2009 Home Demonstration Gardens

To assess the regional adaptation of wine grape cultivars in Iowa, a trial was established in 2003 through an Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) specialty crops grant awarded to the Iowa Wine Growers Association (IWGA). The trial was designed to evaluate up to 20 cultivars or advanced selections at four Iowa State University (ISU) farms representing different geographic, climatic, and soil conditions: Horticulture Research Station (HRS), Ames; the Armstrong Research Farm (ARF), Lewis; the Southeast Research Farm (SERF), Crawfordsville; and the Northeast Research Farm (NERF), Nashua. The SERF and NERF plantings also included the 15 cultivars being evaluated in the 2002 grape cultivar by management system trial. This report summarizes the results for the 2009 growing season