North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

A couple of weeks ago, I was cutting off the bird netting from my 
Concord grapes (I really need to investigate disposable netting next 
year, since there's no way I can remove it in one piece), when I found a 
half-dozen small bunches of grapes - long, long after the main crop had 
ripened. These were smaller than normal - the grapes and the bunches - 
but still delicious. I had more late grapes than this, but the birds got 
some of them (those that were poking through the netting), and I picked 
some of the others too early (as sour as little lemons!). They were all 
growing from this year's canes.

But my question is this: Was this an indication that I'd actually pruned 
TOO severely last spring? Or just one of those things that Concord 
grapes do?

I had a ton of grapes this year, and I'd actually wondered if I hadn't 
pruned enough. But these Concord grapes are so incredibly vigorous that 
I'm now wondering if I should have left even more when I pruned them. 
Note that they were hit hard by our April freeze, too - they looked 
terrible after that - but they still grew like crazy and produced a LOT 
of grapes.

Just wondering. I have to admit that it was nice to get a few late 
grapes, but there weren't enough of them to make all that much 
difference. Still, it appears that I can't be doing TOO badly (or, more 
likely, that they're just so easy to grow that it's almost impossible to 
screw things up).

Thanks,

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others. - 
Samuel Johnson