Do I remove more? This is only one half of one side of the trellis.
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Looks great to me! Leaves also look healthy. Is that your Hope grapes or is it your Swenson Red grapes? My guess is that those are Hope grapes. On my Swenson red vines the clusters are generally dumbbell-shaped.
My Swenson Reds are ripening and hopefully I will have some fresh Swenson Red jelly in a few days. Just have to look out for the varmints until then. They eat my Reliance grapes first but if they can’t get them they will go after my Swenson Reds. They love the sweet grapes. Good luck to you.
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I think I’d remove more and/or cut the bottom off the clusters.
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The leaves are really healthy and the clusters are about 4" long. Like Fruitnut suggested I will remove more. My Swenson Red have barbell shaped clusters as well. I have yards of netting waiting to go up! Thanks to you both!
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What does Swenson Red jelly taste like? Red Currant?
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Swenson Red grapes makes good jelly. Not as good as Concord Seeded. I guess that figures, if Concord is the standard that grape jellies are judged by.
Last year because the robins were feasting on my trellis ( I have an arbor also) grapes big time, I harvested the grapes before they were fully ripe and the jelly was not as tasty as the two prior years that I had made jelly from Swenson Red grapes. Sort of reminds me of going into Caesar’s Wine and Liquors store and asking the clerk why the huge jugs of wine was much cheaper than the 750 ml bottles of wine. Of course, the answer was that the grapes used for making the wine in the huge bottles was much inferior to the grapes used for the wine in the standard bottles. Maybe the birds were after the grapes that used for in the wine in the huge bottles as in my case. Who knows?
I use Ball Low or No-sugar pectin while using 2 cups of sugar per batch
of 8 half pint jelly jars following the Ball recipe.
Not familiar with Red Currant.
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So it tastes like Welches! Thanks😘
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Oh, I forgot to really specify what it taste like. If I remember correctly it has more of a fruity taste than the Concord jelly. But my taste buds are getting old and I have difficulty describing taste - or remembering what it taste like. I am eating some of my Red Swensons with and without the skins now as I am typing this and the taste is best described as pleasant with out being quite as fruity tasting as say something like an Reliance grape. I have read that it has strawberry undertones but I really can not say that. Maybe, but I don’t know for sure. Also sweet but not as nearly as sweet as the Reliance. Texture of the pulp is average. Not nearly as melting as the Reliance but nowhere as tough as a Concord. I guess the texture is best described as being halfway between that of a Reliance and a Jupiter grape - which I also have.
Because I prefer my table grapes to be seedless, I make jelly out of most of my Swenson Reds. May try just making juice out of some this year. Freeze the Reliance and Jupiter grapes that I don’t eat right away.
Look like I will have a fair crop of New York Muscat grapes this year. They have an interesting pleasant taste but I have not really figured out what a Muscat taste is supposed to be. Muscat grapes are said to be among the best tasting. Jupiter is described as having a slight muscat flavor but I have never realized that. N.Y. Muscat is a small reddest grape on a wimpy grapevine with a slight melting texture. Just does not grow. I think @scottfsmith has a N. Y. Muscat vine. Funny thing is that it is listed as a seeded grape but mine are sometimes seedless and sometimes 1 seeded. Just can’t figure what a Muscat flavor is. Have drank Muscat wines too and - well, they just taste like wine to me. Interesting grape though.
Let us know how how your Hope grapes taste!
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That describes mine - vines of a similar age in a similar spot are 3x as big. I don’t recall grapes without any seeds at all on mine though.
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Thanks for the reply Scott. After eating some more of my N.Y. Muscats, I realized that the smallest grapes are seedless while the larger are 1 or 2 seeded. The texture are about like that of Swenson Reds too. Also, they seem to be tart until fully ripe.
The thing that I like most about the vine is that it never needs pruning or thinning! Just not very productive here. I’m always looking for ways to take some of the work out of stuff so it may become my favorite vine as time goes on. May not like the hot climate in the south though.
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Thanks so much! Wil let you know about Hope! When it comes to jelly, I will ask my questions in the food category! Please look for it! Thanks so much.
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