On this page I will present some varieties which I selected for public for a possible future commercial use. For a better imagination you can compare the size of clusters and size of berries on pictures to the size of my hand and my fingernails. The last letter for my numbered varieties stands for the location where it was selected. Letter "S" - stands for Shoreview; letter "L" stands for Litchfield, letter "B" stands for Bradford. I used some Saints' names in the name of my varieties taken from the name of some cities and towns in Minnesota, like St.Anna, St.Paul, St.Francis and St.Michael.
White grape varieties
I selected two varieties Sandy Moon and Jubilee of Swenson from my breeding lot at Litchfield. They have ability to survive after 2.4 -D herbicide drift and have a high elevation of Brix - 26% for Jubilee of Swenson and up to 28% for Sandy Moon. What is also brought my attention - they show pretty strong vigor on alkaline soils. Both varieties are very healthy , but the first one (Sandy Moon) has sometimes minimal Black Rot affection during wet summers. Both are white wine grape varieties, have perfect flowers, capable to produce nice Riesling type of wine. Jubilee of Swenson was dedicated to the Birthday of Elmer Swenson, who would have been 100 y.o. this year (December 12, 1913 - December 24, 2004). It is a cross of St.Pepin and Frontenac Gris made in 2005, selected number as AMB 12-7-L. Letter "L" stands for the location where it was selected - Litchfield. Sandy Moon (aka AMB 12-1-L) came from the same cross as Jubilee of Swenson made in 2005. Both varieties have small to medium size clusters with a yellowish-brownish skin colors on berries. The difference between both sisters - varieties is in a shape of clusters. Sandy Moon has multiple branches on a ball shaped cluster, but Jubilee of Swenson has a conical long shape cluster similar to Prairie Star grapes.
White grape varieties
I selected two varieties Sandy Moon and Jubilee of Swenson from my breeding lot at Litchfield. They have ability to survive after 2.4 -D herbicide drift and have a high elevation of Brix - 26% for Jubilee of Swenson and up to 28% for Sandy Moon. What is also brought my attention - they show pretty strong vigor on alkaline soils. Both varieties are very healthy , but the first one (Sandy Moon) has sometimes minimal Black Rot affection during wet summers. Both are white wine grape varieties, have perfect flowers, capable to produce nice Riesling type of wine. Jubilee of Swenson was dedicated to the Birthday of Elmer Swenson, who would have been 100 y.o. this year (December 12, 1913 - December 24, 2004). It is a cross of St.Pepin and Frontenac Gris made in 2005, selected number as AMB 12-7-L. Letter "L" stands for the location where it was selected - Litchfield. Sandy Moon (aka AMB 12-1-L) came from the same cross as Jubilee of Swenson made in 2005. Both varieties have small to medium size clusters with a yellowish-brownish skin colors on berries. The difference between both sisters - varieties is in a shape of clusters. Sandy Moon has multiple branches on a ball shaped cluster, but Jubilee of Swenson has a conical long shape cluster similar to Prairie Star grapes.
Sandy Moon and Jubilee of Swenson
My other selection is Minnesota Emerald (aka AMB 15-6-S), which is a cross between St.Pepin and Thompson Seedless made in 2005. It was selected in Shoreview and has ability to produce grapes from secondary buds. Also it showed during my research nice vigor, minimal diseases affection, but leaf Phylloxera could affect some peripheral leaves late during the season. This variety was described in my article "Some Benefits of the Frustrating 2010 Growing Season" at MGGA Newsletter "Notes from the North" (winter issue) of 2010 year. You can find it in my Articles page of this website in(Archive Section). Here are some pictures of Minnesota Emerald - first picture was taken in my vineyard in Shoreview and a second picture of young vine was taken at Winterhaven Vineyard & Nursery, Janesville, MN. Seems for me variation in skin color from greenish to lightly reddish depends on exposure to sun and also to day-night temperature gradients during ripening period. Grapes are able to reach Brix up to 23%. It is a white wine variety with a capability to produce nice varietal wine of Chardonnay style, in my opinion.
Minnesota Emerald
Clondike
Clondike (aka AMB 15-2-S) is also a cross of St.Pepin X Thompson Seedless made in 2005. It is a white grape variety capable to carry medium sized berries on medium sized clusters. Brix can reach up to 24-25% . I named Clondike variety because it is practically a copy of St.Pepin grapes (Riesling type) but with a perfect flowers and it has ability to produce two identical clusters-clones coming from one stem (see pictures).
Prestige (aka AMB 15-5-S) is a cross of St.Pepin x Thompson Seedless made in 2005 and is a sister of Minnesota Emerald and Clondike grapes. It is a white wine female variety having medium sized berries on a medium to big sized clusters. It has a neutral flavor. Brix reaching up to 22% at the harvesting time. In my opinion, it is a very good blender with a very low sedimentation during fermenting time. This variety should be used exclusively for blending with a low acid and low sugar white wine varieties for raising their acidity and Brix and for improving the wine quality. The reason for using this variety that way is because Prestige acidity drops down very slow by the end of September - beginning of October in Twin Cities area and ripening is very dependable to sun exposure and air temperatures too. Size of the clusters could be very impressive after cluster thinning.
St.Anna
Red Grape Varieties
I would like to propose 2 new Labrusca grape vines of my selections, which I presented in November of the year 2011 at MGGA Google serve list. Both varieties are high quality Labrusca type grapes and demonstrated good consistency in berry quality despite different variations of growing seasons in Minnesota. In 2004, I made several crosses based on Isabella grapes. Grape "Isabella" is a combination of Vitis Labrusca and unknown Vitis Vinifera cross. Why did I choose Isabella for some of my crosses? Because this Labrusca variety is the most popular variety among all Labrusca's in Europe and widely expanded from Portugal up to Eastern European Republic of Georgia , and probably because of its better quality related to Vinifera genes. From 89 seedlings received from Isabella crosses in 2004, only 2 of them showed very good hardiness for Minnesota winter, minimal disease damage (without any spray practically no mildew and only minimal Black Rot damaged berries during extremely hot and humid years), perfect ripeness and more importantly - every year both varieties demonstrated to me very good manageable acids levels in comparison with other Labrusca grapes grown in Minnesota (pH for my first selected variety comes usually up to 3.5-3.6 and pH for my second selected variety comes usually up to 3.35) by the last week of September. The first variety I named "Polar Isaura" (selected as AMB 7-S), which is a cross of "Isabella" and "Noua" grapes. It has perfect hermaphrodite flowers, medium size round shaped berries on small clusters, usually fully ripen by the third week of September. Small downside of this variety is the tendency for shelling (berries fall off the stems too easily ) in some years when they are overripening and need more attention during the harvesting period. I think the shelling problems for this variety are the result of growing conditions (extreme heat and humidity) during some years or may be it's a varietal characteristic. Second variety I named "St.Anna" (selected as AMB 9-S), which is an opened pollination cross of Isabella grapes. It has female pistillate flowers, but I never had any pollination problems for that variety. I suggest to growers to plant "St.Anna" next to "Polar Isaura", or "Prairie Star", or "Blue Bell" , or "Kay Gray", or any other grape vines blooming at the same time to avoid pollination problems. "St.Anna" has medium to big size round shaped berries on medium clusters, usually fully ripen by the last week of September and it does not have tendency to shell during harvesting period. An interesting observation - berries for female variety "St. Anna" is more tight (compact) than for "Polar Isaura" who has perfect flowers. Both varieties "Polar Isaura" and "St.Anna" like any other Labrusca type of grapes have usual average Brix around 17-19% by the end of September and very similar type of vigor like "Blue Bell", "Concord", or "Fredonia" grape vines, but the acids and quality for "Polar Isaura" and "St.Anna" grapes are much better for our Minnesota climate (pH varies between 3.3-3.6) . Both varieties could be used for making a semi-sweet, sweet table or dessert wine, and I believe as well as for seeded Concord style table grapes, grape juice or sparkling juice, jelly, sparkling and port wines just as many real Concord types of grapes do. The red color of the wine made from " Polar Isaura" grapes, seems for me, a little bit lighter than from "St.Anna" grapes and has nice only a minimal (not too pronounced) strawberry flavor and even some hints of smooth tannins. The wine made from "St.Anna" grapes, seems for me, has more black currant flavor and taste, and darker on color very similar to the nice color of the freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. What is also interesting - during primary fermentation both varieties did not create big fluffy sedimentation in comparison to other Labrusca varieties, but only packed medium amount of sediment. I checked hardiness for these varieties on all my experimental lands at Shoreview, Litchfield and Bradford areas, MN and I did not observe any difference between them in windy versus sheltered areas. Achievements for these two varieties - I got the 1-st premium for the Concord type of wine made from "St.Anna" grapes and a 3-rd premium for Dessert wine made from Polar Isaura grapes on competitions at MN State Fair in August, 2012. Pictures of these varieties and wines presented below in a slideshow.
I would like to propose 2 new Labrusca grape vines of my selections, which I presented in November of the year 2011 at MGGA Google serve list. Both varieties are high quality Labrusca type grapes and demonstrated good consistency in berry quality despite different variations of growing seasons in Minnesota. In 2004, I made several crosses based on Isabella grapes. Grape "Isabella" is a combination of Vitis Labrusca and unknown Vitis Vinifera cross. Why did I choose Isabella for some of my crosses? Because this Labrusca variety is the most popular variety among all Labrusca's in Europe and widely expanded from Portugal up to Eastern European Republic of Georgia , and probably because of its better quality related to Vinifera genes. From 89 seedlings received from Isabella crosses in 2004, only 2 of them showed very good hardiness for Minnesota winter, minimal disease damage (without any spray practically no mildew and only minimal Black Rot damaged berries during extremely hot and humid years), perfect ripeness and more importantly - every year both varieties demonstrated to me very good manageable acids levels in comparison with other Labrusca grapes grown in Minnesota (pH for my first selected variety comes usually up to 3.5-3.6 and pH for my second selected variety comes usually up to 3.35) by the last week of September. The first variety I named "Polar Isaura" (selected as AMB 7-S), which is a cross of "Isabella" and "Noua" grapes. It has perfect hermaphrodite flowers, medium size round shaped berries on small clusters, usually fully ripen by the third week of September. Small downside of this variety is the tendency for shelling (berries fall off the stems too easily ) in some years when they are overripening and need more attention during the harvesting period. I think the shelling problems for this variety are the result of growing conditions (extreme heat and humidity) during some years or may be it's a varietal characteristic. Second variety I named "St.Anna" (selected as AMB 9-S), which is an opened pollination cross of Isabella grapes. It has female pistillate flowers, but I never had any pollination problems for that variety. I suggest to growers to plant "St.Anna" next to "Polar Isaura", or "Prairie Star", or "Blue Bell" , or "Kay Gray", or any other grape vines blooming at the same time to avoid pollination problems. "St.Anna" has medium to big size round shaped berries on medium clusters, usually fully ripen by the last week of September and it does not have tendency to shell during harvesting period. An interesting observation - berries for female variety "St. Anna" is more tight (compact) than for "Polar Isaura" who has perfect flowers. Both varieties "Polar Isaura" and "St.Anna" like any other Labrusca type of grapes have usual average Brix around 17-19% by the end of September and very similar type of vigor like "Blue Bell", "Concord", or "Fredonia" grape vines, but the acids and quality for "Polar Isaura" and "St.Anna" grapes are much better for our Minnesota climate (pH varies between 3.3-3.6) . Both varieties could be used for making a semi-sweet, sweet table or dessert wine, and I believe as well as for seeded Concord style table grapes, grape juice or sparkling juice, jelly, sparkling and port wines just as many real Concord types of grapes do. The red color of the wine made from " Polar Isaura" grapes, seems for me, a little bit lighter than from "St.Anna" grapes and has nice only a minimal (not too pronounced) strawberry flavor and even some hints of smooth tannins. The wine made from "St.Anna" grapes, seems for me, has more black currant flavor and taste, and darker on color very similar to the nice color of the freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. What is also interesting - during primary fermentation both varieties did not create big fluffy sedimentation in comparison to other Labrusca varieties, but only packed medium amount of sediment. I checked hardiness for these varieties on all my experimental lands at Shoreview, Litchfield and Bradford areas, MN and I did not observe any difference between them in windy versus sheltered areas. Achievements for these two varieties - I got the 1-st premium for the Concord type of wine made from "St.Anna" grapes and a 3-rd premium for Dessert wine made from Polar Isaura grapes on competitions at MN State Fair in August, 2012. Pictures of these varieties and wines presented below in a slideshow.
Mystic Eyes
My other experimental hybrid grape variety is Mystic Eyes (aka AMB 12-S), which is a cross of Doina X OP made in 2004. It presents an interest, because it showed to me almost Vitis Vinifera character in wine quality and leaf ampelography. I named it by the unusual forms of the leaves which is very similar to Vinifera but with a higher overlapping leaf lobes, creating kind of mystic eyes forms (see pictures). It is a productive female variety carrying small berries on small clusters , has a good vigor and shows a very good pollination from any other hermaphrodite varieties like Marquette, Prairie Star, St.Paul and etc. Like many other Vinifera varieties Mystic Eyes hybrid prefers to be managing on 2-3 trunks for better grape production. Usually ripens early in Minnesota (during the last week of August - first week of September). In my opinion, it could be used as varietal wine (when picked in time) or for blending with acidic varieties, because it shows lower acid contents when is over ripen (pH could reach 3.6-3.7). Usual Brix for this variety is up to 22%.
Francis
Francis (aka AMB 2-3-B) is a cross of St.Pepin X Jukka grapes made in 2005. Grapes probably are the hardiest red table seeded grapes grown in Minnesota with a nice complex taste and aroma of dark cherry. Texture and skin crunchiness is very similar to Swenson Red variety, and also Francis grapes were capable to produce wine with a mild cherry aroma flavor. This selection easily growing about 40 miles north from Twin Cities and it was selected initially at my experimental land in Bradford. I named it by the name of a small town St. Francis and a lake Francis which are not far away from my property. It has perfect hermaphrodite flowers, berries are medium sized on a small clusters, Brix is up to 20%.
St.Paul
St.Paul (aka AMB 23-S) is a cross of St.Pepin X OP made in 2006. I do not exclude two red grape varieties which were involved into this cross as a second parent - Marquette or D.Mc. 8521-1 because they were growing very close to a seeded parent - St.Pepin. It is a red wine grape variety with a perfect flowers , having small berries on medium or big sized somewhat loosen clusters, usually fully ripens by the middle of September, Brix is up to 23%. Very healthy vine with a strong right growth habit. Capable to produce nice Pinot Noir style red wine with a mild hints of tannins.
Black Beauty of Minnesota and Black Oval
Other breeding projects
Black currants
In 2004 I did some crosses between two black currant varieties - Belorussian "Pioneer" ( seeded parent) and American regular local variety. My
goals were to select the sweetest seedlings combined with the biggest size of the berries. From 56 seedlings survived 12 after 3 years. 11 seedlings of them producing different quality of black currants. From those 11 seedlings I selected only two varieties, which may present an interest for commercial use. One of my best variety I named Black Beauty of Minnesota (aka AMB 3-L), because practically it did reach my goals in productivity, in size, in taste, in texture of skin and in better sweetness. The second variety I named Black Oval (aka AMB 5-L) and also has a nice size and even unusual oval - egg shaped berries. It is deserves attention, despite thin soft skin and juiciness, which are not the best features for transportation, but it is good for different local use - juice, preserves, liquors. First two pictures (from left side) are for Black Beauty of Minnesota and the second two (on a right side) are for Black Oval currants. Size of the berries you can compare with a size of my fingernail and is compatible with a size of blueberries.
Black currants
In 2004 I did some crosses between two black currant varieties - Belorussian "Pioneer" ( seeded parent) and American regular local variety. My
goals were to select the sweetest seedlings combined with the biggest size of the berries. From 56 seedlings survived 12 after 3 years. 11 seedlings of them producing different quality of black currants. From those 11 seedlings I selected only two varieties, which may present an interest for commercial use. One of my best variety I named Black Beauty of Minnesota (aka AMB 3-L), because practically it did reach my goals in productivity, in size, in taste, in texture of skin and in better sweetness. The second variety I named Black Oval (aka AMB 5-L) and also has a nice size and even unusual oval - egg shaped berries. It is deserves attention, despite thin soft skin and juiciness, which are not the best features for transportation, but it is good for different local use - juice, preserves, liquors. First two pictures (from left side) are for Black Beauty of Minnesota and the second two (on a right side) are for Black Oval currants. Size of the berries you can compare with a size of my fingernail and is compatible with a size of blueberries.
Sweet Red Peppers
In 2004 among variations of seedlings created from planted seeds of hot flat red peppers I selected single one sweet flat red pepper. This sweet one initiated a new generation of sweet flat peppers in my collection. I named as is Flat Red. In 2008 from a cross pollination of Flat Red with a sweet Bulgarian pepper I selected two new lines of sweet red peppers. One I named as Mini Bell, because it looks like regular Bell Pepper, but the size is 3 times smaller than regular one. The second one I named - Minnesota Heart, because it has a form of the heart and is twice bigger than Mini Bell. I mentioned usage for those peppers in a Products page of this website. All three varieties ( Flat Red, Minnesota Heart and Mini Bell) showed for me very good diseases resistance, nice straight and strong growth habit, and ripening for a short unpredictable growing season in Minnesota. All these varieties should be planting far away from each other (at least 50 feet) to prevent inter-cross pollination between them. On a pictures below, you can see Bulgarian Red pepper which I used for pollination of Flat Red pepper and also you can see pictures of Flat Red, Minnesota Heart and Mini Bell peppers.
In 2004 among variations of seedlings created from planted seeds of hot flat red peppers I selected single one sweet flat red pepper. This sweet one initiated a new generation of sweet flat peppers in my collection. I named as is Flat Red. In 2008 from a cross pollination of Flat Red with a sweet Bulgarian pepper I selected two new lines of sweet red peppers. One I named as Mini Bell, because it looks like regular Bell Pepper, but the size is 3 times smaller than regular one. The second one I named - Minnesota Heart, because it has a form of the heart and is twice bigger than Mini Bell. I mentioned usage for those peppers in a Products page of this website. All three varieties ( Flat Red, Minnesota Heart and Mini Bell) showed for me very good diseases resistance, nice straight and strong growth habit, and ripening for a short unpredictable growing season in Minnesota. All these varieties should be planting far away from each other (at least 50 feet) to prevent inter-cross pollination between them. On a pictures below, you can see Bulgarian Red pepper which I used for pollination of Flat Red pepper and also you can see pictures of Flat Red, Minnesota Heart and Mini Bell peppers.
Bulgarian Red Pepper
Flat Red
Minnesota Heart
Mini Bell
Hardy Quince for Minnesota
Tell you sincerely, I do not know who else is growing quince trees besides me in Minnesota, because it is supposed to be grown in zones 5-10. My future project is to evaluate some of my quince seedlings created by a cross kind of hardy Ukrainian quince variety "Mellow"and not hardy enough for our climate American "Orange" quince. I made that cross in 2008. The goal was to create hardy quince variety which would ripen early than Ukrainian variety for our short growing season in Minnesota. From 58 seedlings only 5 survived in 4 years. The rest of my seedlings did not survive due to lack of hardiness, diseases and poor growth habit. At this moment, it seems for me, my last 5 quince seedlings still are not as hardy as the seeded parent - Ukrainian quince. I hope the next research-observation will give me the right picture about them in near future (probably in 5-10 years), especially on hardiness and ripeness. Here are some pictures how quince fruits look and producing on Ukrainian variety in my backyard in Minnesota.
Ukrainian Quince variety in Minnesota