The old saying is “every time God closes a door he opens a window”  Well it runs the other way too.  Every time he opens a window, he slams a door.  We have had perfect rain this year for most of the gardens but it has killed most of the grapes.  Remember the picture I showed you in the spring of all those beautiful clumps of grapes?  Well, we just went out and picked off about 80% of them.  We have raised grapes for over 10 years, here and in Blairsville, GA.  We have always had some problem with the black spot fungus but never like this.  So I read up on the problem and find it spreads or gets worse when there is too much water.  Our land drains well so there is never any standing water so the grape roots don’t mind but too much water weakens the grape plant enough that the fungus can attack the whole plant, fruit, leaves and stems and that is what has happened this year.  More than half of the grapes look like they are rotting on the vine, then they dry up like a raisin, these are called mummies and then when it rains they burst and send spores all over the plant and reinfect it.  So the first thing we had to do is pick off all the infected grapes, cut off as many leaves as we could that was blocking the sun from the grapes and rake up everything under the vines so there would be no mummies left to spread the spores.  When we put in the vines 7 years ago it had said to mulch the plants to keep the weeds down and to help hold the moisture but for mature grapes now I find out you need to keep the ground under the vine clean, weed when ever anything tries to grown there and pick up any grapes that fall right away.  Many plants have shallow roots so want the mulch to protect their roots but grapes have very deep roots, I remember that from Blairsvillle, those roots went under ground way over to the vegetable garden to get extra food and water.  There are some grapes left on the vines now, I just hope we have the infection under control so those few that are left will be there for our jelly.  We will need to buy extra apples to make juice for the winter and spring.  Anyone want to buy a nice farm?   Now I am waiting for 10a.m. so I can call and see if the canning tomatoes are in yet.  Last year they were $8 for a 25 pound box and we can’t grow them for that so I hope they are the same this year.  It has been good weather for tomatoes and there are no bugs or animals that like them exempt the tomato worm that hatches into an underwing moth and they are easy to see and kill so they should be lots at the market this year again.  Have a great day!