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clarkinks

Seedless concords are not seedless in Kansas

clarkinks
9 years ago

Seedless concords are great grapes but they are not seedless in Kansas. In harsh environments they develop seeds just like regular concords. Anyone else find that out the hard way? Typically these would have been finished a month ago. As you can see some are green and some are taking Japanese beetle and grasshopper damage.

Comments (8)

  • clarkinks
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    They produce gallons in spite of grasshoppers, wasps, yellow jackets and grasshoppers. They don't as you can see ripen at the same time. If you are looking for a heavy producing good flavored slip skin these are the grape for you. Regardless the damage by pests it's hard to keep up with them. These 3 vines produce 7-8 gallons of berries at a minimum and sometimes double or triple that.

  • jtburton
    9 years ago

    ClarkinKS,

    Yep. I have Concord Seedless and Mars Seedless...both are not seedless but they do have great taste. The few Candice grapes I had were actually seedless. I still haven't had any Himrod grapes yet but I hope they are fully seedless.

  • appleseed70
    9 years ago

    My seedless Concords are 100% seedless here in Maryland. The flavor however totally pales in comparison to the seeded version though. I'm not a grape guy, but I recently read somewhere (maybe even here) that the seedless concord isn't even related to the seeded variety. I don't know if that's accurate, but just thought I'd throw that out there.
    My seedless concords don't produce anything like the seeded one either, but this is only their second year compared to 3rd or 4th for the seeded. Just finished juicing over 40 lbs. of them at 3 am and have a ton more.

  • curtis
    9 years ago

    Clark, how old are your vines?

  • franktank232
    9 years ago

    Those grapes look fantastic. Really wish the rabbits wouldn't have destroyed my Reliance grape vine over winter.

  • clarkinks
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Jtburtin that's my experience as well red canadice is seedless and superior to most grapes in this area for fresh eating. Glenora is also seedless in this area but the other seedless varieties are not. Cckw my vines are 7 years old and have produced like that since they were 4years old. The seedless concord is very hardy and even sets a light second crop here. Appleseed70 the seedless concords I have have a flavor very similar to concord. The hot 100 degree + Kansas sun makes fruit very sweet. I've had years where my concords taste better than my seedless concord. This year mars was first in July, Glenora and red canadice second in July / august , himrods 3rd in August, concords produced a couple of weeks ago and seedless concords are not done yet. Catawba are ripening as well. Mars grapes were small but good flavored this year. Mars in my least favorite of the grapes I grow as far as flavor goes. It's not because they are a bad grape for some places it's likely due to the drought peeking every year during their ripening times. It's taken me a while to figure that out . Mars quality is always just mediocre. Red canadice are sweet and rich with almost a slight wine flavor they are by far the only grape that could compare to fresh eating quality of a supermarket grape at this location.

    This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Sun, Sep 7, 14 at 12:01

  • jtburton
    9 years ago

    I froze the Mars and Concord Seedless grapes to use later this year. I haven't decided what to make from them yet. I planted most of my vines about 2 years ago and this was the first year I produced more than a handful of grapes. I did bag a few clusters using paper lunch bags, which despite my doubts, worked really well. Next year I'm going to properly spray my vines for fungus because that ruined a lot of the clusters. I'm going to remove 2 of the runt vines and replace them with a couple of the new Arkansas varieties that are better for fresh eating.