Growing muscadines on a pergola

[dimitri_7a]

Progress update!

This was taken mid June of 2021:

Also got to sample a few small fruit that year:

And this is taken today, late April of 2022:

It might be hard to see how I’m training the cordons so I colored the two varieties here:

Hoping to have the cordons cover the pergola fully by the end of this year. If I had pruned better and stayed on top of eliminating side shoots I probably could have established the main cordons last year - but life got in the way.

[dimitri_7a]

This is what the growth looks like from below a few days ago.

Thoughts so far:

• To prune the easiest way has been to just get on top of the pergola and do it from above. I have pretty good balance, but this method is not without its risks. If I had to do it again I would consider somehow spacing the the purlins & rafters so I could pop out from underneath
• The spraying situation is pretty difficult, hard not to get the spray on you and everything on the deck. I purposely chose muscadines because they didn’t need spraying - only tried it once for OFM so far.
• Still trying to figure out cordon spacing for balancing having adequate shade on the deck during the summer and producing decent quality fruit. Currently trialing 18-24" cordon spacing and then doing late spring tip pruning to encourage branching (and thus more shade).

[Auburn]

@dimitri_7a . My first attempt at growing muscadines was an overhead situation. Your vines look healthy but you’re finding out that the pruning can be difficult and sometimes dangerous. An alternative that I have seen used is to space your cordons apart 2-4’ and run as many as you want to. These would become permanent and the spurs off them would be cut back to two buds each year. This would be an easier task as the vine is developing but you can still do so but it will take some realignment and some heavy pruning initially.

[dimitri_7a]

Finally providing a decent amount of shade. I’m thinking by this time next year the entire pergola will be covered.

One thing I noticed is that either a) the purlins may be a bit too thick for the new growth to vine onto, which might mean it gets whipped around by wind and then the longer shoots gets broken off or b) the young vines get roasted when they touch a hot purlin on a 100°F day, occasionally killing off the growing tips. Saw 2-3 new shoots get killed back and remember the same thing happening last year.