Fruit drop

[berrycrush]

I had severe fruit drop in August on most of my vines, especially those heavily-produced ones last year.
The berries just fall off from the stem with the lightest touch, some of them are not even fully purple. Any theory why this happen?
There are some excessive hot days (100F) this summer, I also noticed more soft bendy shoots unable to stand upright, and some of them snapped in the middle or cleanly from the base. Water is not a issue this year, if not too much water in August. I also exclude fungi and pest since I notice no difference from last year.

 

[Rice_Guy]

You didn’t say which variety this is. ? I have Edelweiss which does this every year at about 16 Brix. I also have ten other northern/ French hybrids which do not do this.

Theory: this is a wild trait called shattering, which we try to breed out of domestic crops.
A guess is that catalogue descriptions saying thick skin means it resists shattering

 

[berrycrush]

I have Leon Millot, Frontenac, Marquette, Cab Sauv, Somerset, Candice. They are all doing this this year. Didn't happen last year and years before, at lease not at this scale. Last year is the actually the first season that yield a decent harvest.

 

[Rice_Guy]

If it is everything moisture stress.

You have enough variation in genetics that i would expect some variation in variety ex all my Lambrusco do better than Vinifera hybrids.

 

[berrycrush]

It turns out the culprit is raccoon. How do you guy deal with them?

 

[tom6922]

I string up an electric fence each year at the start of veraison. Five strands of wire, about 2’ high, powered by an energizer that sends a pulse every second. Only thing that works for me against racoons.

 

[Sailor323]

Electric fence is the only way to deal with them

 

[KevinL]

The raccoons in my vineyard have unfortunate accidents... They're terribly clumsy creatures you see...

 

[BigH]

I relocate the coons that visit my sweetcorn patch and vineyard to a far, far better place. They tell me it is like heaven.

H

 

[berrycrush]

I live an hour away from my vineyard. I only found out from my wildlife cams. They have been eating my grapes since mid August, the camera caught one on the first night of the setup. Then they disappeared. I do have electric fence but they ware strung up high for deer. I laid down a few lower strands and see what happens.

 

[tom6922]

A pic of my elec fence, works great.