Saturday, March 1, 2014

Paul Zmoda of the Tampa Rare Fruit Council is brilliant, obsessive AND has spent years studying and collecting grapes for Florida, and his business creates vineyards for his clients. He makes various wines, and this year won a bronze medal for a wine at the state fairgrounds. That said, he feels quite certain that my longstanding mystery "Gray Street Grape" is NEITHER of my two best guesses....Vitis aestivalis or 'Conquistador'. Instead, Vitis shuttleworthii, or MAYBE a hybrid of it, is the real ID. Native to the area which helps explain the insane vigor (plus a part of its root zone is beneath the hen house that it shades!) Here is a pic of Paul at my 60th birthday party last August plus some pics of "Gray Street Grape" and his wines. I've got cuttings chilling in the fridge per his request to give him at the next RFC meeting.







1 comment:

  1. I would say that is most definitely a shuttleworthii hybrid but not a pure shutleworthii. Leaves and fruit resemble shuttleworthii but clusters look to good to be a pure wild grape.

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