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Sarah Taber

You only need to put predatory mites onto your plants if you're in a greenhouse. And you need to put out thousands. A few per plant with a paintbrush won't do it.

But for crops in an open field, predatory mites usually show up on their own. No application necessary.

8 comments
Sarah Taber replied to Sarah

Sometimes the best things in life *are* free.

Sarah Taber replied to Sarah

Ok so that's some grape pest management facts.

Time for some winemaking.

Sarah Taber replied to Sarah

Tannins: they're the compound that makes wines taste "oaky," "grippy," etc.

Some of the tannins in wine come from the grapes, some of them come from the barrel they're aged in.

Sarah Taber replied to Sarah

Grapes for winemaking tend to have thicker skins than grapes for eating. Thick skins aren't fun to chew through.

But winemakers like a nice thick skin, because that's where a lot of the flavor & aroma compounds in wine come from. They're in the skin, not the inside of the grape.

Sarah Taber replied to Sarah

Vineyards for wine grapes can be surprisingly, uh, not as lucrative as we might think.

Grapes for eating fresh tend to command a higher price. Why?

Sarah Taber replied to Sarah

Wine grapes can be ugly! They get mashed up into juice.

But table grapes have to be in good enough condition to ship, & for people to still want to buy them when they arrive.

So table grapes are higher maintenance to grow. You'll lose more the crop to un-shippability, etc.

Sarah Taber replied to Sarah

That's one reason there's so much agritourism in the winery business. Often, there's surprisingly little money in the vineyard itself.

Sarah Taber replied to Sarah

Ok raisin time!

This is how most of the raisins in the US are made.

They just pick the clusters off the vine, lay them on a piece of kraft paper between the rows, and leave them there until they're raisins.

That's it that's the whole process.

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