Update 1 - May 4, 2004: Progress Report
Spring has arrived and all the grapes are fully out or dormancy with the Millot leading the pack with 2' shoots. The 2003 seeds were planted in April and so far three seedlings of the cordifolia X Chambourcin cross have emerged. None of the cordifolia X Cabernet Sauvignon have emerged as yet. Last year's mother vine was removed by the SBC physical plant, not before I made cuttings from it, however, which are growing nicely in the nursery. This mother vine is the one I featured in the wild Vixen grape page. Several seedlings from Williams Creek and the SBCG feeding shed are preparing to bloom, however, and it appears there are some females to work with. The cordifolia vine in the SBCG vineyard (FS-1) will also bloom, but the size of the flower clusters suggests it is a male vine. It is also VERY trailing with weak shoot attachments so it probably isn't a very good parent anyway. Stay posted for more details on this year's breeding attempts to come.

Update 2 - May 16, 2004: Progress Report
All of the blooming cordifolia vines at the SBCG have turned out to be male. The vine in the fence (FS-1) has very large clusters, and although it is very trailing I have decided to use pollen from it to try some crosses with the white grapes coming into bloom. The weak shoot attachments firmed up quickly and the strong trailing tendency may be from overpruning this vigorous male vine. The large cluster size is great! I have emasculated several bunches on Villard Blanc, Vidal Blanc, Seyval Blanc, and one on Aurora to apply pollen to from the three cordifolia vines coming into bloom at the garden. I will likely try to emasculate some Vignoles clusters as well because it is so closely timed with the wild male bloom, too. The three wild fathers include the vine in the cultivated grape vineyard within the garden electric fence (FS-1, also), a vine planted at the corner of the calf barn outside the electric fence ( FS-2), and a three-year-old vine in the nursery (not yet numbered). The latter two vines have smaller clusters, but leaf shape is the same on all. In addition to these "in house" activities, I plan to send cordifolia pollen to Herb Fritzke in St. Paul, MN, so he can try his luck crossing the wild Vixen with his low acidity riparia selections. This should yield some interesting wild parents if it succeeds.

I am curious about eight Vitis cinerea vines I have growing in the nursery from seeds collected along Williams Creek on the Sweet Briar property (photos 1, 2, and 3). These vines are late bloomers, however, so I will have to see if I have any cultivated vines still blooming to use pollen from these seedlings on when they finally bloom this year. If they bloom too late, I plan to store pollen for next year to try some crosses then.

Finally, to update progress on last year's seeds, 5 of 9 cordifolia X Chambourcin seeds germinated and most amazingly, two of the cordifolia X Cabernet Sauvignon seeds germinated even though they were extracted from hard, green berries after the bunch was broken off just before veraison. We'll see if these are actually hybrids as the grow up! Here is a picture of them before the second cabernet hybrid came up.

Update 2 - September 12, 2004: Progress Report
I produced a bumper crop of seed this summer from crosses of my staminate (male) cordifolia vines that bloomed with Seyval, Aurora, and Villard Blanc. One berry of seyval still hangs on the vine from a mid-summer cross of Seyval with Williams Creek cinerea. An attempt was made to use stored cinerea pollen from the Williams Creek cinerea seedlings to pollenate emasculated Seyval, Villard Blanc, Vidal, Aurora, and the big berried late labrusca, but only one berry on one Seyval bunch set fruit. I'll collect the seeds from the berry soon and see if they germinate next year. Several bunches set on my Polk, Ohio, riparia crossed with Millot and made over a hundred seeds. The cordifolia crosses will go a long way in reaching the goal of developing F1 crosses that can then be crossed to produce F2's with white offspring

The 2003 hybrids have performed admirably in their first year. One cordifolia X Chambourcin vine was pulled because of downy mildew infestation, but the remaining four of these vines and the three cordifolia X Cabernet Sauvignon vines that finally germinated have less mildew than any cordifolia vine in the vineyard or nursery. I plan to move these hybrids to my vineyard at home to let them develop there.

None of my 2003 mother vine cuttings rooted, but the mother vine stump itself tried to grow despite heavy deer browsing. If it lasts into dormancy, I plan to transplant it to the SBCG annex vineyard.

2004 - End of year report
The growing season ended very late with the first frost in November.  The 2003 hybrids suffered only slightly from downy mildew (much less than Vidal, for example) which is a good sign for the use of our fetid cordifolia in breeding.  To see the foliage of the 2003 hybrids, click here.  The 2004 breeding efforts produced large quantities of hybrid seed.  With no pistillate cordifolia ready to hybridize, all crosses were based on two staminate Wild Vixens in the community garden.  Attempts were made to hybridize many of the cultivars with the male vines which required emasculation of many clusters.  Seed was produced in experiments with Seyval, Aurora, and Villard Blanc crossed with male Wild Vixen.  One seed was produced in a cross of Seyval with the Williams Creek cinerea.  Many seeds were produced in a cross of a female riparia from Ohio with Millot and custom crosses by Herb Fritzke in St. Paul,MN, of his female select riparias with a male Wild Vixen returned nearly 300 seeds!  There will be a lot of new grapes growing next year!