I run a garden center that focuses primarily on ornamental trees, flowering shrubs, evergreens, etc. but we do a good bit of business selling fruit trees. I’m looking into selling grapevines and planting a few myself. For customers, I will be getting the seedless, but for myself, I don’t mind seeds and prioritize flavor above seedless. We are in western CT, Zone 6B. Here are the varieties I have access to:
Thompson seedless is a no go. Clearly not well adapted to CT. It will be disease prone, both plant and fruit. And CT doesn’t get enough heat for that variety. It will not be reliably winter hardy and will not ripen until late September or October.
Canadice is a nice hardy seedless grape. It was my favorite in a drier warmer zone 6. But should be adapted to CT.
I’ve grown Lakemont but the fruit isn’t memorable.
The only one of those I have is Edelweiss. Very tasty and ripens early. Blooms a little earlier than other grapes I grow, however, so in my area the primary buds get hit by frost a little more often than other grapes. This year it looks like the primary buds made it. I’d venture to guess that the primary buds fruit 2 out of 5 years, the secondary or tertiary buds fruit the other years.
I believe I’ve had Canadice grapes from an apple orchard growing a bit of them and they were very good, so I think that’s the leading candidate. Seeded grapes for customers are a no-go in my experience, but I have no issue with them for personal consumption.
I’m a member though infrequent poster on ourfigs and I love reading your reports (also insanely jealous of your set up!). You’ve always provided great information there!
Everest has been good for me so far but the vine is still small. It is a large seedless Concord type. I also like the basic Concord quite a bit. Somerset has been productive for me. Good tasting, early ripening seedless grape. Fairly crisp for a northern grape, but the berries are pretty small. Lorelei is one of my favorites. It is similar to Edelweiss but blooms later and can get a slight muscat flavor in good summers. I got it a few years ago from Double A Vineyards but they haven’t carried it since. Maybe they still have it and just rotate offerings.
I grow both canadice and lakemont. the others i dont grow. my moms lakemont grape is 20 year old she loves it. Canadice also does quite well in our area. good luck on your nursery! lakemont grape in seattle