Photo: Andshel — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Survives zone 3 through 8
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Amur grape is grown mainly as a genetic source of extreme cold hardiness and disease resistance for grape breeding rather than as a fresh-eating fruit — its wild-tart, deep blue-black berries are more often pressed for juice, wine or preserves than eaten out of hand.
- Hardiness
- Zone 3–8
- Habit
- Vine
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Sept–Oct
- Mature size
- Vine 10–20 m; trained to 2–3 m
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.0
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- Northeastern China, the Russian Far East (Amur River basin) and Korea, in temperate deciduous forest.
- Status
- Both wild and cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 2–3 yrs
- Growth speed
- Fast/vigorous once established — up to roughly 2 m of new growth per year.
- Spacing
- 400 cm (157 in) apart — about 16 m² (172 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Large, coarsely lobed grape leaves that turn deep red to purple in autumn, among the most cold-tolerant foliage in the genus.
- Root system
- Vigorous, cold-tolerant root system that does not require winter mounding/burial even in severe continental climates, which is the basis of its use as breeding stock for cold-hardy grape rootstocks.
- Fruit description
- Small, round berries ripening deep blue-black in loose clusters; the flesh is intensely flavored, tart and mildly astringent fresh, better suited to juice, wine and preserves than dessert eating.
- Propagation
- By seed after roughly six weeks of cold stratification sown in a cold frame, by hardwood cuttings of ripened current-season wood taken in winter, or by layering.
- Pollination
- ⚠ DIOECIOUS — needs male + female (a vigorous fruitless wild vine is usually a lone male)
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Thrives in deep, rich, moisture-retentive loam and does particularly well on calcareous soils; avoid waterlogging and keep nitrogen moderate once established since the vine is naturally vigorous.
How it spreads. Strong tendril-climber reaching 10–15 m (occasionally to 20 m); in the wild it scrambles through forest canopy and regenerates readily from seed spread by birds.
Growing tips. The most cold-hardy Vitis species known, tolerating temperatures down to about -40°C without winter burial of the vine — the trait breeders prize it for; it also shows strong natural resistance to powdery mildew, white rot and grapevine anthracnose. Needs a warm, sunny site to fully ripen its fruit and winter-only pruning to avoid heavy sap bleeding.
Grow journal
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