It has been a terrific year this past 2014! Fairhaven continues to move ahead with the indroduction of select lines of Certified vines for sale into the new planting market. We will be updating our catalog to reflect these new additions during the month of January.

Another major effort has been launched in the development of our American Hybrid Lines. During the latter half of 2014 Fairhaven pioneered the first Micro-Cloning of the American lines. In this process the new vines are created from a tiny group of cells (.5mm) in the newly budded stems.  These cells develop ahead of any pathogens present in the plant body and therefor are nearly 100% bacteria and virus free.  We have successfully generated enough meristematic tissue to begin the mass propagation of the genetic lines. The varieties we have selected are the Field Trial winners of the 8 year “Apostles” PD field test.  Our primary thrust is reinforce the sustainability of these highly PD tolerant varieties by offering the first Certiifed, fully Indexed American Hybrids for sale into the market.

So far, our success with these astounding varieties has been excellent, with sustained PD tolerance in the 90% range.  Combined with exceptional drought tolerance, and cold hardiness (into the sub-zero numbers) the progeny of the cloning process will represent a quantum improvement to the marginal performance offered by vinifera in the severe climate areas of the southwest.

RLW