You still have japenese beetles there? We had those here in the late 90s and they were absolutely everywhere. Thousands of them.

Birds theres a couple things you can do. Chicken wire around the grapes. Stick up some posts and then run fishing line around them in a perimeter. Place flashy metallic items (like foil) in with the vines. Anything thats usual basically.

Dishpan with 1/2" of water and a couple of teaspoons of lemon dish detergent. I use this for mosquito control, but actually found it to be a good way to keep pests off my tomatoes. Put a screen over it if there's a lot of pets in the neighborhood.

Bob, check with your state agriculture department. Most states have an outreach program that provides the basic info on things like pest control and home-brewing.

Baby grapes! there's a picture to fetch a smile! :-) :-) :-)

QT

I hear cdr and dvd "coasters" make good spinning suncatchers/reflectors.
My neighbor has a vine that grows along our back fence, into and all through our lemon tree every year. We've been here 13 yrs and still no grapes:(
I wish you luck. Grapes would have to be one of my favorites, smothered in yogurt. Can't wait to get some for nothing:)

we used to put up those japanese beetle-catching bags near our grape vines. They worked pretty well. Our big problem was bees after the grapes ripened...

My dad used to grow grapes in our backyard and after we were grown he liked to have the neighborhood kids come over to pick their own grapes.

Nice memory.

made my own VINEGAR once. I don't think you'll be wanting tips on that...

Hopefully you or your neighbors don't use those beetle bags to capture beetles. They actually just attract them, and make your area most concentrated with them, seek a natural or chemical way.

Are they getting frost on them in the Spring? Frost is the bane of all fruit.

Chives and/or catnip helps keep those damn Japanese beetles away, but the best thing to do is just keep up on them. Manually remove them when you see them and after awhile they won't come back. They are one of the hardest insects to kill.

Something else that helps out great with insect control is planting marigolds around stuff. I do that in my garden in the backyard as well as my co-op plot and it helps out a ton.

Almost all of nature needs pollination. Having the same problem in southern Michigan due to shortage of pollinating insects. Bees are scarce. Even the bee keepers in my area are not getting much honey lately. Care for the plant and hope the best.

"Agricultural extension service." That was the phrase I was trying to remember...

Jamie's idea about marigolds works for my small garden (along with planting habaneros also at the boundaries). Be sure you get the most common marigold (tegates?) and not the calendula type. Marigolds grow quickly from bedding plants and if you save the seeds (easy to figure out when the flowers close) you will have endless ones which are easy to start from seed in the ground. Mexican marigolds are also know to keep out slugs but I haven't tried that yet. I think they are the lime-colored ones you see at garden centers--only until the flowers open and then they are more or less yellowish.

For my blackberries I have a black net that is gigantic and mainly only keeps the birds out (mostly). It is reusable for several years. Got that at Wallyworld a few years back.

re: Marigolds

There's an invasive slug species here that eats up all the Marigolds before they have half a chance- spanish immigrants. They're the worst- so damn many of them. And Marigolds seem to be their absolut favorite.

I've been brewing beer for a few years now on and off, though I haven't been very succesful yet. However, two years ago I juiced like 5 sacks full of apples and made apple wine out of it. Easiest fermentation project imaginable! You just pour the juice in a carbouy and let it do it's thing. You let the fermentation finish completly (few months) and then add a little cornsugar before bottling to give it a little carbonation.

Actually, the apple wine was probably the tastiest fermented beverage I've created so far.

Wine from grapes could be done the same way. But, not if you want to achieve any kind of consistancy of your product- means that you have to kill everything in the must (hence the sulfites) and then proceed with a cultured yeast, and utmost care for sterility at this point.

I would recommend using the wild yeast method at first- you really cant get it wrong. This way you can start out concerning yourself just with the simpler issues like fermentation temp.

Okay, so I bought some Milky Spore and sprinkled some in the dirt around the base of the vine. I'm told this will kill the grubs before they turn into the beetles.

But if they survive, I'm going to try the catnip. I don't want to spray any chemicals on the vine now that it's developing fruit.

Grew up in the "Grapebelt" of Western, New York. Started working in the vineyards, picking a few crated during season, in the fourth grade.

I love vineyards, and all things grape-related. I think it takes about five years for any vine to produce fruti, so your'e actually ahead of schedule.

Bob, Milky Spore is a good organic solution to Japanese Beetles, but grubs are more of a lawn problem, so you need to get out the spreader and do your lawn as well.

Tip #1 in pressing the grapes for wine:

Take your socks off first.

Congratulations on the grapes! If I actually get a good blueberry yield this year (read that: more than a handful,) I giving 100% of the credit to Obama!!! :-)

(j/k)

Congratulations! I live in Japan and farmers here often use different types of materials to cover their produce. One man uses hoods (http://rompingjapan.blogspot.com/2007/07/grape-farming.html). This won't keep the beetles away but will help with the birds and using wax paper as mentioned in the article in the link will not affect the grapes changing color. Good luck!

making your own wine is an activity that most conservatives would deride as "faggy". poor ignorant bastards...

To keep out birds use a net- from Agway, maybe.

The thing about milky spore is that it also kills immature lightening bugs!

Read up on this stuff- I recommend Rodale's Organic Gardening. Rodale is in your area- Emmaus, PA