(Labrusca, Vulpina)
Columbian, Jumbo
Columbian Imperial is a Labrusca-Vulpina hybrid chiefly remarkable for the great size of its reddish-black berries, although the vine is so exceptionally healthy and vigorous as to give it prominence for these characters as well. The variety has remarkably thick leathery leaves which seem almost proof against either insects or fungi. The quality of the fruit, however, is inferior, and the small clusters vary in number of berries and these shell easily. The only value of the variety is for exhibition purposes and for breeding to secure the desirable characters named. The parentage of Columbian Imperial is unknown. It originated with J. S. McKinley, Orient, Ohio, in 1885.
Vine vigorous, hardy, healthy, unproductive. Canes long, numerous, thick, dark reddish-brown, heavily pubescent, spiny; nodes prominent; internodes short; tendrils continuous, long, bifid. Leaves green, very thick; lower surface pale green shading into bronze on older leaves with little pubescence; lobes three, indistinct; teeth sharp, shallow, wide. Flowers self-fertile; stamens upright.
Fruit late. Clusters medium in size, sometimes shouldered; peduncle slender; pedicel long; brush long, slender, green. Berries very large, round, slightly oval, dull reddish-black with faint bloom, firm; skin thick, tough, unpigmented; flesh juicy, tough, sweet at the skin but acid at center; fair in quality. Seeds adherent, large, plump, broad, blunt.
Concord
(Labrusca)
Concord ([Plate XI]) is the most widely known of the grapes of this continent, and with its offspring, pure-bred and cross-bred, furnishes 75 per cent of the grapes of eastern America. The preëminently meritorious character of Concord is that it adapts itself to varying conditions; thus, Concord is grown with profit in every grape-growing state in the Union and to an extent not possible with any other variety. A second character which commends Concord is fruitfulness—the vine bears large crops year in and year out. Added to these points of superiority, are: hardiness; ability to withstand the ravages of diseases and insects; comparative earliness; certainty of maturity in northern regions; and fair size and handsome appearance of bunch and berry. Concord also blossoms late in the spring and does not suffer often from spring frosts, nor is the fruit often injured by late frosts. The crop hangs well on the vine.
The variety is not, however, without faults: the quality is not high, the grapes lacking richness, delicacy of flavor and aroma, and having a foxy taste disagreeable to many; the seeds and skin are objectionable, the seeds being large and abundant and difficult to separate from the flesh, and the skin being tough and unpleasantly astringent; the grapes do not keep nor ship well and rapidly lose flavor after ripening; the skin cracks and the berries shell from the stems after picking; and the vine is but slightly resistant to phylloxera. While Concord is grown in the South, it is essentially a northern grape, becoming susceptible to fungi in southern climates and suffering from phylloxera in dry, warm soils.
The botanical characters of Concord indicate that it is a pure-bred Labrusca. Seeds of a wild grape were planted in the fall of 1843 by E. W. Bull, Concord, Massachusetts, plants from which fruited in 1849. One of these seedlings was named Concord.