North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Mauch1@aol.com]

>In the early years of the 20th century, physicists discovered properties of
>matter at the sub-atomic level that are still considered incomprehensible
>and downright absurd. Nevertheless, this was the beginning of quantum
>physics, which
>made possible the computers at which we are sitting.

First, I am not an expert at quantum physics, or electronics but I believe 
The following to be true:
Common computers do not use quantum physics as part of their operation.  
In fact, quantum physics starts causing problems as circuit size gets smaller
And smaller (at smaller sizes, quantum properties start affecting the 
operation
Of circuits.)

Now I have read that in labs, scientists have developed “Quantum circuits”,  
but
I do not know if these will ever get out of the lab or be applied to other 
than
Very special case mathematical problems.  


>I wait until the grape bunch stem breaks off the vine easily.

>Bill

Depending on your cultivar of grape, this may not work.  Not all grapes bunch 
stems break off
Even at full ripeness.  Some get “woody”, and others remain highly flexible, 
so are nearly 
Impossible to break off.

> In the past you have said that the best way to check ripeness in grapes is
taste.  But do all
> grapes in a cluster reach the same taste/ripeness, at the same time?
>
> Being a grape novice, I see a lot of color variation between grapes in a
bunch.  Also,  how
> "ripe" are your grapes in your zone (generaly speaking_?  My Eona's are
like green peas, while

In some grapes, the bunches never get completely the same color, or if they
Do they are past full ripeness  (Once Canadice is fully red, the grapes fall
Off the bunches at a touch).  For eating, I would taste both the fully-colored
And the greenish grapes.  If both taste reasonable good, pick.
When I had grapes they would ripen (depending on variety) from late August 
to early October.  I had one variety that was perfectly hardy, but it 
wouldn't ripen properly in SE PA.

If using for winemaking, you might want to be more exacting 
for your grape testing.

>Hi, I am brand new to this group. How can one be rid of wasps which
>ruin half of the blackberries in my acreage ?
>They are nice to have around for pollination but now they are costing
>me. Grape growers must have the same problem.
>Thank you
>Bruce Muirhead
>Nova Scotia

I've long held an opinion about wasps (particularly of the
yellow jacket variety).  I believe that wasps get blamed for
a lot of fruit damage that is initially caused by birds.  

I think some birds come along and peck at a fruit, and
once the damage has occurred, the wasps come along to feed
in the open wound.  I have seen what appears to be very minor
damage on a grape, that was definitley done by a wasp, but 
I don't think it's the majority.  I would bet if you controlled
the birds or netted your berries, you would see very little wasp 
damage.  You could even do this as a test (i.e. net some and not
others and see which become wasp damaged. If both, then it's not
birds.

Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6