Marquette versus Frontenac

[wood1954]

My Marquette are 4 years old now, last winter we had minus 25 for a few days, lost two weak plants and some minor stem damage but the rest of the plants are great. They waited till a day after our usual last frost date to bud out so didn’t have any frost damage. The last 2 years I’ve been buying my Marquette grapes from a vineyard south of Madison the wine is very good although they start picking when the acid is still too high. This year with my grapes I’ll wait till the acid begins to drop before I pick.

 

[montanarick]

Given the horrendous problems with Marquette die back all across this northerner region of the country this year, I am fed up with Marquette. My Marquette is 7 years old and it has died to the ground every year. Not a single grape yet. So, I would not recommend grafting it as there is a high likelihood it would die back beyond the graft.

If you are looking for a nice red grape that has more cold tolerance and not as early bud break (frost risk) I would suggest Crimson Pearl.

Sorry to hear about your Marquette. I'm in Montana just South of Kalispell and my Marquette's seem to be doing just fine - 5th year

 

[Rice_Guy]

interesting concept of growing new vines next to old and then cutting old vines after new ones mature. Will the new vines roots contend with the old? I don't know a lot about grape rooting systems but if they are anything like trees the roots sometimes extend out as far as the branch circumference. So will the roots extend out as far as the cordons?

The rabbits in winter have been more of an issue than growing space, my set up is spaced with 2 passes of a riding lawnmower(8 ft x 8 ft). Redoing varieties also let me rethink about vine spacing since Frontenac grows wild and I have an acre to play with. As masbustelo noted it is a process and sooner is better than later.

Given the horrendous problems with Marquette die back all across this northerner region of the country this year, I am fed up with Marquette. My Marquette is 7 years old and it has died to the ground every year.
If you are looking for a nice red grape that has more cold tolerance and not as early bud break (frost risk) I would suggest Crimson Pearl.

Marquette survived in SunPrairie 2018-9 and seems to be less buggy than petite pearl or Frontenac. Have wondered what the real cultural problems are on crimson pearl and last years Verona but haven’t broken down and ordered em yet. ! ! So many choices, , , wine takes so long ! !

 

[HillPeople]

After 6 years, I'd choose Frontenac over Marquette- both in the vineyard and winery.

 

[Masbustelo]

Rice_Guy mentioned Verona. I have Verona, this is their third year, first fruiting year. They have grown very nicely for me, handled minus 32 last winter with no problems. The vines are tidy, easy to train, downward trailing and vigorous, but not overly so. Dell Schott said they handled minus 40 in Minnesota with no problems. This will be the first harvest, raccoons willing. I have them on GDC.

 

[HillPeople]

Rice_Guy mentioned Verona. I have Verona, this is their third year, first fruiting year. They have grown very nicely for me, handled minus 32 last winter with no problems. The vines are tidy, easy to train, downward trailing and vigorous, but not overly so. Dell Schott said they handled minus 40 in Minnesota with no problems. This will be the first harvest, raccoons willing. I have them on GDC.

Yes- there are people in this latitude who have had great success with Verona, but I have none.

 

[GreginND]

I know that Dell lost his Marquette and Crimson Pearl this past winter. I don't know how his Verona fared.

 

[Masbustelo]

Here is what Dell had to say about Verona. "After brutal winter our Verona are doing well also. Many other varieties got severe damage in MN. Some vineyards hit -40F during the polar vortex".

 

[treesaver]

My verona suffered the spraying incident last spring, and lost nearly half. There have been a few vines that have come back out at grround level, but are starting over again! When I pruned this spring, they still had green wood, same with my concord and cataba, butdidn't lose as big of percentage of them as I did my verona. This would have been the first year to get a few grapes off of them, but alas, I'm not going to have enough to do anything with.