Great! Thank you for the notes and looking forward to maybe getting cuttings once you have this going!
I was trying to find ~2 I can grow that will ripen at slightly different times so that I get a longer harvest. Good to hear Flame is early in your experience as well.
As a commercial grower in Alabama zone 8/9 I know which grape vines are PD resistant.
Easiest to grow is Cynthiana/Norton. It is a red American grape this grows well from Missouri south and east to Virginia.
Blanc du Bois is a white grape developed in Florida. It grows well. Is Muscat parentage. PD resistant. But it has disease pressure from anthracnose, downy mildew, and bunch rot.
Lenoir is another red that grows well.
Nurseries to order from that are reliable and have certified plants are Double A Vineyards, Amberg Vineyards, and Womack Nursery (Texas).
Stay farrrrr away from Fairhaven in Texas. He is a crook. Cost me a growing year and $2,000 in diseased plants. I know 3 other growers that had the same experience. Definitely not reputable.
I don’t know where you are in Alabama, but you can email me if you have any other questions.
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Everest was available at Ison’s, but says sold out right now. I did not order it. I ordered Vanessa and Neptune for bunch grapes. Big Red, Hall, Paulk and Supreme, for muscadines. I hope I made good choices.
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I like Mars. But i like Concord…its kind of like an improved Concord? I gave mine to a friend of mine and let him fool with them… but i tasted them and really liked them…ymmv. Flame is worth growing if your zone is warm enough…both of those are table grapes.
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my Marquette is concord like and very good if you like that flavor profile. mines in its 4th year. gave me a good crop last summer.
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‘Suffolk Red’ is one of the best grapes there is, I grow it, although I think that it would be better in your climate than where I live, due to your hotter climate, if you have enough chill hours. I don’t recall the chill hours for the variety.
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Chill hours on grapes are usually listed as 100. All they need is enough cool weather to stop growing and drop their leaves. Then it takes quite a bit of heat to get them growing again. Around here they still start too early and often get frozen back.
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Thanks @krismoriah, @alanmercieca amd @fruitnut.
Excited to try these now. I think I’ll get enough heat here for sure. My problem is going to be maybe too much heat. But am not worrying about that yet. First I need to get the vines to grow 
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As long as you have a healthy canopy and keep up with irrigation, too much heat won’t be an issue with table grapes. Almost all of the commercial production in the US is in the Imperial and Central Valleys.
Any pure vinifera variety is going to require a good spray program for powdery mildew, however. If you get significant coastal influence, downy mildew can be a problem some years as well.
If you don’t mind seeds, Golden Muscat is a great variety for southern California and has enough mildew resistance to not require spraying most years.
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That’s good to hear. Will keep posting about progress on these grapes.
I’ve been trying to do no spray for anything in our yard and we are not that close to the coast so maybe it will not be as bad for us. Let’s see. Fingers crossed.
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@JeremiahT or anyone else growing Munson grapes? Any particularly good varieties? I was thinking about rooting some next year.
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Had another grape noob question - do folks grow these on their own roots? Or graft? I’m assuming graft? If so, what rootstocks would you recommend?
The Flame and Princess I have from a nursery so I’m assuming they are grafted (will check when back home tomorrow).
The other 2 I’m rooting from cuttings so they are not grafted yet.
Thanks!
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I’ve never grown a grafted grape. All on their own roots. No issues here with that.
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Thank you!
Most grapes are on their own roots, mine certainly are, I have propagated them some by rooting the vines. I doubt that there is much benefit to using root stock for grapes, unless a variety has a very poor root system.
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Thx - good to know.
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Thanks! How long did it take you from cutting propagation to fruit?
If you are committed to not spraying, hybrids with American parentage will guarantee the most success. Unless you live in a place where late spring/summer highs are in the 90s most days, you will get powdery mildew and significant crop loss on pure vinifera varieties without treatment. Unlike many other fungal diseases however, organic options like sulfur or stylet oil offer good control.
Since you are in California and not the eastern US, unless you live on land that used to be a vineyard or has vineyards very close by, or know you have root knot nematodes, you should be fine growing them on their own roots. Most grapes sold for home growers are rooted cuttings. You would only need grafted vines if you have phylloxera or nematodes in your soil.
The majority of commercial grapes in the US and Europe are grafted. Phylloxera nearly wiped out the European wine industry when it was introduced from North America in the 1800s and continues to kill grapes on their own roots in much of the world. No vinifera variety has resistance. Resistance in American hybrids varies between varieties, so not all can be grown on their own roots where phylloxera occurs.
Besides phylloxera resistance, rootstocks also offer resistance to nematodes, tolerance to certain viruses, and adaptability for various soil types and moisture conditions.
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Maybe that is why the orchards around here have plants that are healthy every year, although I think that the problem that I am having most years, is die back from the late frost, yes they can handle much colder than what we have here if they are dormant, yet they wake up too soon, and they get die back.
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