Frontenac Grape Bareroot

For Spring Planting (Ship or Pickup March - May 2027)

Grown by: Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

Species: Vitis sp. (hybrid)

Why We Grow It:  Frontenac produces a blue grape that is best used for wine-making. It is suitable for rosés, dry red wines, and fortified wines such as port. It is high in both acidity and sugar, producing a balanced wine with a nice colour.

Recommended Use: Wine (rosé, dry red wine, or port)

Fruit Size: Small

Storage: Keeps up to two weeks when stored in the fridge

Harvest: October - Early

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 3

Soil Preferance: Loam is best, but is tolerant of different soils as long as they are well-drained.

Flowering Time:

Bloom Colour:

Pollination Requirements: Self-pollinating, this variety will produce fruit without a different grape variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present.

Sun/Shade Requirements: Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily)

General Growth Habit: Vine, moderately vigorous, heavy and reliable crops. Somewhat susceptible to black rot, botrytis bunch rot, and powdery mildew.

Overall Grower Ease Rating:

This rating is a combination of our experience growing in our test orchards and current available information on the cultivar.

 Frontenac was bred by renowned cold hardy grape breeder Elmer Swenson at the University of Minnesota. It was released in 1996 and since then has become commonly planted in Canada and northeastern America where other wine grapes will not perform as well.

Grapes are divided into the following grades:
• 1 year plant - pruned to ~30cm, well-rooted
• 2 year plant - pruned to ~40cm, extensive root system

There is some overlap in size since we are also taking the age of the plants into account. Some older plants may not have put on quite as much vegetative growth but will have larger root systems.

Unless specified, heights exclude the roots since seedlings and some berries will often have a lot of root growth but relatively little vegetative growth (ex. our Shagbark Hickories seedlings are often 5-15cm above the soil but will have roots that reach 20cm+ in length).

Not all of our berries and seedlings will be available in all of these grades since growth rate can vary significantly across species and even varieties. While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth, therefore you may find conventional nursery stock larger in some instances comparatively.

Why plant small? It's best to transplant when a plant is young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and bareroot plants tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted ones planted at the same time, after a few years.

Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "too small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the plants are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of plants across Canada. We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

Pick-up: We also have thousands of plants picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc.

When Will My Order Be Ready?

Your order will be ready in the spring (late March to late May)! We will be in touch in the spring once your order is ready to go. Orders placed in the spring might not be ready for 1-2 weeks as this is a very busy time of year for us.

$18.50

Size: 1 year plant

35 in stock

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