On a Quest

[grapeman]

Hi everyone.


In some reading I have been doing I came across a grape variety grown in the mid 1800's that sound absolutely wonderful. It is a table grape that can also be used for wine and has a melting flesh and great flavor. The vines are apparently somewhat cold tolerant and resistant to the mildews more than Concord. It was a chance seedling from Isabella, an American grape.


Anyways the name of the grape is Adirondac, which is the old spelling of Adirondack. It was discovered growing as a chance seedling by a Mr. Witherbee in Port Henry NY. The location of it is a scant few miles away from our Cold Hardy Grape Trial at Willsboro. It fell by the wayside as did thousands of other varieties for one reason or another, where others such as Concord flourished even though it was inferior by all accounts. I would love to try to find a source of the vine- and so begins my quest!


So far I can't find any source of it here in the U.S. It was grown in the 1860's by Adirondac Grape Vine and Nursery in Plattsburgh, NY a few miles from home. Here is a link to an ad for it and other vines and trees.
http://www65.statcan.gc.ca/acyb06/acyb06-pub/acyb06-pub_18710251-eng.htm


So far the best leads I have are to try to locate the original vine at the original location (a real long shot that it would still be alive). I have a basic description of the location and it would make a nice summer outing by Lake Champlain. There are two germplasm repositories - one in China and one in Japan that have it growing. I will see what it would take to aquire a few cuttings from them. Maybe Lon Rombough could help. He has had contact in the past with viticulturists in China.


Just thought I would share this with anyone interested. I think it could be a fun undertaking. What do you all think? Am I nuts?

 

[AlFulchino]

your not nuts....i am interested in this if your current search yields some fruit...er clusters

 

[grapeman]

Just got a reply from Lon Rombough into a couple people to check with for contacts.


Al clusters is a bit off here! I would be happy to just get a few cuttings.


Onward!

 

[AlFulchino]

yes onward fellow soldier...cluster was just an effort to interject a grape term


we just got up to 14 from about 4 ot 5 before wind chill...tommorrow we should be colder

 

[grapeman]

It is up to 0 here now before it takes another plunge tonight.


Fruits of my quest works too ;&gt

 

[fivebk]

Hi appleman,
I think it sounds like a lot of fun. Keep us informed on how the quest progresses.

Not to change the subject but have you heard of the steuben grape and if you have what do you think of it?

 

[grapeman]

I have 25 Steuben that are coming up on their first fruiting season. My sister's husband has a couple that have been bearing and the flavor is really good. I haven't made wine from it yet, but hope to be able to this year if they didn't freeze the primary buds too badly in this weather. They are highly susceptible to powdery mildew so keep on top of it. Yields are very good and may need thinning.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Hope you find your vines...

These fellows have experimented with many old vines...

http://northernwinework.com/cms/

A few years ago they offered some odd varieties...I got the Prairie Star and Baltic Amber from them....they were tissue culture vines and slow to take off, but are growing now. I don't think they sell vines since then...but might have sources.

They might be able to help you find your old vines.

 

[grapeman]

Tom Plocher is one of the contactsLon Rombough mentioned that has traveled to China and might be a source of contact for me. I had been thinkin Lon was the one, but no, it was Tom. The other guy lives in Japan where the other source is located. Funny, we have discarded varieties here that other countries find very desireable.

 

[AlFulchino]

Rich, i am not sure it is all 100% because they find it desirable, although that IS a factor...some countries such as the US are actually storing seeds from every OLD variety of almost anything they can find in an underground storage area....it might be in alaska, i just dont recall...i read about this this past summer. The idea behind it is to protect us in case of a food emergency and also a concern from where hybridization may lead.

 

[grapeman]

Al- the underground storage bunker is in Iceland if I recall correctly. The idea is that in the case of a catastrophic occurance, there is a place to get crops growing from again. All someone has to do is find it and then get in. The same general thing is going on at the germplasm repositoires around the world. There are approximately2000 varieties of grapes alone (hybrids and natives) at the one in Geneva and the one at UC Dais has about 4000 Vinifera.

 

[AlFulchino]

an older article than the one i recall, but it still shares what the US is doing:




http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3408000273.html

<H1 =mb5 style="COLOR: #000">Seed Preservation
</H1>
<DIV ="fs80 mb5" id=divwallbyline>From: Plant Sciences | Date: 2001 | Author:

document.write("Nelson, Suzanne C.");

Nelson, Suzanne C. | Copyright 2001, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company. <NOBR>(Hide copyright information)</NOBR> <A ="fwb underlinedcursor" id=ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_TopSearchDoc1_ctl00_lnkCopyright ="ShowHideAttrib();return false;">Copyright information</A>
<H1>Seed Preservation</H1>


Conservation of crop genetic resources is important to the long-term health of the world's food production systems. Genetic diversity provides the raw materials for selecting and improving plant traits such as resistance to pests, diseases, and environmental stresses. Genetic engineering has greatly increased our ability to manipulate genes for the benefit of agriculture, including transferring genes between unlike species. However, until individual genes that code for a specific trait or set of traits can be designed and developed in the lab, researchers and plant breeders must rely on existing genes. Thus, saving and preserving seeds, and their genes, is critical to future food security and stability.


Providing access to a reservoir of plant genetic resources has been the goal of ex situ (outside of the place of origin or natural occurrence) conservation at both the national and international levels. Ex situ strategies include the storage of plant genetic resources in seed banks, clonal repositories, and living collections. An extensive system for the ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources has been developed in the United States under the auspices of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the main research agency of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture). The National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS), established to preserve and promote the use of plant genetic diversity, is a collaborative effort between state, federal, and private entities to acquire and manage plant genetic resources, including wild and weedy crop relatives, landraces , obsolete cultivars, and elite lines or populations of agricultural, horticultural, industrial, and medicinal crops. Though the NPGS focuses on building a strong, competitive U.S. agricultural industry, all germplasm held in the NPGS collections is made available to researchers around the world upon request.


Germplasm from all over the world is preserved in the NPGS system. Because many of the commercial crops produced in the United States are from nonnative sources, American agricultural productivity has depended on plant introductions from other countries, particularly from the tropics and subtropics. There are over four hundred thousand accessions from more than ten thousand species in the U.S. germplasm reserves. Responsibility for maintaining and distributing this large collection is divided between different NPGS sites, such as the eight National Germplasm Repositories, four Regional Plant Introduction Stations, the National Seed Storage Laboratory (NSSL), and other NPGS sites. Each site is charged with maintaining different species.


The NSSL preserves the base collection of the NPGS and conducts research to develop new technologies for preserving seed and other types of plant germplasm. Seeds are stored either in conventional storage at -18°C or in cryogenic storage (liquid nitrogen) at -196°C. The National Germplasm Repositories are responsible for acquiring, preserving, increasing, evaluating, documenting, and distributing plant genetic resources of specific genera. United States germplasm collections of maize (corn), pumpkins, sunflowers, melons, cucumbers, and carrots are maintained at the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station located in Ames, Iowa. The Western Regional Plant Introduction Station in Pullman, Washington, maintains lettuce, beet, bean, chickpea, forage and turf grass, and pea germplasm. Collections of pears, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and others are maintained at the National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Oregon, as living plants or, in the case of wild species, as seeds. Fruit and nut tree germplasm is maintained at the National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Davis, California.


Long-term storage of seed samples carries with it some inherent problems. The primary objective of seed banks is to maintain the genetic diversity and integrity of germplasm. Maintaining seeds in frozen storage requires adequate temperature and humidity controls. Even under ideal conditions, however, seeds eventually begin to lose viability—the ability to germinate. Thus, periodically, new seed needs to be produced in order to replace aging seed samples. This process is referred to as regeneration. The loss of unique genotypes within a collection—whether from natural causes, small sample sizes, or random drift—nonetheless would constitute a change in the presence or frequency of genes within a germplasm collection.


During regeneration, plants are exposed to the risks inherent with agriculture—insects, diseases, drought, hail, temperature extremes, and wind, depending on whether they are grown under field or greenhouse conditions. When susceptible genotypes succumb to insect or disease pressures, the genetic variability and integrity of the collection may be compromised unless the genes lost are present in surviving genotypes. Thus, the need to regenerate a collection must be weighed against the need to minimize risks associated with regeneration. Additionally, genetic contamination through cross pollination or accidental mixing during post-harvest processes such as cleaning can also result in a loss of integrity.


Many small, independent organizations are also involved in seed saving. Together, they have created what is known as the heirloom seed movement. These organizations, groups, and individuals have helped bring about global awareness of genetic erosion—a reduction in the number of varieties, and, hence, genetic diversity—in commercially available vegetable and crop seed. Of the approximately five thousand heirloom varieties of vegetables available in the 1984 seed catalogs, 88 percent were no longer available by 1998. On average, there is a 6 percent loss in available varieties every year. Comparison of a USDA inventory of varieties available at the beginning of the twentieth century with a list of holdings in the NSSL at the end of the twentieth century revealed that only 3 percent of this germplasm survived in American germplasm reserves.


More than twenty-five small seed companies in the United States focus their efforts on slowing or preventing the loss of open-pollinated, heirloom seeds. Founded in 1975, Seed Savers Exchange collects, maintains, and distributes precious heirloom seeds through a network of eight thousand members. The vast collection of rare, heirloom seeds includes over eighteen thousand varieties of tomatoes, beans, peppers, squash, peas, lettuce, corn, melons, garlic, and watermelons from countries around the world.


http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3408000314.html

 

[grapeman]

The ARS mentioned in that article includes Geneva, NY (at the Cornell Experiment Station). Here is a link to their site.
http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=19-10-00-00


This is where I went to this July when I posted it on the forum here. The talk was given by the Curator of the Geneva Repository, field tour by Peter Cousins and talks from the USDA scientists at the station. If you ever get the chance to visit, go. It is extremely informational. The scope of the project is enormous. There are at least 2 vines of every Accession (as they call it). Plant breeders have acces to the plant material for their programs.

 

[NorthernWinos]

That's really cool....

Guess we should all do our best to save the old species of food and food products...

I occasionally plant heirloom tomatoes and am always disappointed with the harvests.