# Summer Grape (Vitis aestivalis)

> An eastern native grape of dry upland woods that climbs by tendrils into the treetops, with clusters of small blue-black grapes from late summer.

Also called pigeon grape, silverleaf grape, post oak grape. Category: Nut & Fruit Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/summer-grape/

![Summer grape (Vitis aestivalis) cluster of ripe blue-black grapes with a whitish waxy bloom on the vine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/summer-grape-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Douglas Goldman, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AVitisA7.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 25 to 70 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 9
- Grows wild in: Dry uplands, rich moist slopes, old fields and edges
- Native range: 35 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north to [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Nebraska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NE) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [Nebraska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NE), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV), [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC)). Also recorded, not native, in [California](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CA)
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Average, Dry
- Growth rate: Fast
- Flowers: May to June
- Fruit: Berries, August to November
- First crop: About 3 years after planting
- Mature spread: 6 ft
- Traits: Edible, Wildlife value, Drought tolerant
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

Summer grape is a wild grape of upland woods, thickets and fencerows across the eastern United States. Its leaves are whitish beneath with rusty, cobwebby hairs, and a tendril is missing at every third joint along its stems. It was one of the native grapes whose rootstocks rescued Europe's vineyards from the grape root louse in the late 1800s. 'Norton', Missouri's state grape and an old American wine grape, comes from it. Train it over a stout fence or arbor in full sun, well away from young trees.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Summer grape grows fast, nearly three feet a year in our growth estimator, and a vine can live close to a century. It climbs 25 to 70 feet into the treetops by its tendrils or sprawls over low trees and shrubs. Old trunks reach 6 inches across, with bark that peels in long strips.

Small, fragrant, yellow-green flowers open in May and June, and the flowering lasts only about a week. Clusters of blue-black grapes with a whitish waxy coat, a quarter to half an inch across, ripen from August into October, and many hang on into November. They range from tart to sweet, with 2 to 4 seeds each. More than 80 kinds of birds and mammals eat them, from wild turkeys and grouse to black bears and raccoons.

It grows wild from southern Maine and Ontario west to Minnesota and Kansas, and south to Florida and Texas. Unlike our riverbank grape of stream banks, it favors well-drained upland woods, slopes and bluffs, glades and fencerows. Iowa lists it as threatened, as do Maine and Minnesota for its northern variety.

## How to grow Summer Grape

Summer grape fruits only in full sun, and a vine kept in shade may flower but seldom bears. It grows in sand, loam or clay that drains well, and once established it stands drought. Site it out of frost pockets and winter wind, on a slope facing south where you can. It climbs by tendrils, so give it a sturdy arbor, fence or trellis. Keep it off ornamental trees and shrubs, which it can smother or kill. Set the support 6 feet from a wall, and set vines 12 feet apart along it. It burns readily, so where wildfire is a risk keep it out of the planting zone next to a house. It climbs whatever it reaches, so keep it more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stem. Tie the first shoots to the support until the tendrils take hold. Strip the ripe grapes, and wash the seed clean of the pulp. For a spring sowing, hold the seed damp in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 months first. Seedlings vary and do not come true to a named variety such as 'Norton', which is grown from cuttings.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. Cut it back as needed to keep it on its support, since it spreads into places it is not wanted. Deer browse the leaves in spring and summer, so cage young vines where deer are many.

Vines are male or female, and only females bear grapes, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. Bumblebees carry the pollen. A vine in full sun bears its first grapes about 3 years after planting. Black rot and the grape curculio cut the crop. Downy and powdery mildew, crown gall, Japanese beetles and grape berry moths also turn up. Moonseed, a poisonous look-alike, climbs without tendrils, has leaves with no teeth, and holds one crescent-shaped seed in each berry. Other vines with similar fruit are poisonous too, so be sure of the plant before eating its grapes.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Vitis aestivalis](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/vitis-aestivalis/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Vitis aestivalis](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=VIAE)
- [Flora of North America, Volume 12: Vitis aestivalis (Moore and Wen)](http://floranorthamerica.org/Vitis_aestivalis)
- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Vitis aestivalis](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/vine/vitaes/all.html)
- [Missouri Department of Conservation Field Guide: Summer grape](https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/summer-grape)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Vitis aestivalis](https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=287538)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: summer grape](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=130)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Vitis aestivalis, from Bean](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/vitis/vitis-aestivalis/)
- [Native Plant Trust, Go Botany: Vitis aestivalis](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/vitis/aestivalis/)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (Agriculture Handbook 727, 2008): Vitis labrusca, fox grape (Bonner)](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Vitis.pdf)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Vitis aestivalis](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.1288682/Vitis_aestivalis)
- [Iowa Administrative Code 571, chapter 77: Endangered and Threatened Plant and Animal Species](https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/iac/chapter/571.77.pdf)
- [Maine Natural Areas Program: Rare Plant Fact Sheet List and 2021 Tracking List](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mnap/features/rare_plants/plantlist.htm)
- [Minnesota Department of Natural Resources: Minnesota's List of Endangered, Threatened, and Special Concern Species](https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/natural_resources/ets/endlist.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Vitis aestivalis](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/VIAE)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [What a young tree looks like: first-year seedlings of oak, walnut, hickory, chestnut, maple and redbud, and the weed trees to pull](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/what-a-young-tree-looks-like/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other grapes (Vitis) we grow: [Fox Grape](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/fox-grape/index.html.md), [Muscadine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/muscadine/index.html.md), [Riverbank Grape](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/riverbank-grape/index.html.md)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Common Prickly Ash (Toothache Tree)](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-prickly-ash/index.html.md), [American Hazelnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-hazelnut/index.html.md), [Fragrant Sumac](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/fragrant-sumac/index.html.md) and [Blackhaw Viburnum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/blackhaw/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [Slippery Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/slippery-elm/index.html.md), [Black Cherry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-cherry/index.html.md) and [Shingle Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/shingle-oak/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Muscadine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/muscadine/index.html.md), [Fox Grape](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/fox-grape/index.html.md), [Riverbank Grape](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/riverbank-grape/index.html.md) and [Common Juniper](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-juniper/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Summer Grape, add ?species=summer-grape with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 4, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=summer-grape&zone=4&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Summer Grape](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=summer-grape): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Summer Grape as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=summer-grape (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Summer Grape is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=summer-grape (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Summer Grape needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 3 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=summer-grape:3
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Summer Grape where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=summer-grape&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Summer Grape goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=summer-grape&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Summer Grape flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=summer-grape