How about swenson red? These are supposed to be pretty good.

Thanks, I think it might be borderline for surviving my climate but true, not less than some I already have.

For those interested on some data for northern grapes (it's in french).

http://www.agrireseau.qc.ca/petitsfruits/documents/cultivars%20raisin.pdf

LinkHmmmmmm, I'm not sure if it's compatible but flame seedless sounds like a good grape, also here is a link to stark bros where you enter your zip and it gives you what you can grow

whats your best one out of the ones you have canuck? Im in a similar growing zone and from what ive read the best one seems to be somerset

We have Valiant, Vanessa and Interlakens. All 3 were planted last year and are now thinking about leafing out.

Where did you buy your grapes?

Daren

Can't get from Starkbos due to being in Canada.

Have not tasted anything yet as they have been staggered planted since fall 2012 so the oldest is only going into it's 3rd year. Hope to have some grapes this year and will be sure to let you know.

Check my profile for everything I have planted and where I buy (http://www.whiffletreefarmandnursery.ca/ and www.pepiniereancestrale.com). Follow my huge post of my experience thus far:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1503388/my-backyard-planting-experience-so-far-zone-4a-b-quebec-cana

I planted based (in order of importance) on hardiness, reviews on flavor, staggered maturity (want grapes from late august to oct/nov) then disease resistance. I have 1 of each planted 8 feet apart with the the plan on using a geneva double curtain (http://www.agritek.com/wolverine_grape). Due to the rows only being 50 feet or so I used 3 5/8 (i think) schedule 40 galvanized pipe for end posts and 8 foot metal t posts for in row posts. This will give 16' + runs for each grape. Plan is to run double trunks (one each direction) with spares down low in case of winter kill. Only my polar green was tall enough for a real test to I buried 1 trunk and left one trunk fully exposed to -33 Celsius. I was planning on taking each vine down in winter to bury but may leave exposed. No leaf or flowers yet ( ground melt was April 11) but when pruning I had sap on both trunks.

Thanks for the link.

We grow our grapes inside an 18 x 20 temporary garage. From fall to summer, we cover the garage with 6-mil poly. It extends the growing season and minimizes winter damage. We tie our vines to the ribbing of the garage for support.

Our yard was free of snow April 14 this year. Hmm, doesn't seem fair considering we're in zone 5.

I've had 'Somerset' in the ground for four or five years now, the thing has grown and wintered very well, the wood ripens early and I heap snow over it for winter. Problem is it has only given me a very scant amount of fruit. I guess, I either have a dud plant only interested in making foliage or I need to perform some major pruning!

Picked up 'Big Blue' and hope it proves hardy and productive.

I grow mars in zone 5, they aren't the best grapes ive had but theyre good, have a fleshy texture and concord flavor. the vines are really vigorous, shoots off the main cordon probably grow 5-10+ feet per season. I dont spray mine, some years ive done fine but in wetter years ive had significant loss from disease

I tasted Somerset at the show and was surprised for its sweetness, no sign of acid, probably the best eating seedless for our zone, the only drawback..smaller then Valiant.

Still have to harvest some Valiant, this one still would be my first pick for processing.

Twros, don't quote me but I am pretty sure I read somewhere that Somerset should either be cane pruned or if spur pruned you should leave 5 buds on each spur. That might help your yield. You might also be feeding it too much, any chance it is getting fertilizer runoff from somewhere? I got 19 bunches in its 4th year, and compared to my other grapes it's vigor is low (1lbs prunings this past winter).

Konrad..just outside of Edmonton Alberta(zone 3b), I had some bunches with tiny grapes (2-4mm). Other bunches were more normal sized. Might be due to the quality of the cane. I have also read that you can let tight clusters set 4x the amount of fruit you want and then immediately after bloom you remove 80%. (for loose cluster grapes you remove BEFORE bloom). Eg. usually you leave 40 buds. In this case you leave 80 buds then trim clusters to leave only 20. Apparently doing this you get about the same total weight of grapes per vine but the grapes are bigger. Page 47 "Bigger Seedless grapes" from "The grape grower - Aguide to organic viticulture".

P.S. Anyone ever try Einset or Skookum grapes? Or the Rene Blanc and Rene bleu which Whiffletree says are new releases from Vineland but that I can't find ANY info on? I need 3 more vines to fill out my rows. I'm trying to find seedless, non-slipskin (something with crunch) and with a lot of flavor. Ideally something that ripens Sept/Oct. Honestly, for August/early Sept I would not plant anything other than Somerset - sweet, super flavorful, seedless with a nice crunch!

hfc, thanks for commenting. I have the grapes growing by themselves along the south edge of a forest where the heat units are greatest and in deeply dug silty soil that has not been amended nor any fertilizers used. 'Somerset' has been a moderately vigorous grower, though producing a significant amount of thinner finer wood that likely needs to be removed. This spring, it developed a decent good number of flower clusters, though these being unusually small in size. I don't know if 'Somerset' has a preference of soil types, mine is on the alkaline side.