North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Todd Ravitch <travitch@yahoo.com>]

Hello Everyone,

I was rereading some old Pomonas that I ordered from
John Hillbrand last Thanksgiving.  I came across an
article in the Summer 1985 issue written by David W.
Cain.  He stated that while he was working at the USDA
in Fresno, CA he had made some pure vitis vinifera
crosses to obtain seedless Muscat grapes that were as
good as the seeded varieties.  I do not think that the
Fresno site still exists at least from the list of
repositories on the USDA site that I found though I
may be wrong.  I suppose that this was probably a
casualty of exactly what another article in the same
Pomona was talking about.  

Anyway, I am wondering if anyone ever obtained these. 


I do not know if I can grow true vinifera grapes here
in NE Oklahoma as I understand from Lon Rombaugh that
they are typically tender.  We are listed as either
zone 6B or 7.  A search of the past 20 years of winter
lows on the NOAA site showed that we have had a low
one morning of minus 5F.  

I have two grape vines that I planted last spring in
my backyard.  They are a Mars and a Reliance.  The
Reliance had some fungal problems and a few weeks ago
I was told by someone that should know that I could
expect to have trouble with it.  Anyway, I plan to pay
closer attention to it with fungal sprays this year
and see how it does.  

That being said I might be interested in trying to
grow some of these seedless Muscat grapes.  Not many
as I don't really have room.  Though, I have a
colleague who has a bunch of acreage up north about an
hour from me where he runs cattle in his spare (?)
time and he and I have been talking about putting in
some grape vines at his place.  A few cuttings of
these might be nice to start growing.  Especially, if
I end up yanking the Reliance.  

Side note: My colleague has wild blackberries, wild
dewberries, wild plums (sand?),  and I think black
walnut (wild?) on his property.  I plan to do at least
some fruit picking up there this summer.

Todd Ravitch
NE Oklahoma USDA Zone 6B

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