# Marquette harvest today in MN



## mattyc (Sep 17, 2016)

Picked my Marquette here in MN today... Feel like I still have so much to learn! 

Just the second year I've gotten fruit on my first 14 vines; I have another 16 that should produce for the first time next year.

65 lbs grapes, yielding 46 lbs must, 25.3 Brix, 1.20 TA, 3.24 pH.

Two issues:
1 - Wasps & bees were all over the fruit again this year. I used netting thinking that the wasps and bees last year were just cleaning up after birds had broken the fruit.
2 - A fair amount of the grapes were shriveled a little, soft, and starting to rot. We culled out as much of the soft ones as we could, and the smell during crushing was more the rot smell than any sweet smell.

We had a really, really wet year here in MN. Made it through without much black rot. Got a little anthracnose - thank you Rich for helping to ID that on another thread.

Any thoughts on #1 & 2? 

I have visions of plump bunches of grapes that can go straight into the crusher, but that was not my lot today. And there are going to be a lot more (for me anyway!) grapes coming in the next few years.


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## TonyR (Sep 17, 2016)

Do a web search for ONSLAUGHT an traps. Is a bug killer that the wasps take back to the hive and kills them all. I mix it with orange soda or grape juice starting later summer. For me it sure seems to work. As for # 2 pick your fruit sooner. Good luck

Let me add that I have 3 hives of honey bees in my yard and have not had any problem with them at the traps.


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## GreginND (Sep 18, 2016)

The numbers look pretty good. I'm picking our small vineyard of marquette today. Brix is over 25 but the pH was still hovering at 2.8 last weekend. But, similar to you, the wasps are taking the lot so we have to get it out. We just got over 2 inches of rain on Friday so I expect they will be nice and plump when I get out there this morning.


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## GreginND (Sep 18, 2016)

Well, we were expecting about 400 pounds. But it looks more like about 50.


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## TonyR (Sep 18, 2016)

GreginND said:


> Well, we were expecting about 400 pounds. But it looks more like about 50.



What happened????


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## grapeman (Sep 18, 2016)

That stinks Greg. Here is what I harvested a few days ago to get ahead of the Spotted Wing Drosiphila. When they get in them they turn to Sour Rot almost overnight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on the bigger vineyard of them we will be in in a couple days.


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## mattyc (Sep 18, 2016)

We have SWD in our raspberries pretty bad, wonder if that's what brought on some of the rotting...?


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## grapeman (Sep 18, 2016)

I have extension coming tomorrow to check the SWD traps set last week. She will check for them to confirm them here or dismiss them as a problem. They are confirmed a short distance to my vineyards. In Bordeaux they have found that SWD arrived at the same time as outbreaks of sour rot.


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## GreginND (Sep 19, 2016)

TonyR said:


> What happened????



Well, a May freeze nipped them a bit, but they came through that ok. The birds got a little bit before I netted. But it seems the wasps really decimated them this year. Lots of eaten dried up clusters. The vineyard is not on my property, I've just adopted it. I don't know where the nests were, but next year I'll have to be more vigilant on the wasp front.


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## GreginND (Sep 19, 2016)

Looks absolutely beautiful, Rich. We have had SWD here for a couple of years now. They really devastate the cherries and raspberries here. Haven't had as much problem with the grapes yet. But it will become more and more of a fight.


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## chrisvt (Sep 19, 2016)

Nice looking grapes, Rich! I'll be interested to hear what extension says and if you see any damage to your fruit.

We've had them here for several years (I think the working theory at one time was that they came north with Irene?) and they do a number on the blueberries and blackberries, but haven't gotten to the grapes. Yet. I know there are sprays for blueberries that work for SWD, but I'm not sure if they're labeled for grapes.


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## grapeman (Sep 19, 2016)

This is still evolving as I write this, but she did confirm lots of SWD in the traps. The Marquette next to the trapped location is showing lots of rotting fruit with flies all around so I expect to lose that couple tons of Marquette also. If I had the help we might be able to pick the unaffected clusters before they go bad also, but I will concentrate on the other larger vineyard Wednesday and hope to get about 4 to 5 tons from those Marquette.


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## chrisvt (Sep 20, 2016)

Ugh, sorry to hear that. I hope your other vineyard is ok.


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