Most of the fruits and vegetables people grow get pollinated by bees. This doesn’t seem to be the case with grapes. While the owner of a vineyard might occasionally see some bees lurking in their vines, such sightings tend to be rare. Bees just don’t seem to be attracted to the grape flower. Instead of relying on the wind for pollination, the grape flowers use the wind for pollination. This can be good news when it’s warm enough for things to start blooming, but not yet warm enough for the bees to be active, something many fruit farmers in the northern part of the country worry about every single year.

Even though you don’t have to worry about dealing with bees when you grow grapes, your vines will attract some other pests that could damage your vines and your harvest. The best way to minimize the damage these pests do to your harvest and also reduce your dependency on chemical pesticides, you should think about getting a small flock of guinea fowl. These unusual looking birds will leave the fruit alone but not the insects. They’ll eat just about any bug that they come across, including deer ticks. Not only will the guinea fowl keep your vines pest free, they’re also a pretty good intruder alert system. No one will be able to sneak onto your property with these birds around.

When you think about how easily wild grapes grow, it seems like growing organic grapes wouldn’t be a problem, you’re wrong. Grapes, particularly the varieties used for wine, seem to be extremely sensitive to disease. The more sensitive the variety you’re trying to grow, the less likely it will be that you can grow them organically. Most vineyard owners find that they end up having to treat their vines with some type of spray to prevent disease.

Instead of thinking you’re going to grow organic grapes, you should make it your goal to grow grapes as naturally as possible. The first thing you’ll want to do is look for varieties that tend to thrive in your area and soil, the next thing you’ll want to look for will be the variety that tends to be as disease resistant as you can get. The more natural resistance it has to disease, the less spray you’ll need. You should also consult with your local cooperative extension office or horticultural minded university about when the best time to spray is, and what types of spray you should use.

Try to do as much as you can to avoid having to spray the grapes in the four weeks leading up to your harvest, this will be when the spray has the best chance of affecting you. By managing to avoid spraying your grapes during this period of time, you’ll minimize the odds of ingesting the spray.

Even if you’re grapes are good wine quality, you’ll still be able to use the grapes for aromatherapy oil. The extract needed for the essential oil isn’t found in the fruits juice or pulp. The necessary essential oil gets extracted from the seeds, which aren’t used in the wine. Since only the see will be needed, you can get something out of the grapes that rotted or withered on the vine, or the ones that simply fell before you had a chance to pick them.

Grapes have become an important part of the aromatherapy industry because unlike some other options they don’t have any toxins and no one has experienced any real negative reactions when using grape extract. In addition to using the grape oil in candles and potpourri, it’s often used in lotion and massage oil.

Since extracting the oil from the grapes seeds can be very difficult, the best course of action will be to ship the seeds to a company that has all the equipment needed to get the job done. Most of the time the company that will be extracting the oil from the grapes will purchase the seeds from you and then sell the final product, though you can sometimes find companies that will be willing to work out a different type of arrangement if you want to keep the oil for yourself.

When it comes to choosing the grape you need to consider more than just your personal preference. There are certain winemaking grapes that just don’t grow well in certain parts of the country. The best way to learn what type of grapes do grow well in the type of soil and climate you have, you’ll want to check with the Cooperative Extension office. They’ll be able to supply you with a list of varieties to choose from.

Unlike other fruits which you can pick prior to them ripening, when it comes to wine grapes, you need to make sure they’ve completely ripened on the vine before you even think about picking them. Grapes that haven’t ripened properly will ruin the entire bottle of wine.

Keep in mind that crop insurance isn’t meant to cover bad farming or errors in judgment. In most cases the crop insurance will only cover your losses if has been a really good reason for why your grape vines didn’t produce. If you planted vines not suitable for your soil or climate, if you planted experimental vines, or if you’re trying to grow grapes in an area that grapes can’t usually be grown, it’s unlikely that your vineyard will be covered.

Keep in mind that crop insurance will only cover commercial crops. Growing grapes in your back yard can be expensive and in this case if something happens, you’re going to have to cover the cost on your own. Neither the USDA or crop insurance covers backyard personal grapevines, which are considered part of a kitchen garden

The other thing you need to understand about crop insurance is that in most cases you’re going to have to prove that you did everything possible to try salvaging your crop.  Before you can expect to collect your crop insurance payout, you’ll have to show that you took all sorts of preventative measures, which you’ll have to prove, they won’t just take you at your word.