Amur Grape Seeds

This species grape is said to be one of the cold hardiest fruit plants on the planet. Its deep dark blue and black fruit is relished for making jams and syrups in its native lands. Although there are selections of it used for wine most of the breeding with it is as crosses with Vinifera selections to create cold hardy wine grapes. The images used on line are often these crosses and not the pure Vitis amurensis which is more like a river grape in size. The leaves are very distinct and the fruit production can be heavy once the plants are established. 

I grew this grape selection from seed from arboretum collections as well as purchased seed from seed houses who imported it from Russia. The plants are easy to establish and take about  5 years to fruit from seed. The flavor of the fruit is a strong wild grape profile making for a good additive to regular grapes to boost flavor and health benefits. There appear to be no disease or insect damage the fruit production increases as the age of the vines increase. It is said the foliage is edible and can be used for wraps etc. and is used to some extent as a perennial green.

Amur grape is self fertile and my planting is mixed with native selections of River grapes so there may be some cross pollination. They appear to be true from seed. The fruit ripens in August and September. 

To germinate the seeds; Amur grape seeds have a hard seed coat which breaks down slowly as dormancy is applied. Use a cold dormancy at 34F to 38F for 90-120 days. Some seeds may take an additional warm period and another cold period to pop.  Make sure to add a lightly moist Canadian peat moss to the seeds prior to cold storage.