The drought has these guys coming in early, small and ridiculously sweet & flavorful. The best table grape I’ve ever had. Tip of the cap to @fruitnut, he recommended this variety a few years ago and it’s proven to be a real winner in my locale.
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Have you tried Summer Royal? IMO it tastes better. And Summer Muscat tastes way better.
Your Crimson seedless look pretty big by my standards.
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I don’t know where I would put another vine, to be honest. Compared to store bought grapes these are pretty small. My one knock on CS is that it does get a lot of powdery mildew and can be unsightly at the end of the season. My vine has full southern exposure with a wall behind it. So it can really take the heat.
Have you tried Ruby Seedless out there Mr Clint? Its almost always our favorite grape among the 8 varieties we grow. And something I noticed this year is how long this cultivar will hold on the vine. Our Rubys ripened 6 weeks ago and we just finished picking the last of them. Still excellent.
Which 8 do you grow?
I used to like Ruby raisins when I could buy them in CA. I think they have a reputation for being susceptible to powdery mildew.
Summer Royal makes a very highly flavored raisin and very attractive finished product. But it’s pretty weak on PM as well.
We dont know what powderly mildew is here. Doesnt exist.
We grow Blueberry, Delight, Ruby, Black Monukka, Thomcord, Concord, Autumn Royal, Flame Seedless, and Himrod. We grew thompson seedless for a long time but finally axed it due to its take-over-the-world growth habit and the need to play grower tricks like girdling and hormone sprays to get them to size up to anything worth eating.
I forgot to mention that we do grow a muscadine grape here too. Summer home is the cultivar. They grow just fine in the low humidity and heat.
I don’t really know if I can trust any grapes that are not home grown to be indicative of its true potential. They run from bland to good and usually puffy with water when bought over the counter.
I do like the idea of long holding. CS seems to hold moderately well.
Autumn Royal has the biggest berries of any seedless grape. That’s absent all the hormones and girdling. But it is very low on flavor. Not worth growing IME.
Flame is my best early grape. It can be very sweet and crisp. But the berries are small without all the pumping up.
Himrod is a hardy seedless and doesn’t compare to a good Vinifera.
Black Monukka has huge clusters but another I find lacking in flavor.
Princess is my favorite for current harvest season. The berries are big and pretty with a little Muscat flavor.
Tops for flavor by a huge margin is Summer Muscat but berries are small and crack.
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Autumn Royal is pretty new for us and this was only its second leaf. I think it made a few berries but not many, so ill have to wait to see how they turn out. Black Monukka we grow here is fabulous and one of our favorites. Grapes seem to be especially prone to differences when grown in different climates. Our long hot summer seems to be a ally in producing very sweet grapes.
When looking for a replacement for Thompson I looked hard at both delight and princess. I ended up going with Delight due to its closer ripening time to thompson and to its noted habit of being of a medium vigor. Sure wish I had another 5 acres and time to try more varieties.
Yours should be very sweet. Mine usually run mid 20s brix.
Crimson is probably the most vigorous grape I’ve grown. And it doesn’t color well unless the clusters have some sun. Mine didn’t color well at all this yr probably from being over cropped. The fruit can hold in my greenhouse into mid winter. It also can be low setting compared to almost anything else.
There are many new cultivars out of the USDA Fresno CA breeding program I’d like to try but they are hard to source.
@fruitnut, don’t distance yourself from your recommendation now. ‘Crimson Seedless’ is a great choice in its harvest window and is the only grape I have room for. I have no regrets planting it.
Agreed it’s the best really late grape I’ve tried by far. That doesn’t mean it’s without fault. And in fact it’s not really all that flavorful but is very sweet.
i had ruby seedless once it was bery productive huge clusters! but it is prone to cracking in my climate due to our rain. highly recommend any warmer climate to grow.
monukka black grapes i hard mix seeded and seedless on google. does it have hard seed or soft seeds?