Green grapes: Sugraone to Autumn King, June through January

Green grapes follow the same road as the reds: Coachella fruit in June, then the San Joaquin Valley from July through December, with storage fruit into January. What has changed is the lineup: Thompson Seedless, the grape that built the California industry, now shares the carton with large, crunchy proprietary greens such as Ivory, Sweet Globe and Autumn Crisp, and Autumn King closes the year. King Quality Produce carries them in 18 to 19 lb cartons, bagged or clamshell for retail and loose for foodservice, seedless unless noted.

The greens we carry, in season order

Sugraone, sold as Superior Seedless, opens the green deal: a large, oval-elongated berry¹, mild and sweet, that we carry from June into October. Ivory (Sheegene-21, also sold as Summer Crunch, Sugar Crunch and Yummy Crunch) is a large round-to-oval berry¹ with a very crunchy, neutral-sweet bite, June through November. Thompson Seedless is the classic green, a small to medium oval berry, sweet and versatile, in our cartons from July through November. It is also the grape behind California raisins; USDA tracks a separate raisin-type crop of 940,000 fresh-equivalent tons from 130,000 bearing acres in 2023².

The summer crunch greens follow. Sweet Globe (IFG Ten, also sold as Sorbet) is a large round-to-oval berry¹, extra crunchy and sweet, July through November, on 1,748 acres in 2025³. Autumn Crisp (Sugrathirtyfive) is a very large oval berry¹ with a muscat edge, July through December; at 4,154 acres with 448 not yet bearing, it had the most new plantings of any variety in the 2025 acreage survey³. Pristine (Blanc Seedless) is a very large elongated berry¹, pale green, firm and clean-flavored, July through December. Great Green (Sheegene-17, also sold as Green Envy and Green Emerald) is a large oval berry¹ that stores well, August through December, on 1,146 acres³.

Autumn King is the last green of the year. USDA Agricultural Research Service breeders at Parlier released it as a plump, mild, sweet white seedless grape that ripens in late October after the Thompson harvest winds down, holds well in cold storage, and set a new size standard for white seedless grapes⁴. At 6,312 acres in 2025, only Flame Seedless had more among the leading varieties³, and we carry it from August into January. Cotton Candy and other specialty greens show up for a few weeks in late summer; ask early if you want them.

Where and when

California produces 99 percent of U.S. table grapes, harvested May through January across more than 80 varieties⁵; in 2024-25 the top 15 varieties made up 77 percent of volume from 86 shipped, and seven of the fifteen were green¹. Greens start a few weeks behind the reds: Sugraone's statewide window is June through September, Ivory June through November, and Autumn King August through January¹. Our green program runs Coachella in June, then Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties from July, with Autumn King and Great Green carrying into the new year.

By the numbers, 2025 was a large crop: 94.2 million boxes worth about $2.49 billion, with 29 percent exported to 56 markets⁵. USDA NASS put 2023 table grape production at 939,950 tons from 120,000 bearing acres, valued at $1.74 billion, down from 1.12 million tons in 2022². Acreage is tightening: total table grape plantings fell to 118,000 acres in 2025, down 1.7 percent, and non-bearing acres fell 40 percent to 3,000³. Among the greens, Autumn King held steady, Sweet Globe and Great Green inched up, and Autumn Crisp carried the new plantings³.

How to buy them

Our carton is 18 to 19 lb, bagged or clamshell for retail and loose for foodservice. Tell us the berry size your customers expect: Thompson is a small-to-medium berry, Sugraone and Sweet Globe are large, and Autumn Crisp, Pristine and Autumn King run very large¹.

Green grapes carry no color grade, so maturity is about sugar: California harvests table grapes at 14 to 17.5 percent soluble solids depending on cultivar and area, or a sugar-to-acid ratio of 20 or higher for early fruit⁶. Thompson and Sugraone shift from hard green toward a yellow-green or amber cast as sugar rises. On receiving, check the stems first. Stem respiration is about 15 times higher than berry respiration⁶, so stems brown and dry before the berries show anything. Then look for shatter, berries dropped from the cap stem, which runs higher in seedless cultivars because the berries are less firmly attached⁶; for cracked berries; for watery, flabby berries that UC Davis calls waterberry; and for gray mold nests⁶.

• Stems green and pliable; brown, brittle stems mean warm handling
• Berry color even across the bunch, no hard-green stragglers
• No shatter, cracks, watery berries or mold nests
• Berry size matches what you ordered: medium, large or very large

Storage and shelf life

UC Davis recommends -1 to 0 C (30 to 32 F), 90 to 95 percent relative humidity, and air movement of 20 to 40 feet per minute⁶. Berries freeze at 27.1 to 26.6 F depending on sugar content and stems at 28 F⁶, so 32 F is the target. Packers forced-air cool fruit seven-eighths of the way to storage temperature within six hours and apply sulfur dioxide within 12 hours of harvest⁷; with that start and a steady cold chain, Thompson Seedless can be marketed for up to eight to ten weeks after harvest⁷.

Respiration is 1 to 2 ml of CO2 per kg per hour at 32 F and 12 to 15 at 68 F⁶, so time at room temperature is the real enemy. Gray mold, Botrytis cinerea, is the most destructive postharvest disease and develops at temperatures as low as 31 F, spreading berry to berry⁶; the industry controls it with sulfur dioxide fumigation at 100 ppm for one hour or slow-release pads in the carton⁶. Table grapes are not very sensitive to ethylene, but exposure above 10 ppm may contribute to shatter⁶. Keep the carton closed in the cooler, do not wash until service, and pull any mold nest you see.

Nutrition

USDA FoodData Central lists red and green European-type grapes together. Per 100 g raw: 69 calories, 18.1 g carbohydrate, 15.5 g sugars, 0.9 g fiber, 0.72 g protein and 80.5 g water⁸. They are a source of 191 mg potassium, 14.6 µg vitamin K, 3.2 mg vitamin C, 0.127 mg copper and 0.086 mg vitamin B6 per 100 g⁸. A cup of grapes weighs 151 g⁸, so a one-cup portion comes to about 104 calories and 23 g of sugars, which is the number school and hospital buyers ask us about most.

In the kitchen

Green grapes are the workhorse of the fruit tray. Hotels, caterers and commissaries buy them loose for breakfast platters, fruit cups and salads because a green grape reads as fresh and does not bleed color. Thompson is the chicken-salad grape and the one bakeries set on fruit tarts. The big crunchy greens, Sweet Globe, Autumn Crisp and Pristine, are what produce departments stack in clamshells, because shoppers now buy on crunch and berry size.

In Los Angeles, Persian cooks make ab ghooreh, verjuice, from unripe green grapes, and markets from Glendale to the Westside sell them by the pound next to the reds and blacks. Roasted, they work with pork and poultry the way red grapes do, without turning the pan purple.

Green varieties hand off to each other every few weeks from June to January. Call the office at (213) 627-7181 or email office@kingqualityproduce.com for this week's greens, berry sizes and pack options.