Almost time for Concord grape jam season

[whacko]

We have always collected wild Concord grapes in mid September from a few public land areas for jelly and jam. 4 years ago my wife and I decided to plant some cultivated Concord vines and got nothing for 3 seasons. Last year she read about how to prune them properly and wow! We have a hell of a crop. They are turning color now......which means it's getting to be signs of my favorite time of year.......harvesting time....small game hunting time......I can't wait for the weather change and to get into the woods.

Collecting wild grapes was always a good time but we though it would be good to plant some vines on the fence line on our own property and watching them form and ripen every day has been rewarding.

 

[Arto]

how do you prune them properly?

 

[whacko]

how do you prune them properly?

You need to promote one strong stem that come from the ground by pruning off all the side vines for the first 3-4 feet of the vine from the ground up. From there you need to keep the side vine to 2-3 side vines off the main stem (the main stem and the side ones will be brown and have almost a bark layer formed).....this promoted good smaller vines to form off the main ones (green vines) that will produce the grapes. Once the smaller vines form clusters in early summer you need to thin the clusters out by snipping off the new ones that form and keep the number of clusters to 2 per vine off the main stems. This will allow the grapes to get larger.....if you don't thin them they will be lots and lots of tiny little grapes that aren't really edible.

It's a bit of work but we have a hell of a crop. At first we though you just planted the vine and forget about it.....and we had huge vines and no grapes until she read about how to prune them last year.

 

[DJBrad]

I saw one hell of a large vine on the west side of the hill at Moore State Park the other day. Not a cluster like yours but I knew it was a Concord as some were just as large and turning light purple. And diddo on the feeling of the change of season....harvesting time....small game hunting time.....big game hunting time. Bear season is only 4 weeks away.

 

[whacko]

I saw one hell of a large vine on the west side of the hill at Moore State Park the other day. Not a cluster like yours but I knew it was a Concord as some were just as large and turning light purple. And diddo on the feeling of the change of season....harvesting time....small game hunting time.....big game hunting time. Bear season is only 4 weeks away.

For years my son and I have made the first Saturday of grey squirrel season in zone 9 a day trip to hunt squirrel from sunup to about noon and then harvest a ton of wild grapes to take home for jam making on Sunday. There's a patch of public land we know of that's loaded with hardwood stands full of bushy tails......and many fields with concord's growing everywhere.

I dropped him off at college 3 days ago.......looks like this year I'll have to just stick to the grapes we've got in the yard. Wife and I are Going through empty nest syndrome at the moment.

Good news is his semester started early and he'll be home the week before Thanksgiving......so we'll have deer season together.

 

[enbloc]

how do you prune them properly?

Additional info...

 

[Fixxah]

We used them in sling shot wars as kids. There were vines out back that were four inches wide at the base. They had crab apple trees as well. Sweet jellies.

 

[whacko]

6 jars of jam today from the grapes in the yard. Enough left on the vine to double that amount but we will share the rest with the local birds.

Hunted squirrel in southern NH this morning with the wife. Struck out but had a good morning. Couple other young guys out there going after bushy tails as well which was good to see.