#88 "Caps Off": Childhood is Over
And reproduction begins.
We track progress in the vineyard by observing distinct signs of maturity. “Budbreak” is one such stage. (See Substack #83). Another is “veraison” which is when the color of red varieties change from green to red, usually in August.
Right now we are seeing “caps off.” That is when the grapes begin to flower; or in other words, when the male and female portions of the plant emerge and fertilization follows.
These stages occur in the same sequence during each growing season. It is one of the ways we keep track of progress. We time some tasks based on the condition and rate of progress of the clusters.
All the “caps” do not come off at once. In the photo above you can see all three different stages of this process: caps on; caps partway off; and caps all the way off.
We are also looking for abnormalities in the development of the fruit. These, fortunately are rare.
The next stage we look for is “fruit set.” That is when we see how successful the fertilization process has been. That will give us an indication of how many berries each cluster will produce. Once we have a final fruit set, we can begin to estimate the size of the coming harvest.
“Fruit set” dictates that we have another set of operations to perform. More on that when it actually happens within the next few weeks.
After "caps off" and before fruit set, the flowers have to be pollinated. Grapes are pollinated by the wind. Since their flowers do not have to attract insects, they do not have bright beautiful petals.
Great explanation and accompanying photographs ... this is actually more visually informative than what was provided in the online course I took from Cornell. For other folks reading, this period is also called 'Bloom' and is one of the crucial times to spray.