The annual picking conundrum

[saddlebronze]

Well, its that time again. The LaCrosse, Marquette, Frontenac, F.Gris and F.Blanc are all in the high teens on brix. Starting to see lots of bees on the F.Blanc and a few berries going south on the others. Do I pick or hold out for the low 20's? What say y'all. This week's weather looks real good in the east....

 

[mgmarty]

Hold out. I'm just a sucker for what's to come.


Baco Noir and Seyval Blanc in Utah

 

[spaniel]

You have to decide how much you want to play with fire. Mine started getting like that, I elected to try to go just one more week (picking mid-week was not practical). It got my Foch to perfect chemistry, although I probably lost 10-20% of wine volume to yellow jackets. But I had 100% loss on my Oberlin Noir (primarily yellow jackets).

 

[saddlebronze]

Sound advice. I have been watching day by day and I may bring them in tomorrow. We have some weather coming and the yellow jackets are getting fierce. They are the little ones, but boy are there a ton of them. I got the new bird netting this year and it is working well, but don't know what to do about the yellow jackets except just harvest. Maybe in my bee suit!