Roger’s Red grape

Vitis × ‘Roger’s Red’

Summary

Vitis ‘Roger’s Red’ is a naturally occurring hybrid of Vitis californica and V. vinifera discovered growing in Sonoma County, California, by plantsman Roger Raiche (San Marcos Growers). Sources note that this cultivar can produce vines up to 40’ long (Bornstein et al., 2009). Like table and wine grapes, ‘Roger’s Red’ pushes out new foliage in the spring, followed by flowers and fruit (pending successful pollination), before dropping its leaves and going dormant in late fall. While ‘Roger’s Red’ does produce purple, edible grapes, this cultivar was selected for its fall color. As the plant prepares for dormancy, the rich green foliage turns to a vivid crimson that fades to a wine-red color before the leaves are shed. Reportedly hardy to 15°F, however this plant did not survive its first winter in Logan, Utah where it should supposedly be hardy.

South Coast REC Results & Discussion

The Vitis 'Roger's Red' stood out in terms of performance throughout the trial with no mortalities within the replicates. It featured large, heart-shaped leaves that were vibrant green and roughly the size of an adult’s hand. The vine demonstrated an aggressive growth habit, utilizing thick stems and tendrils to latch itself firmly to the trellis. It produced an abundance of edible seeded grapes that transitioned from a sour flavor to a sweeter profile as the fruit ripened. While the plants remained generally healthy, their fast-growing nature often led to internal leaf yellowing and defoliation as new growth smothered older foliage if left unpruned. Sharpshooters were also a common sighting on this taxon. By 2025, many of the replicates developed subtle yellow spots on the foliage, which could be due to disease.

        During the establishment phase in 2024, the ‘Roger’s Red’ exhibited the highest vigor out of all of the taxa, pushing out growth that achieved full trellis coverage by the end of the first year. By the fall, the leaves turned to a vibrant red before dropping, as this is a deciduous plant. This robust performance carried on into 2025, providing even more dense foliage, becoming the highest rated taxon for overall appearance, specifically for the 20% water treatment. Consequently, such growth requires a lot of maintenance to keep the cleanliness and health of the plant. Participants in both the Summer and Fall 2025 Open Houses gave the vine high ratings, with many noting that they liked the full coverage. Others, however, mentioned that the grapes would attract rodents and pests, while others disliked the aggressive and overly vigorous nature of the vine.

Utah State University Results & Discussion

Roger’s Red was a vigorous grower during the initial establishment year at USU. During the first growing season of 2023, the vines established well and nearly reached the full 8-foot trellis height, showing vigorous growth under summer conditions. However, following heavy snowfall and prolonged winter conditions from December through late March in Logan Utah, substantial winter injury occurred. Only one of the 24 vines grew the following spring. The extended snow cover and freezing temperatures proved detrimental to plant survival, indicating that ‘Roger’s Red’ has limited winter hardiness under the semi-arid, high-elevation climate of northern Utah. 

University of Arizona Results & Discussion

‘Rogers Red’ produced the largest leaf area of all taxa and covered almost all trellises entirely early in the season. In 2025, trellis cover increased from April to July, then decreased to 20% to 40% % in August, further decreased in September and started to recover in October to levels of 48% to 66%.  The cause for this decline in canopy cover was likely a combination of  larvae feeding or the high temperatures during this time. Caterpillars of the Western grapeleaf skeletonizer (Harissina metallica) use this plant as a host and larvae defoliated large portions of the canopy swiftly. We used organic insecticides (Bacillus thuringiensis) to treat the plants regularly and prevent severe defoliation starting in early fall 2024 and during the growing season in 2025. Overall appearance of plants was rated 1 in August while ratings during the other months were mostly 3 or higher on average. Percent coverall of the trellis ranged from 65% to 100 % from April to July but dropped to 10% to 80% in August and the months following. Survival by October 2025 was 96%, although in October 2024, almost 60% of the plants were severely defoliated. Recommended irrigation for 'Rogers Red' is 20% although the average overall rating was 2.9. This is primarily due to the insect damage during certain months but otherwise plants performed well and were highly rated by field day participants. 

University of California Davis Results & Discussion

‘Roger’s Red’ was a vigorous grower at UC Davis. Plant stock was purchased as 4” cuttings in Spring 2023, potted on into #1 size pots and grown in a greenhouse for a month before planting in July 2023. Other than one plant that died during establishment, all plants reached the top of the trellis by September 2024. While plants were dormant in March 2024 and 2025, trials staff pruned longer branches to nodes closer to the trellis. While no pruning was performed during the 2024 data collection season, Roger’s red was pruned 3 times between May and September 2025. Pruning focused on reducing horizontal growth, removing older foliage and inducing new growth. ‘Roger’s Red’ foliage was highly susceptible to the piercing/sucking insects that will feed on table grapes. This would negatively impact foliage quality scores. However, regular pruning combined with a vigorous growth habit meant older foliage could be removed and replaced with high quality new foliage. While this wasn’t measured, the team anecdotally observed that within 1-2 months the plants could grow out a lateral shoot horizontally 1-3’ in length.

University of Washington Results & Discussion

        ‘Roger’s Red’ was a standout performer at the UW site across the trial. This taxon showed complete survival of the 24 planted individuals across all three years. Despite being established from originally 4’’ pots, individuals were fast to climb up the trellis and did not require much training. However, due to the quick rate of growth, pruning was required to prevent plants from excessively overgrowing the trellis or attaching to their neighbors. Foliage quality remained high, however a few individuals had grape mites, yellowing leaves inside the canopy, leaf spots and very occasional powdery mildew. Pest and disease resistance remained high, with the exception of the mites. However, this taxon did rate significantly higher in pest resistance on the low treatment than the high irrigation treatment. Vigor was also very high across all the irrigation deficits. Prolific flowering was followed by lots of edible (though seedy) fruit. Open house participants noted that individuals were very robust with good foliage quality, though noted concerns in terms of required maintenance of fruit drop and pruning. ‘Roger’s Red’ received the most votes of our open house and was awarded the ‘People’s Choice Award’. Additionally, due to receiving a mean overall appearance rating of 4.3 on the low irrigation treatment, ‘Roger’s Red’ is awarded a Blue Ribbon from the UW trial.