🍇 Lakemont

Lakemont (VIVC prime name Lakemont Seedless, variety number 6674) is a white seedless grape variety bred in the United States. VIVC records it as an interspecific crossing of Ontario and Thompson Seedless (Sultanina), made in 1922 by John Einset at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station of Cornell University in Geneva. It has white berry skin, hermaphrodite flowers, no seed formation and a neutral taste, and VIVC lists three synonyms: Lakemont, New York 15305 and NY 15305.

The experiment station's list of named varieties gives Lakemont as released in 1972, white, from Ontario × Sultanina, with the old number NY 15305. It was named together with Suffolk Red in the bulletin Lakemont and Suffolk Red seedless grapes named (J. Einset, Food and Life Sciences Bulletin 21, August 1972), whose abstract describes a breeding programme begun about 50 years earlier to combine the seedlessness of Mediterranean grapes with the cold hardiness and disease resistance of American grapes.

Cornell's overview of seedless grapes says Lakemont comes from the same cross as Himrod but has a milder flavour and more compact clusters of small to medium-sized berries. Cluster thinning prevents overcropping, and bunch rot is often a problem. Cluster weight is given as 0.48 lb (about 220 g) and berry weight as 1.7 g.