KING.
(Labrusca?)
1. Ill. Hort. Soc. Rpt., 1905:602. 2. Ib., 1906:215.
King has not fruited on the grounds of this Station, but one of the authors of this work was a committeeman from the Michigan Horticultural Society to name and describe the variety as it grew on the grounds of the originator. The following was the estimate of it made at that time:
“The King is more vigorous and prolific than the Concord, time of ripening and length of season the same, clusters are one-fourth larger, grapes are more persistent in pedicels, pulp is more tender, flavor nearly the same, but more sprightly, seeds fewer in number, wood harder and of shorter joints and the pedicels are larger.”
This variety was found growing in the Concord vineyard of W. K. Munson, Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1892. The vine was set for a Concord, and is either a bud-sport of that variety or is some other sort that became accidentally mixed with the Concord vines. Mr. Munson believes it to be the former. King is thought by some to be Eaton on account of its close resemblance to that variety but the grape-growers who have examined it, generally hold it to be distinct. It is in all respects a typical black offspring of Concord, whether superior remains to be determined. It has been widely disseminated and its place in viticulture should soon be known. In seeking the origin of the grapes described in this work, an effort has been made to determine whether any could be said with certainty to have arisen from bud-sports. King is the best authenticated bud-sport among the grapes here listed and yet there is, as the above history shows, some doubt as to its having originated in this way.
The description of King given below was made from vines and fruit from Ellwanger & Barry’s vineyards, Rochester, New York.