Thunder Grape

    DG 45-9-2, now named Thunder, originated as a cross of UNKNOWN x (NY 18080 x NY 63680) from Dr. Good’s private breeding program. As per Lon Rombough UNKNOWN is probably an early ripening labrusca type which Dr. Good mentioned to him and NY 18080 is a high quality muscat with mediocre hardiness and disease resistance. This selection along with many others were rescued from Dr. Good’s advanced selection block after his death.

    I have selected the name Thunder for this new cultivar to showcase its large berry and cluster size along with dark blue black skin. It had a sister I tentatively named Lightning but subsequently discarded.  

     I have grown Thunder for more than 20 years and it never fails to impress with heavy yield and beautiful delicious fruit. It is the only seeded table grape cultivar I grow to sell at local markets. When properly cropped and harvested at the optimal time it generally has a flowery muscat flavor with hints of labrusca. Out of hundreds of grape cultivars I have grown I would rate it as one of the best flavored and my customers seem to agree since it grows in popularity every year.  It is a slip skin but just barely (almost adherent skin) and the small number of seeds separate easily from the flesh.

     Thunder has large clusters sometimes exceeding 1 pound. It has very large berries and few seeds. It should be spur-pruned to reduce fruitfulness and it should be thinned to 1 cluster per shoot which gives uniform ripening of heavy crops. Growth is of moderate vigor and is easy to train and position in vertical training systems. It is fairly susceptible to downy mildew but has no other specific susceptibilities. Culturally it is an easy cultivar to manage. In some seasons the flower clusters can have substantial damage from inflorescence necrosis that results in stringy non marketable clusters but these can almost always be thinned off and large crops still result. The fruit can sometimes have dry stem scars with resulting shelling but this seems to be tied to overcropping and fruit left too long on the vine. Cold hardiness is more than adequate at my location and is more cold hardy than Jupiter.

     Thunder is a newly released cultivar with good cultural characteristics and high yields of elegant looking and tasting seeded eastern table grapes. Thunder may also be suitable for muscat flavored wines.