Grape extract
We finally decided to give up
on these grapes today.
The fruit was okay, but
without spraying the yields are very low.
Spraying would be smelly,
expensive, and leak into the surrounding soil, an option we never
considered because we love our dirt. We instead ordered a Mars Seedless
that's been growing nicely for about a year now and should be disease
resistant enough for this area.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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You may find this hardy seedless grape cultivar information of value.
http://www.hort.cornell.edu/reisch/grapegenetics/bulletin/table/tabletext3.html
BSmith --- The grapes we're pulling out are some that we rooted from free cuttings from a friend. On the plus side, I learned how easy it is to root grapes. On the negative side, these were varieties he'd selected to grow for wine, so they weren't the best eating, and he's a chemical farmer, so they aren't disease resistant at all.
To answer your actual question, the varieties were Steuban and Golden Muskat. There was also a Concord that did okay, but it was in a bad spot (too little sun) and Mark doesn't like seedy grapes, so we took it out too. The Golden Muskats were awful --- they barely grew at all. The Steuban was in the middle --- it did produce a couple of clusters, although half the grapes were diseased, and the Concord did the best despite its bad location.
A reader is sending us some cuttings of Reliance, Marquis, and Thomcord this winter in exchange for some of our cuttings, so that plus the Mars Seedless should give us something to experiment with. All but the Thomcord are at the website you pointed me toward, so hopefully they'll handle our fungi!
Having lived in new England for the last 25 years before moving to the southwest, the smell of ripe concord grapes, which grew wild in many areas, were one of the hallmarks of autumn. Oh that aroma! They should grow here in zone 5, and I hope to get some planted next year. I'm sorry your other ones didn't work out- its hard to invest in something and have to declare it a no go.
Went to the farmers market, and walked past a booth to be stopped in my tracks by a familiar smell- sure enough, they had Concords. Yes, I bought some. Made some nice jam. My fingers are still purple from slipping off all those skins.