North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steve <sdw12986@aol.com>]

Hi Ginda. Canadice was the only grape I ever grew that I disliked so 
much that I removed it and planted something else.
I'll try to answer your 4 questions but keep in mind that I'm a good 2 
zones colder than you and my experience may not be the same as yours. (I 
have to prune my grapes in the fall and lay the vines flat against the 
ground.)
1) You can try another grape there but I have no way to know for sure 
how much the shade will affect your new vine. From your description, I 
would think you could get some good grapes.
2) I wouldn't graft it. Canadice is vulnerable to some sort of canker 
that never affected my other grapes. You could tie it to a hitch of a 
truck and try to yank it out but I just cut mine off close to the 
ground. I can't recall if I had to remove any sprouts later or not. I 
didn't plant the new grape at the exact same spot. I moved over about 2 
feet.
3) I saw the picture you attached and I've never seen that before.
4) Reliance is a very nice tasting red grape and mine is growing in more 
shade than any of my other grapes. Probably more sun than your location 
though. Vanessa has a nice sweet, fresh flavor too but the grapes are 
slightly smaller than Reliance. Both taste far better than Canadice, at 
least as they grow for me here.

Steve in the Adirondacks



Ginda Fisher wrote:
> I've had this Canadice grape vine for years, and I've only gotten fruit 
> once.  In every other year, it grows flower buds, and then they abort 
> and fall off without blooming.  I've attached a photo of one that fell 
> off at the bottom of this post.
>
> Lon suggested it might be too much nitrogen (the vine abuts the lawn, 
> which gets corn gluten every spring and fall) and I wonder if the 
> problem might be aggravated by less-than-full sunlight.  It only gets a 
> few hours of direct sunlight, and gets light high shade the rest of the day.
>
> The one year that it did fruit, the fruit was good, but didn't knock my 
> socks off.  It tasted a little better than good grapes at the 
> supermarket, but not nearly as good as my uncle's "New York Muscat", nor 
> as interesting as plain old Concord.  So I want to give up on it and try 
> something else.
>
> Here are my questions:
> 1)  Can I plant another grape where a grape was?
> 2)  What's the best way of removing this one to make way for a new one? 
>  Or should I try to graft?
> 3)  Any other ideas what the problem is?
> 4)  What cultivars might be less susceptible to this problem, and taste 
> better than supermarket grapes?
>
> Thanks for any help,
>
> Ginda
> eastern MA, zone 6