Meet the Everest Grape: A New Concord Variety

Attention grape growers, a new variety from Cornell Agritech could bring you new business.

Everest Grape t29fz7

The Concord grape is native to the northeast, but is typically only used for jams and juice. A new variety of Concord, called Everest Seedless, was bred to be a table grape instead of a processing grape. Flavorful and juicy, this new variety is practically twice the size of traditional Concords.

The large, seedless clusters were developed by Bruce Reisch, professor of horticulture in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a grape breeder with Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York.

The Everest Seedless is also exciting for growers because it is cold-hardy and can withstand New York winter temperatures of 10 to 15 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit). The researchers did not find evidence of any insect disturbance and the grapes are moderately resistant to downy mildew and powdery mildew. Learn more about the origin of the name and where you can find the Everest Seedless variety.

Kelsie Raucher

Kelsie is from southwest Missouri and grew up on a 150-acre farm helping her family buy and sell horses and cattle. She credits FFA for finding her passion for agriculture and food issues and desiring a career as an “agvocate.” Since coming to Cornell, she has gained interest in local production, global food issues, and environmental impacts of and on agriculture. She joined the Cornell Small Farms Program in May of 2018 and is excited to gain experience to complement coursework in the Agricultural Sciences major and Communication major.
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2 Comments

  1. Avatar of Tim Martinson Tim Martinson on December 4, 2019 at 9:42 pm

    Kelsie – just noticed this. Please do not call the grapevine itself a ‘varietal’ They are ‘varieties’ or ‘cultivars’. Varietal is an adjective most commonly applied to wines made from one variety, e.g. this is a ‘varietal Cabernet Sauvignon wine’.

    • Kelsie Raucher on March 24, 2020 at 12:28 pm

      Hi Tim,
      Thank you for the clarification! I’ve updated the article to reflect the proper terminology.

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