I think that we may have,but not quite,exhausted the discussions on mulching.Unfortunately I only have 30 vines in total and four varieties,so it will not be possible to do a control test.There is already some fairly large differences within the rows.I am inclined to continue mulching,but without added fertiliser,due to my very dry limestone soil I.I would very much like to hear what soil doubi...grows his grapes on.Is the mulch mainly there to give moisture control in a dry soil?
I have just picked most of my grapes with Brix between 17 and 19,which is quite good for English grown grapes in a cool climate.The harvest produced just above 2 litres of juice per vine,which again is quite good for me.As usual I have difficulty in knowing when to pick the grapes,it always being a balance between sugar content and rot setting in-I tend to pick at a slightly lower Brix in order to avoid the sorting out of the rotten grapes.
A couple more questions.
1)I noticed a large number of bunches had a brown section on the grape struss stalk,about 1/2"-3/4" long just at the point the truss is attached to the vine.Is this an indication of ripeness or something else? 2)On one variety (a German hybrid called Regent),several of the bunches had tiny grapes amongst the normal sized ones.These were normally ripe juicy grapes,but 1/8"diameter rather than 1/2".This obviously reduces the yield,and I wonder why these grapes did not grow to full size.Hope you can help Regards,Michael