Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Things You’ll Need:
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small set of shears, oiled and sharpened
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tray or other container to hold grapes
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gloves (if necessary)
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sun hat
How to Harvest Grapes from Grape Vines
Step1
First of all, make sure your grapes are mature enough to be harvested. You can determine their readiness by keeping an eye on the color changes of the grape, depending on the variety you are growing, and also on the size of the grapes. Another easy way to see if grapes are ripe is to taste them right off the vine. If they're sweet, they're ready!
Step2
Make sure you have decent weather before setting out to harvest grapes by hand. A sunny day will require you to protect your skin as harvest usually takes place in the late summer months when the sun can still be powerful. Wear a sun hat and long sleeves to keep yourself safe.
Step3
Use a pair of shears that fit your hands to harvest the grapes. Make sure they function easily and that they are sharp. Shears that are too large are too bulky and unwieldy while shears that are too small can actual be painful to use. Oil them in advance if you need to.
Step4
When clipping the grape clusters off the vine, gently pull the cluster away from the vine with one hand and clip the cluster off with the shears in the other hand. Make sure you leave a little bit of stem on the cluster so to ease the handling of grapes later.
Step5
Place grape clusters gently on tray and continue to harvest. Keep grapes out of direct sunlight if possible as they react to heat quite quickly when they are ripe. Wash grapes before eating . Store in a cool place and enjoy!
Novice
