North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Title: Re: [NAFEX] An Old Pomona Article - Seedless Muscat

The USDA station at Fresno is very much alive and going.  Two seedless muscats they recently released for raisin production are "Selma Pete" and "Diamond Muscat".  The breeder there is David Ramming, along with his assistant Ron Taralio (sp?).  David Cain has been breeding grapes and other fruits for Sunworld.
    Both seedless muscats would be hard to grow for you.  You might try Jupiter, the new seedless muscat from the U. of Arkansas.  It has slightly more hardiness and a little more disease resistance than pure vinifera.
> -Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com
Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003 



> 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.