🍇 Martha

Martha is a white grape variety of Vitis labrusca, raised in Pennsylvania as a seedling of Concord. The International Variety Catalogue VIVC (Julius Kühn-Institut) gives its breeder as Samuel Miller in the United States, its species as Vitis labrusca, its pedigree as Concord open-pollinated (not confirmed by markers) and its berry skin colour as white (blanc). VIVC lists one synonym, Miller 1.

Ulysses P. Hedrick, in The Grapes of New York (New York Agricultural Experiment Station, 1908), writes that Samuel Miller of Calmdale, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, grew Martha from seed of Concord sent to him by E. W. Bull. J. Knox of Pittsburgh introduced it about 1868. The American Pomological Society placed it on its fruit catalog list in 1869 and dropped it in 1899. Hedrick notes that Martha was at one time the most popular of the green grapes but later lost ground to superior green varieties.

According to Hedrick, Martha resembles Concord closely. The fruit is green and ripens a week or more earlier, the bunches and berries are smaller, and the quality is better, being sweeter and more delicate, with less foxiness and less pulp. The vine is hardy, variable in vigour and somewhat susceptible to mildew in unfavourable seasons. The berries are medium, roundish, light green with a tinge of yellow, with a thin gray bloom. Its chief defect is that the fruit neither keeps nor ships well. Hedrick adds that a very good white wine is made from Martha.