‘Compassion’ Seedless Table Grape

Abstract

Additional index words. Vitis, fruit quality, fruit breeding 'Compassion' seedless table grape is the newest cultivar (Vitis hybrid) released by the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, bringing to 13, the total number of releases from the program (Clark, 2010; Clark and Moore, 2013). It joins 'Hope', 'Faith', 'Joy', and 'Gratitude' in the recent inspiration series of table grapes from Arkansas. This cultivar expands options for table grape growers for local markets in the United States. This new development provides a substantial advancement in fruit crispness and firmness beyond that of previous Arkansas developments as well as an exquisite fruity flavor. It has green (white) skin and has shown limited fruit cracking or splitting in the climate of Arkansas. It has also shown consistent production and overall vine adaptation. In addition, 'Compassion' showed good performance and adaptation to the Willamette Valley, OR (Vance et al., 2017). 'Compassion' should be adapted in the midto upper-South and Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the United States but could be further evaluated for adaptation and hardiness in the lower Midwest, east of the Cascade Mountains in the PNW, or similar environments in the United States and the world. It is envisioned that 'Compassion' will be best used by local-market growers in areas where it is adapted. Origin 'Compassion' resulted from a cross of Ark. 2349 • Ark. 2304 made in 2002 (Fig. 1).