Suffolk Red Seedless Grape Vine

Hi All,

I bought a Suffolk Red Seedless Grape Vine
from a reputable grower ... but past two years has produced seeds ... what am I doing wrong ... I have trained on single rod into the roof of the greenhouse I have planted in the soil border far end of the greenhouse ... so any advice would be useful as its in full flower now ..

 

Are you sure about variety?

I have Lakemont seedless and it appears to need renaming to Lakemont fruitless, it flowers but sets hardly any fruit.

I just wonder how reliable seedless grapes are in our odd climate.

 

yes 100% about the variety that its correct I had from Chris Bowers

 

I do remember reading that seedless varieties can produce seed under certain conditions.
Trouble is I cant remember what those conditions were.

I just wonder if its getting pollenated by another grapevine in the vicinity.

I'm assuming seedless varieties dont need pollenating.

 

they can produce seeds under stress but I need to know what the stress is lol ... I have emailed Chris Bowers see what they say if not I will ask RHS since I am a member but thought I try here first

Since grapevines possess both male and female reproductive parts, they can self-pollinate and don't require external pollination

 

I don't know enough about how seedless varieties work, take the seedless orange or bananas, its odd that some plants produce the fruits if they don't contain seeds.
Let us know what you find out.

 

Why Do Seedless Grapes Sometimes Have Seeds? - Tasting Table

 

2025 update

they have seeds in again ..

 

If it has seeds at all the variety is simply wrong. Seedless grapes are produced by triploid individuals that were bred from a normal diploid and an individual whose parent was treated with colchacine making it quadriploid.
Since the child has 3 chromosome sets, it cannot divide in 2 evenly so the embryo is immediately aborted after pollination. In grapes they still set fruit even if the seed is aborted, so we get seedless fruits.

A seedless variety should almost never make seeds, only maybe 1 in a few hundred at most, when the genes naturally dont mix right by mistake, or dont split in two. Plants sometimes randomly double their genes by accident, this makes triploids' seeds viable again.

Bananas do it even in a few ten thousand and are bred today by treating them with colchacine again and making fully fertile duo-ploid children

Dont worry, your grapes arent poisonous if you cant stand the seeds maybe make some wine

If otherwise they look identical its possible the whole plant doubled its genes when a cutting was made. Thats pretty rare though.

 

Very interesting stuff @Adam I ! I didn't realise they did it to bananas - I thought because of the new disease they were going back to fertile precursors. And do you mean tetraploid or something different?

 

Yes tetraploid not quadraploid latin vs greek

I think they are going back to ancestors but recrossing them with modern ones then selecting for specific resistance genes. Same for tomatoes and stuff

 

I appreciate your reply, but I disagree . I had flame meant to be seedless had seeds that was from Thompson and Morgan , so I bought Suffolk red from Chris bowerers meant to be seedless so they both coudnt send me the wrong variety.. I think it’s temperature weather etc . But I said I appreciate your reply

 

Many many years we grew a strawberry grape vine that was seedless....but it wasn't. We gave up on it after some years as it also didn't fruit as well as others.

 

They may be forming hard seed traces from stress as you say, just as unpleasant as viable seeds. That may be built into the variety then unfortunately