Second Year of Plantation Starting. How to prune?? Help please!

[balatonwine]

So my grapes bud break was around 1st March. Today (23rd May - about 82 days ago) some varieties are undergoing veraison. I am wondering whether they will still increase in size or not?

Yes, they will increase in size to some extent. But also see below.

Also how to know when they are ready for harvest?

There are subtle features, such as the exact color and translucency of the berry skin, the color of the stem (it will start to go brown), etc. But those will take experience and time to learn. But since these are eating grapes, there is a much more simple and easy measure when to harvest: just taste them. When the berries are sweet enough to eat while not being too sour, harvest.

I have a few eating grape vines, which are only in one vineyard, and I can tell now by sight when they are ripe enough to eat, but I still taste them to make sure when they are at their best.

I read in an article that veraison lasts 6-8 weeks, however mine began about a week ago and I doubt it will take that long at least for the Flame Seedless.

In a month just start tasting them for a proper sweetness and sour ratio (or use a refractometer and pH meter to be more numerically exact). There is no clock you can set here to just know when any vineyard will be ripe as there are too many local conditions that will cause your fruit to ripen at a different rate than what ripens somewhere else.

For example, I have four active vineyards in three different spots on the same hill, yet I do not harvest them all at the same time since they are in slightly different locations and will ripen at different times (those are all wine grapes).

About this Thompson, this is really dense right? I believe there are too many berries. Do you think the berries will gain proper size?

Thompsons are often cluster thinned and berry thinned to increase berry size. More about that and how to increase berry size can be found in this publication:

http://www.aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/H311.pdf

Also see, as a complete "how to guide" to growing table grapes:

http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/s...ions/growing_table_grapes_ec1639_may_2011.pdf

 

[daniyalsm]

@balatonwine Thank you very much for the detailed info. As for manure, we only apply it to fields after it well composted.

@grapeman Thank you sir

 

[balatonwine]

This is for Afghanistan (part of a USAID program managed by the University of California, Davis), but may be helpful for you as well since the agriculture issues in Afghanistan are probably more like those you have than for growers in North America or Europe:


http://afghanag.ucdavis.edu/a_horticulture/fruits-trees/grapes

 

[daniyalsm]

This is for Afghanistan (part of a USAID program managed by the University of California, Davis), but may be helpful for you as well since the agriculture issues in Afghanistan are probably more like those you have than for growers in North America or Europe:


http://afghanag.ucdavis.edu/a_horticulture/fruits-trees/grapes

Thank you for the link. I already had read one article from the USAID docs for Afghanistan, but this link contains all of them. I believe the Afghanistan grape growing area will be closer match the Balochistan province of Pakistan, rather than Punjab, but this surely will have a lot of helpful info. I sprayed GA according to the USAID Afghanistan article.

 

[rebusify]

Yes, they will increase in size to some extent. But also see below.



There are subtle features, such as the exact color and translucency of the berry skin, the color of the stem (it will start to go brown), etc. But those will take experience and time to learn. But since these are eating grapes, there is a much more simple and easy measure when to harvest: just taste them. When the berries are sweet enough to eat while not being too sour, harvest.

I have a few eating grape vines, which are only in one vineyard, and I can tell now by sight when they are ripe enough to eat, but I still taste them to make sure when they are at their best.



In a month just start tasting them for a proper sweetness and sour ratio (or use a refractometer and pH meter to be more numerically exact). There is no clock you can set here to just know when any vineyard will be ripe as there are too many local conditions that will cause your fruit to ripen at a different rate than what ripens somewhere else.

For example, I have four active vineyards in three different spots on the same hill, yet I do not harvest them all at the same time since they are in slightly different locations and will ripen at different times (those are all wine grapes).




Thompsons are often cluster thinned and berry thinned to increase berry size. More about that and how to increase berry size can be found in this publication:

http://www.aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/H311.pdf

Also see, as a complete "how to guide" to growing table grapes:

http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/s...ions/growing_table_grapes_ec1639_may_2011.pdf

Hi, does anyone have this guide? The link no longer works.
http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/s...ions/growing_table_grapes_ec1639_may_2011.pdf

 

[sour_grapes]

Hi, does anyone have this guide? The link no longer works.
http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/s...ions/growing_table_grapes_ec1639_may_2011.pdf

If you want to join scribd, it appears you can find it there: growing_table_grapes_ec1639_may_2011.pdf | Vitis | Pruning