I have one somerset seedless vine growing in Great Falls, MT. Planted it last spring and it appears to have made it through our recent mild winter just fine and it's buds are currently swelling. I'm testing several varieties and thought I'd give somerset a shot. Last winter was not a good test though as mild as it was here.

I'm not as far north as you, but considered zone 4 (NW Iowa) & my four year old Somerset has done really well, without any kind of winter protection. We'll get down to -30F wind chill & the Somerset is the only one that's made it. I had one Swenson Red that I had to take out last year (at three years old) and replaced with a Reliance, which had significant winter kill & had to be cut back back down to a few buds this spring (after growing about 12ft last summer in its first growing season with me).

I'm contemplating removing the Reliance and replacing it with another Somerset since it's so darn cold hardy (and a decent grower for my short growing season) & it's grapes are amazingly delicious.

It's worth a try, just leave extra buds after initial planting so you have backup if some shoots don't survive its first winter!

Located in southern Alberta. I have a Somerset that has made it through 2 winters. It has not produced yet.

Bismarck ND here, I have had very poor luck with sommerset. My most hardy so far are swenson red, valiant and edelweiss. Yet to have any success with seedless grapes, tried reliance, sommerset and canadice.... Might be more of a soil issue than temperatures, we are quite alkaline and clay, some grapes really take off, others just kinda stagnate, no growth and eventually die off.

Also live in Southern Alberta and have successfully overwintered the Somerset seedless grape 2 winters. It has a half dozen clusters of grapes forming this year (first year) so that is exciting. Have it planted on southside of a concrete retaining wall for a pergola so I guess a good little microclimate. Growing like crazy too!

I'm also in southern Alberta and I have canadice grapes I believe they are seedless that came back this year no problem.

So I have Somerset grape plants from nursery.. They are growing nicely and need planting. Just wondering what type of location would be most likely to increase chances of winter survival. I am located in a zone 3 or 4 in southern Alberta and subject to possible cold winters with occassional warm chinook winds. Pros and cons of sunny southern exposure vs more shaded exposures? Also what type of protection ? Any thoughts? Thanks!

I planted some similar to those lastvyear the Canadice. They can be grown up easily with a wire for the summer than simply lay down and cover up in winter. I used a white sheet and piled snow on it as much as possible all winter long.mine haven't grown much this year at all having a hard time possibly because its first year. They are zone 4/5 grapes I'm not going to hold my breath I've tried like 30 grape vines here and they don't do so well unless they are valiant and I've gone through half dozen of them also till I got it down,they were challenging here in southern Alberta until I learned they need to be layed on ground in winter.

reyelts55---Definitely choose full sun. I plant mine at a 45 degree angle and lay them down in the winter. I tie them up on a two wire trellis in the spring as I find it is almost impossible to untangle the vines from a grid trellis, they are too brittle. The main trunk gets very thick and woody making it hard to bend as the vine ages so mine is sort of growing along close to the ground and the vining branches are tied up onto the wires. I pick 5 main branches every spring and prune off the rest as well as cutting back these 5.

When I lay them down I put a flat rock to hold them and pile pure peat moss on top. Although I only have Valiant producing this year (and it is loaded), I successfully wintered King of the North, Red Suffolk Seedless, ES-56 and Minnesota 78. Now I am just waiting for them to produce.

I am in a much colder zone than you, but that can be a bonus sometimes because I do not have to deal with chinooks ( which can be deadly to plants), and snow cover is plentiful.

I don't know much about your zone but I would think your main aim would be to make sure that during those warm chinook times, your vines do not break dormancy.

Can anyone tell me where I can buy locally a Somerset Seedless grape in Southern AB? Have not seen this for sale by any of the local nurseries. Purchased the grape online from Quebec last time... thx!

For Nicole Varbe (Zone 4 NW Iowa) Try Valiant for a winter hardy grape. We are at 4200 feet in the Wallowa Mountains in NE Oregon, with long cold winters and short cool summers and take no special steps to protect the vines during the winter. They produce very well and are a great sweet juice grape. We have about 20 vines which are now about 10 years old on average. Valiants are much hardier than Swenson's Red--which did not survive one winter here. There is a lot of info on line about Valiant and where to get the vines.

I was looking into this variety, it was saying they don't produce for 3 or 4 years.. and they say hardy to zone 3 - 4. They shouldn't be an issue for you then.

Mine has been in the ground for five years and still no production ... BUT, I had been pruning it wrong and now come next year there "might" be some actual fruit! It has also layered itself and have an additional strong plant that can be placed in another location.

I agree Konrad, everyone who wants grapes in the North should have at least one Valiant. The others, for me, are just for the fun of seeing if they can produce here.