Picking Grapes in Your Home Garden

Most grapes are harvested during the fall, but this can depend on your crop's specific development. The most important factors in determining whether a crop of grapes is ready for harvest are tannin development, acidity level, and sugar level. The pH and flavor of the grape can also be important, but usually is fine if the other three criteria are met. Here are a few guidelines on picking grapes, whether you choose to harvest by hand or with a picking machine.

Should you use a machine for picking grapes?

Depending on the size of your crop, you can choose to pick grapes by hand or use a machine to harvest them. Hand picking grapes is obviously a lot slower and requires much more work than machine-picking. It is often worth this extra effort because the quality of the harvest will be better. With a grape picking machine, you will get a lot of stray material like leaves, branches, and unripe grapes in your harvest. Obviously, harvesting machines are very expensive and may not be practical for a small grower. Many commercial grape farms will hire out their picking machines and employees to help small growers harvest their crops. Of course, this comes at a price, but it is still much less expensive than purchasing the equipment yourself. It can also be safer to have a professional come over and operate the picking machine for you.

Which grapes are right for machine picking?

Juice grapes can take more abuse than grapes grown for the production of wine, making them more suitable for machine picking. Using a harvesting machine can cause significant stress to the grapevines. Most picking machines operate by shaking the vines until the grapes drop onto the machine's conveyor belt. The picked grapes are then moved along the belt and sent through a chute into a storage crate. If you choose to operate the grape picking machine yourself, be careful when moving it up a steep incline or when going around a sharp corner.

Hand picking your grapes

If you grow grapes for wine production, it is best to pick them by hand. This is especially true if you have a small crop and cannot take the risk of having any grapes damaged by the picking machine. To prepare for your grape harvest, collect several grape crates and spread them among the grapevines. You will also need a sturdy pair of gloves and a pair of garden clippers. Simply clip the grape bunches from the vine and drop them in the crates. By harvesting your grapes manually, you will have complete control over what makes its way into your crates.