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Fruit & Orchards

help, can I still harvest my grapes?

13 years ago

Can anyone help me? We are newbies to growing grapes. In an attempt to kill the Japanese beetles that were eating the leaves on our grape vine, I wafted a mist of Bayer Advanced 3-in-1 Insect, Disease, and Mite Control 3 times over the top leaves of the vine. We have bunches of green grapes hanging underneath the leaves. Don't know if the mist contacted the grapes themselves, but I suppose it would be impossible for a tiny droplet not to touch a grape. These are Concord grapes so they will not be ready for consumption until September. After doing this stupid thing, I saw on the label of the container that this is not for vegetables or fruit. My husband was wondering if it still might be safe to eat the grapes when they ripen. We plan to can them. Don't know if this would make any difference. I figured that if I called Bayer they would automatically tell me to not eat them because they would want to protect themselves.

If we should not eat them when they ripen, I figured we should cut them off now to give the vine more chance to retain its vigor.

By the way, my husband felt that a safe alternative to what I did is to spray flying insect insecticide on the leaves. I am wondering if that is any safer than what I did.

Would greatly appreciate any knowledgeable help on this.

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Comments (7)

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
13 years ago
I wouldn't have a problem eating them in September. And if you have to spray any more use Sevin. It is supposed to be effective and you can eat the grapes two weeks after spraying. At least I have eaten fruit two weeks after spraying Sevin.
denninmi
13 years ago
If you knew what was sprayed on all of that produce coming from places like Mexico, Chile, Central America you'd probably not want to eat any of it. But we all do.
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myk1
13 years ago
Sevin is a 7 day PHI for grapes (I just looked it up the other day because I couldn't remember in another reply). It looks like I should be able to get through the Japanese Beetles with 2 sprays. The first one killed the major swarm and there wasn't enough to bother with for quite a while even though they did start eating again after a week.

If it was me with the Bayer 3in1 I would look up the MSDS for whatever chemical it is and make my decision based on what it does.
franktank232
13 years ago
Looks like it contains these 3 chemicals:

Imidacloprid .
Tau-ï¬uvalinate
Tebuconazole

I believe the first one is a neonicotinoid
The second chemical is a pyrethroid
The third one is a fungicide (triazole)

Considering what you eat from the super market (unless you are a 100% organic type of person), i wouldn't worry too much. Rain will wash most of it away, plus the sun will break it down...
foolishpleasure
13 years ago
I have Japanese Beatles eating my Grape vines too. The way I got ready of them I put two electric stinger on a table under the vines. They love the bright light and come to it and get burned. Some still alive and hide under the stinger. I collect them every day using the shop-vac. I must collected 4000 of them. I can smell the smoke when the stinger burns them. I have none now.
Lauril Rohde
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you franktank232 for looking up what chemicals are in the Bayer mix that I used. After talking more about this with my husband, I think we will go ahead and harvest them. He said a systemic shouldn't be able to get into too much when it is only misted on leaves and not poured onto the root base. I am hoping, too, that with the intense sun we've had and now some hard rains that that will add to the safety issue.

Now all I have to be concerned about is trying to keep birds and insects from getting to the grapes before we can. Netting will keep birds out, but not insects. Have heard they love to get in and suck the juice out of the grapes. I think that would be harder to take than the Japanese beetles.
Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
13 years ago
Almost every vineyard in California uses Bayer Advance Pro which is loaded with Imacloprid. It does not affect humans in the small amounts that are sprayed! Just the evil bugs that have wiped out vineyards all over the world. Your grapes are fine!
Suzi

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