An early, American cultivar yielding dark violet-blue, tasty, dessert, seedless grapes.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: Large (5.5 g), spherical to ellipsoid berries gathered in mid-sized bunches. Single bunch reaches 250 g. Ripe berries are dark violet-blue with waxy bloom. They ripen at the end of August or beginning of September. Their flesh is tasty, juicy, seedless with a delicate nutmeg flavour, thin skin.

HOW IT GROWS: Climber; climbs using tendrils. Moderately strong-growing, reaches 8 m height with annual growth rate of 2 m.

WHERE TO PLANT: Best suited for sunny and warm locations. Thrives in permeable, fertile and hummus-rich soil, sandy and clayey with neutral or slightly acidic pH. Disease resistant. Hardy up to -27ºC. Moderately resistant to powdery mildew – requires preventive spraying (2-3 times) during flowering.

HOW TO PLANT AND GROW: Before planting immerse the plant container in water for 10-30 min. Place the plant in a 40 x 40 x 40 cm pit with a 10 cm layer of well-rotten manure or compost soil at the bottom, 5-10 cm deeper than it was planted before. Fill the pit with fertile soil. The plant should be located at least 30 cm away from a wall or other plants. Requires moderate pruning only. To ensure that high quality fruit is set, annual formative pruning is recommended (usually performed in the second half of February).

HOW TO APPLY: Suitable for amateur cultivation. May be used for growing over garden arbours and forming espaliers along fences.

ORIGIN: University of Arkansas, 1998, U.S.A.