🍇 Woodruff

Woodruff is an old American table grape with large brick-red berries. It was found by C. H. Woodruff in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA: a chance seedling came up in 1874 and first fruited in 1877. It was first called Woodruff Red, and it was introduced in 1885.

According to the breeder's data quoted by the VIVC catalogue, Woodruff's parents are Catawba and Concord. However, Ulysses Hedrick, in The Grapes of New York (1908), makes clear that this was only a supposition: the seedling appeared by chance, and nobody made the cross. The pedigree has not been checked with genetic markers either. Botanically, Hedrick describes the variety as a typical strong-growing labrusca with a possible admixture of vinifera. In 1889 Woodruff was added to the fruit list of the American Pomological Society.

Hedrick calls the clusters and berries handsome and showy, but the taste disappoints: the flesh is coarse, with the strong foxy flavour of labrusca. The vine is hardy, vigorous and productive, bearing as much as Concord or more, and fairly healthy, though it suffers from mildew in unfavourable places. It ripens a little before Concord or with it. The fruit keeps poorly, and the berries crack and shatter. The variety is held in only 1 collection.

Why it matters to you. Woodruff is an example of how a showy look cannot save a variety with poor flavour: Hedrick thought it worth growing only for its hardiness. Its pedigree is also a reminder that the parents of old American varieties are often just a guess by whoever found them.