Anyone else have grapes ripening?
Here in Kansas where seedless concord are not seedless it is very common to get one main crop and a small second crop. That is unique to that variety of grape.
Ours are not ripening yet either, but like yours, they are close. @KS_razerback is likely further south of me. The sun is hot this year in this area. Seedless concornd also dont ripen at one time like normal grapes do. They ripen a few in a cluster at a time over several weeks, which means we need to pick individual grapes and not cut off clusters. That makes them time-consuming. Everyone still loves them, including me. Two crops is something we really enjoy. They are the only 2 crop grapes i know of.
Well, they are ripening significantly earlier than last year. Last year the first grapes just started ripening on July 23 according to my records.
Ok, interesting that it is more of a variety specific trait.
I did think ours were supposedly ‘seedless’ too, I was thinking it was a mislabel. I guess that is pretty common for them to have seeds here.
Pics of my seedless concords from previous season dated Aug 24, Aug 29.
Mine do not all ripen at the same time… pick them a little at a time for about a month.
If I dont bag them the birds will get the large majority.
@TNHunter do your Concords ripen to sweet or do they just stay sour?
Mine always stay sour through the whole ripening process, even more so than our wild grapes. I wonder if it has anything to do with the soil or rain or is it just the variety?
Are they Concord? I have the old traditional seeded type, and it definitely gets sweet… like grape juice sweet.
We bought what was supposedly seedless Concord, but they always were inedibly sour.
Need more years on the plants? They are five or six years old.
That’s odd. I haven’t had the seedless type, but in my experience, plants tend to show their flavor in the first couple of years of producing (fruit trees or others). I started a seeded concord cutting and it made some grapes after a couple of years and they were sweet out of the gate. Some growers hold out hope for better things (for poor performers) down the road and maybe that works out, but my experience has been that good stuff starts out good. Bad stuff starts out bad, and stays poor (whether due to soil, climate or whatever).
I’m wondering about grafting another variety on them, preferably a very sweet one. Was thinking reliance any suggestions?
Or try some ‘seeded’ Concords instead of ‘seedless’.
You could graft and it should take off pretty quickly although I haven’t done grapes myself. Also, grape cuttings root very well if you have access to a number of them (to maximize odds).
@KS_razerback … mine are quite tart and flavorful. When they reach that darker purple color a good mix of tart and sweet.
Without bagging… i would never get those darker purple ones.
@TNHunter these are mine last year.
I don’t think they could ripen any more but might as wait a week or so and try them again.
July?? In Boise Zone 6A, my Concord competes w Lakemont for last to finish ripening, typically after Labor day. Concord can even get a bit sweeter and survive a light early first frost in Oct. I run 20 varieties and have no idea how you get Concords ripe in July.
