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For me, there are three essential components to a Georgia summer: peach ice cream, cicadas singing in the pine trees, and of course, muscadines.\u00a0 It’s hard to imagine being outdoors in the heat and not seeing at least one wild vine or some muscadine jelly at a local farmers market.\u00a0 The vines that bear these tangy treats (Vitis rotundiflora<\/em>) are very closely related to other table and wine grape species (Vitis vinifera<\/em>, etc).\u00a0 Not only are these bronze and black treats great to eat by themselves, but they make fantastic jellies, sauces, ciders, and of course, wine.<\/p>\n While many would say muscadines are much easier to care for than their European cousins, that doesn’t mean you can plant them, leave them to their own devices, and expect to get fruit off of them year after year. Step one to planting any vine is to decide on the type of trellis you will need. Muscadines can be grown on either one wire or double curtain trellises, both of which are about five feet high. These trellising systems ensure air flow, provide structural support, and allow the maximum amount of light exposure to the canopy (for diagrams, see the link to our Home Garden Muscadine publication below).<\/p>\n Step two is to choose where you will place your trellis and plant your muscadines. You’ll hear me say this time and time again, but it never gets old: choose the right plant for the right spot!\u00a0 Muscadines hate to have wet feet, so if you plant them on a floodplain or in an area with poor drainage, you will almost certainly have issues with disease, production and overall vigor.\u00a0 Plant them in full sun in well drained soil, after you’ve done your soil test<\/a> and prepped everything accordingly, of course!<\/p>\n Step three: plant and develop!\u00a0 Plant your vines with plenty of space in between, and make sure they are trained to reach up to the trellis. As the vine grows, make sure to pinch off any additional growth from the main stem.\u00a0 This will just take away nutrients from the rest of the plant, and you want to make sure it grows up to grab that trellis.\u00a0 It takes two to three years to see fruit on your muscadine vines, so the care you give your plants in the first couple of years is essential!\u00a0 Once the stem has reached the horizontal wire of the trellis, pinch off the tip and train the shoots that grow from that point to the wires.<\/p>\n Step four is one that most people tend to skip but is still just as important as the rest: maintenance.\u00a0 As I’m sure you’ve seen walking through the woods, or even looking at your grandmother’s 40 year old vines, muscadines can completely take over if they’re not pruned back.\u00a0 Every year, prune the last year’s growth back to 3 buds (about 2-3 inches).\u00a0 This will keep your vine under control, reduce disease, and promote fruit production!<\/p>\n Muscadines are often much easier to grow than table or wine grapes because of their resistance to numerous diseases found in Georgia.\u00a0 According to UGA Extension Plant Pathologist Dr. Phil Brannen, “As compared to vinifera<\/em> wine grapes, muscadines do not get downy mildew, and they are much more tolerant of powdery mildew.\u00a0 Muscadines will get quite a few fruit rots… but rots are generally less aggressive in muscadines than vinifera<\/em> and French-American hybrids.”<\/p>\n Dr. Brannen also recommends planting specific tried and true varieties.\u00a0 ” ‘Carlos\u2019 (bronze variety) and \u2018Noble\u2019 (black variety) are among the most often planted varieties in the Southeast as a whole.\u00a0 Other major varieties include \u2018Magnolia\u2019, \u2018Fry\u2019, \u2018Higgins\u2019, and \u2018Cowart\u2019, but there are quite a few minor varietal possibilities as well. \u00a0Muscadine varieties differ in disease susceptibility.\u00a0 For example, Carlos is much more susceptible to most diseases than Noble; though a fungicidal spray program is recommended for Noble, a good program is much more important for Carlos.”<\/p>\n
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