Will do, though I not sure that it ripened last year. Either it got too late, or something ate it, because I don’t remember getting any (of the 3-4 grapes) myself. It is in the worst location of all my muscadines, from a sun perspective, which probably doesn’t help.
I agree, though I think it is interesting that there weren’t any last year- the ones that didn’t get pollinated then just didn’t produce fruit. Maybe the vine is more mature and can support those? I would like it, except they seem to have far less sugar. I’ll just leave them on a bit longer and see if that fixes it.
The patent has run out, so I’m surprised that nowhere else has picked it up. I guess there aren’t many places which sell muscadines. I rooted some last year, along with Fry Seedless. But, I think the ink has faded on most of the pots. I’ll check and see if any of the pots are clearly labeled as LF.
I did a quick pass on it yesterday and didn’t see any fruit. The mine is a monster, but no fruit set. Hopefully we have another mild winter (around 0F) so that the vines don’t have to start back from the roots.
Compared to the 2 previous winters of -8F and -9F, 0F is mild. It just doesn’t feel like it when you are outside
Actually, it only gets that low a few times and usually at night, so I’m not outside at the time. Having a garage on both ends of my commute helps a lot with winter cold.
I find that the berries of Supreme are bigger than Black Beauty and very important to commercial growers they have dry scar as opposed to the wet scar of Black Beauty. But to me, Black Beauty is the best tasting muscadine on average that I have tried so far. I find that the flavor of Supreme though sweet is less interesting in comparison to Black Beauty.
Local nurseries around Statesboro Georgia have Late Fry in stock now. My experience with Late Fry so far is that it has the best texture and flavor of the white muscadines I’ve tried so far. However it’s very uneven in ripening time and a large percentage of the berries rot before they ripen. Next year, I’m going to try and hit my vine with some copper fungicide when my early varieties start ripening to see if that helps. I can’t rave about it until I find a solution to this problem with Late Fry.
This year I find that Ison is once again my most productive vine. It’s a real workhorse of a producer. Florida Fry was also very productive but its berries are small in comparison to Ison and the skin is more leathery. I really like the spicy flavor though, especially when I make juice from it. I mixed it’s juice in with the Ison juice and it effeminately added some pep to the mix.
I haven’t measured it by any means, but it seems that most are wet scar in my experience. Maybe if I waited until they fall off the vine on their own it would be different. Another note about my Black Beauty is that the berries tend to stay rather reddish and in my yard the fruit gets a lot more bug damage than any other variety. The reddish color makes them look less ripe than they really are. This is not a bad thing in my case. I have neighbors who help themselves. They emptied my Supreme vine in a single day but did not mess with my Black Beauty. Given the choice, I would rather loos the Supreme crop than the Black Beauty crop. Lastly I find that Black Beauty makes exceptional muscadine jam because the skins grind and cook down well. Pam is the best white variety I’ve tried for this use so far for the exact same reason. The skin cooks down making a better textured jam.
I picked the last of the Black Beauty on Sunday. They are very tasty, even though I never got them above 18 brix (most were in the 15-16 range). Ison’s chart says 23%, but our conditions are obviously different. Even so, 15-16 is plenty sweet and I like the chewy & flavorful skins.
The Supreme are just starting to ripen and the Late Fry isn’t even close. Assuming they handle the mid-high 30’s tonight, the rest of the 10 day forecast looks fine. I suspect that the Supreme will ripen, but that Late Fry may be too late.
One of the best parts for me is the lack of damage due to Yellow Jackets and wasps. I lost 90% of my seedless grapes due to such pests, while, as far as I can tell, I’ve lost a total of 1 muscadine grape. The thicker skin seems to be a real benefit on this front.
By “second crop”, do you mean that it also fruited last year, or that it made 2 crops this year? If this is the first crop of the year, it is pretty late, given that BB is long done for you.
I didn’t get many blacks this year, but I did get a big crop of excellent Darlenes. I think the spring freezes may have impacted my crop load, it was much smaller than previous years. I need to get out and pick the Darlenes, they are nearly all ripe now. Last year a coon or other critter swiped em all just as they were getting to perfect ripeness.
I don’t have wasps but I have these tiny ants that can burrow into the grape skin. I think I ate a few small ant colonies when doing some of the samplings… if you see a small hole in the grape squeeze and see if ants come out.
This is a vine that I had not originally intended to stay in it’s temporary location. I change my mind and arranged it on a trellis and I also did some heavy pruning at the time. The first crop had already set fruit and I left them on the vine. A few weeks later several blooms popped out and these are what I considered to be the second crop. I also have another of this type and it only has a few of the second crop so I’m assuming that the second crop was induced by the late heavy pruning. I wonder if other self pollinating varieties could be persuaded to bloom again.
This year I harvested hundreds of pounds of muscadine. The biggest harvest up to date for me. Surprisingly, I manage to eat, give away and sold all of them. Everyone’s favorite is Black Beauty except my gf. She really likes Nesbitt. I really like Black Beauty because they are good as soon as they turn black. Most of the other varieties you have to wait until they almost shrivel. Ison was very pretty and has good size. The best bronze is Darlene. They were big and sweet. I think Late Fry is better than Darlene but it rot the most for me this year. Pam is very big and tasty as well. Pam is the last one to ripe for me. They are still berries on the vine right now.
The 2 litter wasp traps really worked. I put a little bit of water and crushed a few ripe/fallen muscadines in. They bubbled for a day. Then the yellow jackets, flies, European hornets and nats start to die by the lbs. I put 10 traps around my vines and the bug fest cleared out in 2 weeks. I mean there was not a single bug left. The muscadine juice/wine stop working and needs to be replaced every 10 days.
Nice video. Looks like you have just the right distance between your rows. How far apart are they and are you pleased with the distance apart? I only need enough space to mow and walk through. Thanks, Bill
I experimented with 5’, 6’ and 7’. 5’ is very tight. You have to squeeze through. 7’ is very comfortable for me but a bit tight to for my ride on mower. I would imagine 8’ would be the best. If I have more land I would do 8’. I would say 7 ’ is the absolute minimal with a push mower.
I just harvested some Darlene and checked the brix: 22 . I think I prefer Black Beauty a touch more for flavor, but I have no complaints at all about Darlene.
. I think I prefer Black Beauty a touch more for flavor, but I have no complaints at all about Darlene.