Ives
(Labrusca, AEstivalis)
Ives' Madeira, Ives' Seedling, Kittredge
Ives has a high reputation as a grape for making red wine, being
surpassed only by Norton for this purpose. The vine is hardy, healthy,
vigorous and fruitful. The fruit is poor in quality, colors long
before ripe, has a foxy odor, and the flesh is tough and pulpy. The
bunches are compact, with well-formed, jet-black grapes, whic
make
them attractive. The vine is easily propagated and is adapted to any
good grape soil, but is so rampant in growth that it is difficult to
manage. The variety is not widely cultivated. Ives was grown by Henry
Ives from seed planted in 1840 in his garden in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Vine vigorous, hardy, healthy, productive. Canes long, thick,
reddish-brown with thin bloom; nodes enlarged, flattened;
internodes short; tendrils continuous, bifid or trifid. Leaves
large; upper surface dark green, dull, rugose; lower surface pale
green, pubescent; lobes three to five when present with terminal
one acute; petiolar sinus deep, narrow, sometimes closed and
overlapping; basal sinus shallow; lateral sinus narrow; teeth
shallow.
Fruit late mid-season, keeps well. Clusters large, tapering,
frequently single-shouldered, compact, often with numerous
abortive berries; pedicel slender with numerous small warts; brush
short, slender, pale with a reddish-brown tinge. Berries oval,
jet-black with heavy bloom, very persistent, firm; skin tough,
adherent, wine-colored pigment, astringent; flesh pale green,
translucent, juicy, fine-grained, tough, foxy; good. Seeds
adherent, one to four, small, often abortive, broad, short, blunt,
plump, brown.