With this article, I will discuss an important part of preparing the grape bunches for harvest. We are about 3 weeks away from starting to pack our first Flame Seedless grapes, and although we had a hard time thinning out the bunches, the crop size an quality at this stage is excellent.
Bunch sizing, as mentioned before, is an import part of preparing your grape crop for harvest. This is not so vital for wine grapes, but for table or eating grapes it is absolutely imperative that you know how big the bunches should be.
As we are entering the final stages of berry development, just before colouring, the berry sets out about two thirds of the final size. Off course this means that during this stage, you must know exactly what to do, to maximize the berry size, and one of the methods you should consider is to make the bunches smaller.
Not only will smaller bunches improve berry size, but will also improve colouring, disease control and also makes the harvesting and handling (packing) of the grapes bunches much easier.
If you look at the picture below, you will see a variety called Sundance Seedless. This is an early/mid season, white seedless variety that naturally produce large bunches. If we do no size these bunches, the bunches will weigh in access of 1.2 kg and the berry size on these grapes will most probably end up being 13 to 17 mm.
By just sizing the bunches, we actually decrease the crop size, but will increase the berry sizing. Hopefully, if everything goes as planned, the size bunches in the picture below, will around 600 to 800 grams, making it much easier to pack into cartons and also to handle.
The actual size of the bunch above is just larger than the width of my hand. Some varieties like Red Globe, Thompson Seedless (Sulatan), we size the bunches even smaller. I use this method to size my Flame Seedless and Crimson Seedless bunches as well
The best advice I can give you for knowing what size you should make your grape bunches, is to experiment with your own variety to find the size that suites your needs. A rule of thumb is to use the width of your hand and ad about an inch.
This tip will help you produce the best grapes in the neighborhood and make your neighbor envy your grape vine! 
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Take care and happy grape growing my friend.
Danie
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Dan,
Where can i find seedling about the grapes? can grow it in the philippines?
Thanks………..
Anas
Dear Danie
It is amazing to get such giant bynches that I have ever seen. This year however my trial was end-September pruning which resulted very few and poor bunches. I think Late August pruning will give better success here.
I wish a very joyful Christmas. May God bless you with all success
Regards,
Mohammed
very interesting information and so useful
thanks
happy new year
Hi i am new in this blog, am from Sonora Mexico, i work in an table grapes vineyard, i enjoy work with grapes and i like now new peoples
Hi, I didn’t include my website as there is nothing there to do with grapes.
My wife recently planted a grape vine on the outskirts of our front yard here on reclaimed swampland, within 100m of the sea, on the south west coast of Jamaica, WI, but protected from hard sea breeze by fairly thick mangrove trees.
The vine was planted in a wooden box about 1′ x 3′ x 3′ filled with soil brought from inland, mixed with bio-ganic fertilizer and other natural manures and some rotted filter press from a sugar cane factory.
We built a wooden frame and nailed some hog-wire to it and trained the vines onto it, and there are now about 12-14 small bunches, still green and very acid in taste, but with some red spots. We had an infestation of Aphids which she sprayed for with a chemical called Kure and, while the vine is now putting on new vegetation, it is rather sparse of leaf.
This is a first attempt at growing grapes, so we’re looking for advice for the future.
Many thanks in advance