Muscadine season end or beginning

General Fruit Growing
#21

Some people use the double curtain for muscadines but they are such aggressive growers picking and pruning are more difficult. I prefer the single wire that I used above. With either method the preferred way is to establish permanent cordons going down the wire and then let spurs grow from them. Each winter these spurs are pruned back to two 2-3 buds. The only summer pruning I have seen was to keep the vines off the soil.

1 Like
#22

I donā€™t grow table grapes but Iā€™m pretty sure the prune method is different.

#23

This is a good video of a mature muscadine vine before and after pruning. Hope this helps.

2 Likes
#24

That is a good video. He makes it look simple. Keep two main branches and each year strip everything off the branches down to the last three buds. Iā€™m using a 10 foot wide overhead trellis, so also going with the curtain. You know in the wild I have seen them get well over 100 feet long. I wonder how well they would produce if you let it get 50 foot on the trellis.

1 Like
#25

I do have one problem this year that I havenā€™t had in the past, on Thanksgiving, I managed to catch my yard on fire, and the fire swept through the grapevine area. I am noticing that some of the vines towards the ground have a little bit of charring on the outside not too bad though, the inside would still looks green and viable. Iā€™m just hoping that this doesnā€™t stunt the growth of the vines.

1 Like
#26

I think that I saw on one of the Isonā€™s videos that they let their cordons run out for a length of 10 feet on each side.

1 Like
#27

The fire could cause a bad scar on the vines near the ground. Watch out for that.

1 Like
#28

In my opinion after planting the vine it is most important to focus on getting the vine up to the wire and down both ways 10ā€™ in the first year. If not 10ā€™ go as long as the vines are willing. The vine I pictured was about 2ā€™ when planted and a rabbit bit it off to about 6". Keep the side branches cut off letting the basil leaves stay. Check about every week or two and remove. Make sure when you fertilize stay on schedule and respect the proper distance from root ball when applying. If you donā€™t trim the side branches most of the growth will go to them. You will be amazed at how fast they will grow but it does require attention to details as Greg list. @Silverfoot. Your vines do look healthy and at the soil level the diameter is big enough to have your vines up 6ā€™ and several feet down the wire. Sorry about the fire but hopefully they will be okay. Bill

1 Like
#29

Muscadines are tough. You should be fine. I quit burning the property. Each time I did it everything came back twice as strong.

1 Like
#30

How to make muscadine jelly? Please tell me the steps or web links.

#31

The clothes pins are temporary and probably not necessary. I was just creating a little space space between the wire and vine.

#32

Muscadines are known for the heavy bleeding after pruning but It doesnā€™t happen when the cuts are completed early like these. I have pruned in January without any bleeding (my observation). Apparently sometime around the end of January and February the vine starts moving water upward and then they bleed. I have seen several sources saying that the bleeding doesnā€™t cause any adverse effects to the vine or production.

1 Like
#33

@TianTai. Most of my muscadines are consumed fresh or fresh frozen so I want be any help on making jelly.

#34

How are they when they come out of the freezer? Are they still usable as fresh eating or are they just good for shakes like most fruit.

1 Like
#35

I take out the amount I want from the freezer and let them soften slightly or microwave a few seconds. To me they are a good semi frozen snack.

1 Like
#36

I am planning on to making muscadine jelly using the same recipe that I use to make Concord grape jelly. Ball Realfruit Low or No-Sugar Needed Pectin calculator works fine for meā€¦

https://www.freshpreserving.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-BALL-Site/en_US/Page-Pectin

1 Like
#37

Thanks

1 Like
#38

thank you !

1 Like
#39

Your welcome! Ask any questions.

#40

Jelly Making:

I prefer varieties with intense aroma and bitter/tart flavor. There are plenty of varieties that do not have this combination so use discretion. Sweetness is independent of aroma and flavor. As an example, Big Red, Summit, and Ison make very good jelly. Fry is not quite as good because the bitter/tart flavor component is weaker. Iā€™ve often picked wild muscadines to make jelly because they tend to have very intense flavor.

Pick and wash a couple of gallons of muscadines. Squeeze the muscadines into a collander separating the hulls from the seed core. Let the juice drain from the seed cores into a bowl and then pour it into a saucepan with the hulls. Put the hulls and juice on the stove in a sauce pan and boil about 5 minutes until tender and easily pressed. If using a thin bottom pan, stir often to prevent burning! Squeeze the hulls to collect as much of the juice as possible. I use a jelly bag to do the squeezing. Do NOT add water to the juice as it significantly affects the flavor and jelling characteristics.

The juice can be used for fresh drinking, to make jelly, or in recipes such as for slow cooker sausage.

Why do I go to the trouble of separating the seed core? Because it contains bitter compounds that I donā€™t like to taste in jelly. Caveat that some people really like the bitterness so they squeeze the whole grape.

1 Like