A departure from the Celestial names. I hope disease resistance was an objective, but I only see the mention of no testing with Pierce's disease.

Strudel, see the video below where the breeder of these grapes is giving the pitch. It sounds like they screen out any varieties with disease problems under their spray program, but they don't check for natural resistance. So, my guess is they will be OK given the genetic material of disease-resistant cultivars they have built up there, but there could be some less resistant guys in the batch. This will be a good thing to watch for. I decided to try Joy (best flavor) and Gratitude (sounds like a Thompson Seedless kind of grape, my family will like that one). I'd try them all if I had room - based on the past track record of this program these could be some very good grapes.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: Video about current grape breeding, 15:30 or so is UArk disease info

Scott:

Thanks for the heads up here but I'm going to pass on trying these for right now. They all seem tight clustered, not my favorite type grape although other than potential rot issues that's no big deal.

I fruited Jupiter this year and was disappointed. It is certainly sweet and decent flavor but the skin is uneatable to my taste. They do say some of these new grapes have eatable skin.

The one advantage of Jupiter over the better eating Vinifera grapes is that it broke bud a month later in my greenhouse. Don't need it there but do outside here.

I don't expect these new grapes to be as good eating as Summer Muscat, Summer Royal, and Crimson seedless my favorites in the greenhouse. Just adding this for those who can grow both types.

I made a mistake in my post above and the edit feature is not working. The Jupiter actually broke bud earlier than any other grape. It was the Muscat of Alexandria that broke bud very late last year. I'm sorry for the confusion.

I know this post is a few months old, but I was about to start a new thread about the same subject, so I was glad to find this one.

I've purchased "Joy" "Hope" and "Jupiter" from Double A. I nearly purchased Gratitude in place of Hope, so I'd be interested in how yours does, Scott. I was also torn between Jupiter and Reliance, but decided on Jupiter. These will take the place of my other grapes, which I'm pulling out - Concord, Niagra, and Catawba (I didn't know much about grapes when I bought those). I may stick those along an old fence row in the back of the property and forget about them.

Since Hope, Joy, Gratitude, and Faith are new releases, I doubt many have any experience with them. I'm just hoping for good disease resistance and good flavor. I'd like to hear updates on yours, Scott, and anyone else who may grow them.

Scott, how did your grapes do this year?

Joy was vigorous, putting on at least 10 feet of growth. It was also very precocious. After only about a foot of growth, it had already put out three little grape bunches. Of course, I pulled them off.

Jupiter put out similar growth, but didn't try to fruit. Both had no visible disease issues.

Hope started out with vigorous growth, but it got what appears to be mildew which greatly slowed its growth. It also appeared to get black rot on the leaves. This one doesn't seem very disease resistant, so I'll need to spray next year.

Trying to decide now if I want to put up another trellis and add Faith and Gratitude.

Rob, my grapes are on a steep hill I don't water so it takes them longer to get going. They did 5'-7' on average. I didn't have any problems with mildew or other diseases. They seemed pretty similar overall to my other hybrid grapes; they didn't defoliate like the vinifera do late in the season, hopefully that means they have enough labrusca in the mix to keep the diseases at bay. I ended up adding Hope after my post above so I have three of the four now.

Scott

Correction. I was checking my labels today, and it was Hope that grew well and had no disease issues. Jupiter was stunted by mildew.