Welcome to the Grape Breeding and Enology project website
Located at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, we conduct research in the Department of Horticultural Science and at the Horticultural Research Center. Our focus is on grapevine cultivar development which includes: wine grapes, table grape varieties, and ornamentals that survive and thrive in cold-climate conditions. We also work on understanding the mechanisms of disease and pest resistance so that we can incorporate these traits as a way to improve sustainability for Minnesota growers. In addition to breeding grapes, we develop and teach enology best practices for cold-hardy grapes.
Ask for Clarion!
By Kate Fessler, Drew Horton, John Thull, and Matt Clark
We have developed a short guide for our most recent UMN release, 'Clarion'! This high quality white wine cultivar is hardy to USDA Zone 5. Click on the preview below to open the PDF, or at the following link: Link to Clarion fact sheet.
News
VitisGen2 Outputs: Links to read and share
Interested in keeping up with the VitisGen2 project? Visit the webpage at vitisgen2.org or on twitter @vitisgen
Webinar Recording: Revisit and Improve Your Vineyard Spray Program
The recording from the December 10th webinar, "Revisit and Improve Your Vineyard Spray Program" is now online. To watch the recording of this webinar, click on the video below.
To watch it in higher resolution, click on the video, then click on the video title to open it in Youtube.
Summary:
An effective pest management program leads to higher yields, higher quality fruit, and more satisfied winemakers. Constructing a program that effectively and sustainably targets the diseases and insects in the vineyard is an important skill for all grape growers regardless of experience level or vineyard size.
In the webinar, we discussed how to decide which products to spray based on the pest species in your vineyard, when to spray them, and how to use a variety of resources to develop or improve a current spray program. Speaker: Annie Klodd, UMN Extension.