There were 150 to 175 people at the meeting, and they let us know they needed some help. The speakers were all from Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri, states next to us that produce grapes and wine. It was natural for us to follow that with the development in the OSU Department of Horticulture programs to utilize the expertise they have and apply it here. McCraw said one acre of grape plantings has now been established at the Oklahoma Fruit Research Station at Perkins, one of 17 sites in the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station research system. In that single acre are 24 cultivars that will be screened for effectiveness under Oklahoma growing conditions.
Researchers also have two rootstock trials under way, looking at cold hardiness and other traits.
One acre may not seem like much to producers of other crops, but it is quite a bit to start out with in grape production. It takes up to five years to get a vineyard to full production. McCraw said OSU researchers needed to put in quite a few cultivars in order to start screening as soon as possible for the best Oklahoma choices. With a generosity uncharacteristic of many industries, California growers provided grapevines, trellises to support the plants, and irrigation supplies to help get the research off to a good start. McCraw's expertise is with pecans, and he found himself doing some head scratching to make sure that what he was doing would help Oklahoma grape growers.