Itasca

[wfournier]

I just thought I would share some of my (limited) experience with this vine and am curious to hear from anyone else who is growing it. I purchased 16 vines from NE vine supply to go along with the other varietals I planted this year (Marquette, La Crescent, Petite Pearl and Verona). I received tissue culture vines as this being the first year Itasca is available my guess is no one has 1 yr vines yet. My impression is that our site is a relatively low vigor site based on what I have seen from the other vines but the Itasca seems to be thriving despite being planted later and starting from tissue cultures rather than bare root vines. So far compared to the other vines these appear to show better disease resistance and they just look healthier.

Overall they are still a little smaller than the other vines I plated on average but they have made up a good amount of ground.

 

[garymc]

The tissue cultured plants I have gotten usually were indistinguishable from half gallon potted plants after the first season. I was impressed.

 

[KevinL]

I got 15 Itasca vines from NE vine supply this year too. A handful are already up to where the 6 foot wire would be had I been on top of things and gotten my wire up yet. I used grow tubes to get them started as I was worried about rabbits chewing on them. The tubes are off now and they seem to doing well overall. I have one that is looking a little wilted, and a few that are showing some damage which I think is from the neighbors light application of 2-4d. I'll post some pictures when I take some.