Wild Foxy Vixen Seedlings Harvest

Today, my helper Kelsey and I picked the first fruit from the 'wild foxy vixen seedlings' that I planted in 2003 from seed that I collected from the original 'wild foxy vixen' in 2002. This vine was located at the entrance to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts off Highway 29 across from Sweet Briar and is now believed gone. I was able to root several cuttings of the vine, however, and they now grow in both the SBCG annex vineyard and at CZ. The wild foxy vixen has the characteristics of both Vitis cordifolia and Vitis labrusca in approximately equal proportions. This is evidence that it is a natural F1 Vitis cordifolia X Vitis labrusca hybrid. The seedlings exhibit both Vitis cordifolia and Vitis labrusca phenotypes and this is taken as evidence that the wild foxy vixen was pollinated by both Vitis cordifolia and Vitis labrusca to produce the seedlings. The seedlings are interpreted to be either 75:25 Vitis cordifolia : Vitis labrusca, or 75:25 Vitis labrusca : Vitis cordifolia.

The wild foxy vixen seedlings are important to The New Eastern Viticulture in that they preserve the low acidity and pest resistance of the mother vine but lost her foxiness. The grapes hang well into October and produce handsome fruit without any spray. They weather heavy Japanese beetle defoliation, phylloxera and the fungal diseases at the SBCG annex and ripen to be very flavorable. They are dioecious, however. I will be posting their chemistry as soon as I have it run.

These seedlings will figure importantly into my breeding plan to produce a suite of cultivars based on native vines from the Sweet Briar campus for the college. The wild foxy vixen seedlings should be able to produce excellent hermaphroditic wine grapes in a single cross and Kelsey and I will be attempting to do so next spring at the SBCG annex vineyard using some of the most disease resistant cultivars available (DeChaunac, Chambourcin, Villard Blanc, Vivant, etc.). Read more about the Sweet Briar grape breeding plan at the Grape Breeding at the Sweet Briar Community Garden page.