This has been an interesting summer from a gardening perspective!


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## PolishWineP (Aug 12, 2006)

Your grapes are beauties! Nice job! Glad they actually grew with the little bit of rain we've had. But I know you're dragging hose out there. Lucky you, you have a well. The city water does almost nothing for the garden in our yard. But we did get 1.6 inches of rain the other day!






Talk about happy faces around here!
We're getting our corn tonight and will process it tomorrow. I cut it off the cob w/an electric knife and then blanch it in salted water with a dash of sugar. It will be GOOD EATS this winter!


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## NorthernWinos (Aug 12, 2006)

Didn't water the mature grapes...had the young ones to coddle as well as all the pretty things and the veggies...that is enough hose dragging for this little old gal....
I feel so bad about all the old mature vines I lost this past winter.....I was unusually warm and then we'd get slapped to reality with a cold spell...the large mature trunks on the vines split and died to the ground...new plants are growing from the roots....BUT...I am going to replace those vines with a more disease variety next spring....tho this years dryness there was no disease problem.
LESSON LEARNED....in extremely cold areas always have a young vine growing beside your mature vine as a back-up vine....learned that from reading Northern Winework....great book for northern growers..expensive...but look on eBay or Amazon..worth the price.

http://www.northernwinework.com/buy.html


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## NorthernWinos (Aug 14, 2006)

bilbo-in-maine said:


> In Minnesota you have been hotter and dryer than we in Maine all summer, and as you say, that must be why your grapes have begun turning color already. Our 4 table grape varieties still haven't started turning. I'm wondering if an opposite effect is at work, i.e., too much water retarding ripening. Tomatoes are still green, even though they are up to normal size by now. Local farmers who put in corn again after losing the first planting to devastating rains and flooding early in the summer have stalks maybe waist high with a harvest nowhere in sight. This has been an interesting summer from a gardening perspective!



If your grapes aren't ripening I would strongly suggest that you pull leaves off from around the clusters...I am going to do that on the wine grapes tomorrow...had almost forgotten that chore....our juice grapes seem to be ripening well, the wine grapes are longer season and will be lucky if they ripen by the middle of Sept on a normal year....the more sun exposure makes more sugar in the grapes...so get them exposed to the sun soon.
Have read in the Northern Wineworks book that rain in the fall will encourage growth and the vines won't ripen and harden off as they should....then they will be prone to winter kill if you are in a cold area, so hope it dries out and gets warmer so your vines can ripen.
Pulling the leaves and the ends of the vines off of the tomato plants will also hasten the ripening on your tomatoes....good luck and have a good harvest...



*Edited by: Northern Winos *


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## bilbo-in-maine (Aug 15, 2006)

Hi NW - yes, I have pulled leaves a number of times to expose the berries on the table grapes, leaving a little shade. They are just taking their sweet time. At least the tomatoes are now showing some color, just as the lettuce bolts! Almost all the wine grapes have done well and will make it to their training wires. I too have Northern Wineworks. I plan to reread it and the other grape growing books I have come winter when there is not much to do outside (other than shovel snow and split firewood, about 5 cords of it.) Good luck with your gardening.
Bill


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