When is too much too much?

[Ricky2Guns]

I know I’m supposed to do some cluster thinning, but when is too much too much? What I mean by that is, do I thin now so that the others can grow plump? or do I thin later to see which ones specifically need to be thinned out? Btw, these are Summer Royals.

 

[BigH]

I don't cluster thin until after berry set. I read an article once that said cluster thinning too soon will cause the vine to compensate by making larger berries. That is typically not desired. Plus, weather may impact how well your pollination and berry set goes, and that might impact which clusters you keep and which ones you cull.

I keep 2 clusters on the healthiest shoots that are longer than 2 ft. I keep one cluster on healthy shoots between 1 and 2 feet, and remove everything from weak shoots less than 1 ft. I will let some hyper vigorous varieties have 3 clusters on the strongest shoots, usually in the head region of the vine. But these get spot checked after veraison to make sure they are ripening evenly.

PS: nobody ever told me I was an expert at this.

H

 

[Ricky2Guns]

Larger berries aren’t a bad thing for me as I’m going the table grape route. I sorta felt like it was too early to cull as there’s no guarantee any of these would make it to the next level. Since I’m not using any commercial type boosters to get larger grapes, I’m wondering when is a good time for culling. With the information you gave looks like it confirms maybe not right now but at berry set to ensure the majority reach some sort of stability to make it into the ”Major leagues”