Does anyone have experience with Victoria Red grapes? I just ordered some vines to plant this spring. It is supposed to be one of the very few crisp non slipskin type table grapes that can handle Pierce’s disease pressure in the deep south. It has seeds but that is no big deal to me if the texture and flavor are good, not to mention potential disease resistance. But I have not heard many first-hand accounts.
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Nice video from this Brit harvesting his Lakemont grapes.
I am trying to grow Lakemont and am hoping to see similar results someday…
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Barry, didn’t see your post earlier. I planted a couple of Victoria Red vines last year. An extension expert said they were nearly seedless. In other words, most were seedless but some would have two seeds. It looks like one of the vines might make a cluster this year. Victoria Red does seem to hold good promise in the Pierces Disease areas.
Gary,
It is good to hear someone else has victoria red - we can compare notes as they develop. I planted them this spring and they have grown about 3 ft tall so far.
What is your trellis design? I’d like to go with spur pruning on a low cordon system. I’d like to end up with two 4 ft horizontal cordons per plant on a wire 28" off the ground, then vertical fruiting canes coming off of each. I’m wondering if I can grow the cordon’s this year or if I should grow them completely vertical then snip them off this winter just below the lower wire to build the cordons next summer. I wonder if I can grow them vertical this year then just bend them over onto the low wire this winter, prune to 4 ft long, then let the fruiting canes grow up vertical next year? The latter should get fruit sooner I think, but I’m a rookie so I’m not sure. I guess probably depends on how easily they will bend without breaking.
I am a newbie myself. I did grow a Glenora in a pot 2 years ago. I got fruit the second year, with a cordon system about 4 foot high. I haven’t really trellised the Victoria Red yet. What I did with the Glenora was let it grow up on one stem to about the height of the top wire, then prune back about 4 inches below the wire. Then I took the two top sprouts and put them on the wire going each way. At the end of winter I cut back to 2 feet each way and let about 10 cluster set total. Again, I am just a beginner. The glenora was just ok and I let someone else have them. I will be growing the reds in a pot also. If they have a good taste I will set something up and put them into the ground.
Not Bob, but I’ll add my two cents. I like the idea of finding a cold hardy muscadine for the north, zone 6 (this winter’s low was -12), so I tried Fry Seedless, Lane, Hall, Ison, and Darlene. All were 2-year bare roots from Ison’s Nursery planted in the fall. Lane survived with no winter die back, Darlene died to the soil line, the other three didn’t make it. It’s just one year’s experience, but Lane looks promising for colder climates. I added a Nesbitt and a Triumph this spring to see how they’ll do.
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Had not heard of Lane thanks for posting! Would love to grow muscadine grapes!
I’d be happy to send you some cuttings or try to air propagate it for you. It’d be interesting to see what kind of results you can get with it.
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Let me read up on it some and try to catch up on the information available. That’s a very kind offer thank you! I want to familiarize myself more with them before I try one.
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I’ve tossed around the idea of planting the Arkansas grapes faith, hope, joy, and gratitude. I need to build an arbor of some type so this project may need to wait until next year.
What is easier to grow in mid atlantic, grapes or muscadines?
It is a somewhat recent release from Georgia. Big, purple, sweet, perfect flower, and skin clings to pulp. I added one this year and I’m letting it fruit out the few clusters it has. Bill _
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Bill,
I can’t wait to hear your review on it. I didn’t realize any muscadine grapes were zone 6 hardy. They are really making progress on fruiting plants the last decade!
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My understanding is that muscadines have way less disease pressure than table grapes. But I think Scott is growing the Arkansas grapes with good success. I added one this year, but can’t remember which.
I will have my first Swenson’s Red and Hope this year! The clusters are already forming. Very exciting.
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I don’t think either is that hard, if you can keep the birds off. You need to grow somewhat disease-resistant grapes, in particular watch out for back rot as that is the main baddie - its like brown rot but worse. I spray a delayed dormant copper/oil and then myclobutanil once or twice in the growing season. So, overall thats hardly any sprays at all so they are not much harder than muscadines (which need no sprays). Japanese beetles are worse on grapes compared to muscadines, that can be a real problem if you have JB issues.
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I also ordered Hall, Lane and Early Fry from Ison’s. I’m in zone 5 so I’m going to try them in containers. I already have a portable trellis built and they’re out back growing. I asked them what the earliest ripening varieties were, and they said these three, that’s why I chose them. They sent me the plants 2 months ago, which was still winter with freezing temps for me. I potted them and put them in my garage, which is where I’ll keep them over winter. Early Fry and Lane leafed out but Hall was doing nothing. I scratched the bark a few times and saw green so i let it go. It finally broke dormancy a few days ago. This is an experiment for me, but if I was down south I would definitely order the large size vines from Ison’s. They were big and healthy plants. I might build an enclosure with a 60 watt light bulb hooked to a thermostat in my garage. I’m thinking I should try to keep them above 20 degrees.
Surviving -12F is pretty impressive. I was shocked when one of my vines didn’t die back this year, with -10F. It was the Black Beauty, one I had in a pot the previous winter while looking for a planting location, which it found last spring. All three that I’ve had in the ground for a while(Fry Seedless, Supreme, and Late Fry) died on all exposed vine. I covered a lot of base growth with wood-chips, so some of each vine survived. I’m especially happy to hear that Lane has male flowers as well, as maybe it can pollinate by Black Beauty.
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Sorry about the ones that did not make it. I was hoping you would get a crop of the Fry Seedless and give us a review. Bill
I need to check them more closely, but I didn’t see flowers on any of them (BB or the ones with just low growth). I was looking forward to it as well, as I’ve liked muscadines the few times I’ve found them in the grocery store, but they don’t seem very vigorous for me (unlike in the South). On the positive, I think I may get to sample Neptune, Joy, Gratitude, and Faith this year, as each has more than a dozen clusters of flowers forming.
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With that many flower clusters, I’d say your chances of trying them were very good.
This is a somewhat odd question, Bob, but why the combination of Neptune with Joy, Gratitude, and Faith? Why Neptune over Hope?
I planted the Hope, Joy, Gratitude, and Faith combination this year. It will be a year or two before I can try them. I might try the planets later, if I ever have an appropriate area for more grapes.