Guess on what kind of grapes these are?

[David Violante]

Hello folks, I’m quite new here and enjoying the heck out of reading all the great information, stories, experiences, and thoughtful enjoyment of the art and craft. I just started making wine last year with a kit to start and then some Concord grapes from a local vineyard, and finally a mead from my own honey this year. I’m growing about 10 of my grandfathers vines replanted from Ohio to the Hudson Valley region of NY three or so years ago. This is really the first year of grapes, and I thought they were all concord. But then.... there were these others ones that began more oblong and that have just started turning color.... interlopers! Any idea what they may be?

 

[hounddawg]

Hello folks, I’m quite new here and enjoying the heck out of reading all the great information, stories, experiences, and thoughtful enjoyment of the art and craft. I just started making wine last year with a kit to start and then some Concord grapes from a local vineyard, and finally a mead from my own honey this year. I’m growing about 10 of my grandfathers vines replanted from Ohio to the Hudson Valley region of NY three or so years ago. This is really the first year of grapes, and I thought they were all concord. But then.... there were these others ones that began more oblong and that have just started turning color.... interlopers! Any idea what they may be?

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nope but very cool you are growing your grandfather's vines across the country,, very endearing to family. Skoal
Dawg

 

[Rice_Guy]

* the grape leaf shape is characteristic of the family, it looks like a wide leaf without indentations, probably not a vinifera cross. There are a number of relatives to concord with names like Fredonia and beta (Beta would be chosen for cold tolerance which Ohio wouldn’t need)
* you mention Ohio, the answer would be what is available in that area/ county and if it was grandfathers which variety is old (any idea how old the plants might be?)
* flavor, the concord family are described as “foxy”, when ripe can you compare the flavor with a known concord or Niagara
* size, the concord family is a large berry, can you measure ten or so to get an average length, width when they are ripe, theElmer Swenson hybrids are smaller, ex Briana is 14 or 15 mm. The Minnesota vinifera hybrids tend to be 10 mm
.
* disease pressure? I will guess you don’t spray fungicides, vinifera will suffer things like black rot and anthraxnos and make black mummies, the older varieties in the concord family are more resistant.
* I will guess it has seeds, some table varieties don’t

Of course if you quickly want the exact name it could be ID’ed with genetic analysis

 

[David Violante]

Rice_Guy, thank you... I’ll work on getting those measurements later today for you.

They come from the Youngstown / Cleveland area but I don’t know much else about their actual heritage. I’ll post some more leaf pictures, and a picture of last year‘s grapes. There weren’t many. They do have seeds. I didn’t see this other cluster type until this year. He passed away about ten years ago and my uncles believe them to be concord but they aren’t too sure.

I sprayed with Manzate (Once every other week and only four times to stay within the “last application 66 days before harvest“) and have been using Stylet oil every 7-10 days also. Last year I didn’t spray and definitely had black rot and powdery mildew. I also had tons of Japanese beetles. There weren’t so many this year, and no mildew. Only a couple of berries turned and mummified, which I gently removed.

 

[David Violante]

The larger round green grapes are between 5/8 and 3/4 inches, and the smaller ones that are turning now are ~ 1/2 inch in diameter and more oval than round. I'll post some pictures of the leaves later on this evening.

Below is a picture of some of the rounder grapes from last year that I believe to be concord of some kind.

 

[David Violante]

Ok here is a picture of three leaves from my vines, the one on the left and the one in the middle belong to the round still-green grapes. The one on the right belongs to the oblong bunch starting to turn now.

 

[David Violante]

I checked with one of the professors at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Center and sent him some more pictures (below) of grape slices a few days ago. He believes them to be regular ole Thompson table grapes, closer to a seedless variety even though there are some seed trails in this particular one. Thank you everyone for all the views and suggestions. Should something more remarkable turn up, I’ll post a note.

 

[David Violante]

I should have mentioned that this was the single bunch that looked different from the rest of the vines which are Concords.