Growing Pierce's Disease-resistant Grapes in the Southeast

Grape growing has increased significantly on a national and local scale in the last decade; however, current information on growing Pierce’s disease (PD) resistant grapes in Alabama and the Southeast is lacking. Eleven PD-tolerant American and French-American hybrid bunch grape cultivars including ‘Black Spanish’, ‘Blanc du Bois’, ‘Champanel’, ‘Conquistador’, ‘Cynthiana’, ‘Favorite’, ‘Lake Emerald’, ‘Stover’, ‘Villard Blanc’, ‘Seyval Blanc’, and ‘Seyval Blanc’ grafted on Coudrec 3309 rootstock (‘Seyval Blanc’/3309C) were planted at the Sand Mountain Research and Extension Center in Crossville, AL, in 2008 to study the feasibility of growing PD-resistant hybrid bunch grape cultivars in Alabama’s hot and humid environment. Three recently developed PD-resistant 87.5% V. vinifera selections from the University of California, Davis, grape breeding program were planted at the Chilton Research and Extension Center near Clanton in 2010 and vines were trained to a vertical shoot positioning trellis system. Our results indicate ‘Villard Blanc’, ‘Cynthiana’, and ‘Black Spanish’ were the best performing hybrid bunch cultivars in our test.  The preliminary results of our study on PD-resistant V. vinifera selections are very encouraging based on plant vigor, high yields, and good fruit quality. The PD-resistant grape cultivars have the potential to advance the environmental and economic sustainability of viticulture in the Southeast.