Summer 2005
Wow, what a Spring! I currently have several hundred of the 2004 seedlings set out in the vineyard and the 2005 seed is growing on the vines! The 2004 hybrids are riparia X cordifolia, Seyval X cordifolia, Seyval X cinerea, and Aurore X cordifolia crosses. The seven 2003 vines continue to thrive. I have over 50 individual clusters of grapes on the vines growing hybrid seed. Many are with the Wagon Trail cordifolia, and many others are of select male aestivalis, cordifolia and bicolor crossed with Espirit, Chardonel, Traminette, Seyval, Vidal, and Villard Blanc. We'll see what the Fall brings in the way of seeds that survive!
Fall 2005
The hybrid seed harvest yielded 54(!) unique hybrid combinations between our local wild grapes and cultivars. Just short of 4,500 seeds were produced. Stay tuned for a complete list of the hybrid seed to be posted soon.
Fall 2006
I have yet to count the number of hybrids I made this year or the number of seeds, but I expect it to be easily TWICE last year's count! I focused on crossing low acidity cultivars with the Wagon Trail cordifolia, four V. aestivalis females, Jaeger 70, and Last Rose. I also put male aestivalis and bicolor pollens on Rogers' Lindley and Gaertner to see how the labruscana X aestivalis cross looks when you do the genders that way. Big news is that I have started a blog for the Chateau Z Vineyard at: http://chateau-z.blogspot.com/ and will be making future updates to this news page there. Save the link and keep updated!
