Pixie Grape facts for kids
The Pixie Grape is a special kind of Vitis vinifera cultivar, which is like a specific type of plant grown by people. It's a natural dwarf grapevine, meaning it stays small. The Pixie Grape comes from a plant called Pinot Meunier, which is a type of grape used to make wine. These small grapevines have short spaces between their leaves (called internodes) and often grow flowers instead of long, twirly parts called tendrils. They usually grow only about 1 to 2 feet tall and produce grape clusters that are about 4 inches long. It's easy to grow them in greenhouses all year round. The main reason this grape was created was to make it easier for scientists to study grapevines. Dr. Peter Cousins of the USDA, a grape rootstock breeder, developed it.
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About the Pixie Grape
How it Looks and Grows
The Pixie Grape is unique because its small size is a very important part of what it is. It usually only grows up to about 2 feet tall and doesn't spread out much. The spaces between the leaves on a Pixie Grape vine are about one-quarter the length of those on a Pinot Meunier vine.
Flowering and Fruit
The Pixie Grape flowers all the time as long as the vine is alive. It's common to see buds, flowers, and ripe fruit all on the same vine at once! Pixie Grapes don't grow tendrils. Instead, they grow groups or clusters of flowers, which are called inflorescences.
You can get fruit from the Pixie Grape all year round. The fruit is a black grape with seeds inside. A cluster of grapes usually grows to about 4 inches long. If the vines aren't thinned regularly (meaning some fruit is removed), they can grow a lot of fruit. This can slow down the vine's growth and reduce the number of flowers it produces.
Seeds can be collected from the fruit, and new seedlings have been known to grow and produce flowers. However, to help the seeds sprout, they need a special treatment with a plant hormone called gibberellic acid.
How Pixie Grapes are Made
The process of creating the Pixie Grape started with the Pinot Meunier plant. Scientists took flower buds that hadn't opened yet. They carefully removed the pollen-producing parts (anthers) and grew them in a special dish to create new plant cells. These cells then grew into tiny plants.
These tiny plants were then moved to soil and grown in a greenhouse under artificial light all day. Once they grew bigger, pollen was collected from them. This pollen was then used to pollinate other vines.
The seeds from these pollinated vines went through several steps to help them sprout. They were treated with hydrogen peroxide and gibberellic acid. Then, they were kept moist for three months before another gibberellic acid treatment. Finally, they were placed in a warm incubator to sprout. These sprouted seeds then grew into mature Pixie Grape plants.
Why Pixie Grapes are Useful
The main reason for the Pixie Grape's existence is for scientific research. Scientists wanted a grapevine that could help them do research on grapes faster. Because these grapevines are so small, they can easily be grown in pots inside a greenhouse. This means they can grow and flower all year long.
This year-round growth allows researchers to study how grapes flower continuously. It also helps them study grape growth, development, and how the plant is built at any time of the year, no matter the weather outside.
Scientists can also study how diseases affect grapevines more easily. Instead of waiting for a short 2-3 month window in the summer to collect data, they can now get information all year round. With the Pixie Grape, scientists can study many topics, from genetics to plant diseases and how plants function, all year long. This helps them gather much more information.
