It's the time of year when the vines would benefit from a little attention. They tend to overproduce and set far too many bunches of grapes - if they aren't thinned out the bunches will be of poor size and quality. So in both greenhouses I remove all but one bunch per node. One of the varieties is Muscat of Alexandria - this produces large bunches of well spaced berries, though it needs a warm season to fully ripen here. The other is Black Hamburg. Although reliable and prolific, this variety often produces densely packed bunches that do not leave enough room for the berries to develop fully and there is poor air flow within the bunch, which can lead to problems with diseases such as botrytis. This sort therefore benefits from thinning the individual berries within the bunch. This is quite a chore so this year I am thinning half of the greenhouse and leaving the over half. When they are fully ripe I will return to compare the results to see how much improvement was made by thinning.
