Disease-resistant wine grapes could make Florida’s viticulture a whole lot healthier

Growing wine grapes in Florida’s hot, humid climate is no easy feat. The fruit often succumbs to disease, crops get decimated, and the surrounding economy suffers. But researchers at UF are tackling this dilemma by harvesting the first crop of potentially disease-resistant wine grapes in the state.

This breakthrough could dramatically shift the landscape of Florida’s viticulture (the cultivation and harvesting of grapes) and improve agrotourism.

One particular grape variety – harvested at the UF/IFAS Plant Science Research and Education Unit in Citra, Fla. – is already showing promising signs of resistance to Pierce’s disease, which lives in the water-conducting system of grapevines and spreads from plant to plant by sap-feeding insects.