A new mod (PC/Mac only) is being developed to allow you to carry out your harvest by hand. Useful for not having to spend large sums on equipment or simply for carefully harvesting your delicate grapes.
The modder RivalAUT already famous on FS19 for its control section on the sprayers offers us here a new approach to the harvest in FS22. They will be more respectful of the vines with harvests carried out by hand. We are far from the state-of-the-art straddlers offered in the base game.
Composition of equipment
First of all, you need to equip yourself with a pruner that will complete your range of manual tools in addition to your possible chainsaws. The pruner can be bought (for 500€ all the same) directly at the store in the viticulture tools section.
You can also buy the flatbed trailer offered with the pack to transport the grape vats. Without it being absolutely mandatory, it has been perfectly resized to accommodate the grape bins also offered in the mod. You can take up to six. If this trailer does not suit you, you can also use your own flatbed trailers (or even your trucks and pickups of all kinds).
Then, you will have to buy the plastic bins which will be handled by hand and will follow you during your harvest. The bins are palletizable and can be emptied between them. We are here in the theme where each picker would come, for example, to empty his bin in a common bin at the end of the row for example. The bins can then in turn be emptied into a grape trailer.
These bins can of course be purchased in the pallets section of the store.
Functioning
Arrange to have the plastic bin near the vines and your picker.
Equip yourself with the shears (you can use the mouse wheel or the 1 or 2 keys), then point to the bin that will collect the grapes and press B to fix it.
You can now cut the bunches of grapes using your shears with the left click (or the X key) while pointing at the bunches to be cut.
Beyond a certain distance, you will have to bring the plastic bin closer again and so on to make all the rows.
A mod still under development
The mod is still in beta stage and the modder still needs to refine it, especially in multiplayer. We advise you to save your game before using the mod, as a precaution.
Where and how to download it
We strongly recommend that you do not download the mod from other sites than its creator on the GitHub. Once on the "releases" page, click on the file FS22_VineHarvestHandTool.zip available in its latest version then copy it to your mods folder.