Do you cut your muscadine vines back at this time of the year to increase fruit size and to manage the cane size? I was reading from a website and they cut the canes back to about 30-36". My muscadine canes are sprawled all over the place and they would sure look better trimmed up.
Muscadines
The muscadines are now being ‘combed’. This term means separating the shoots for ease of harvest, otherwise the tendrils wrap around the vines and make it difficult to pick the fruit. Cut off excess growth. Leave about 30" to 36" in length. Cutting off the excess vines puts all the energy of the plant into increasing the size of the fruit. Keep watering well during dry periods
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Cut off excess growth. Leave about 30" to 36" in length. Cutting off the excess vines puts all the energy of the plant into increasing the size of the fruit. [/quote]
I’d have to see some good research to go along with that line of thinking. Cutting off mature fully expanded leaves isn’t going to increase energy going to the fruit. It’s going to do the opposite.
OK so the thinking might be to cut off vines that are still growing to stop energy going into new canes. But if you cut back a growing plant it’s just going to increase it’s new growth to compensate for the lost foliage.
You could trim yours up if the foliage is in excess of that needed to support the fruit load. Cutting 10ft plus canes, if that’s what you have, back to 3ft seems excessive to me.
I’ve never heard or seen any such talk or management on bunch grapes, wine or table.
My wire is about 5’ and the vines are all over the ground which makes it hard to mow under. I know typically you want enough leaves to mature the fruit which is why I asked. If I had more than one vine fruiting I would do a side by side comparison. I was hoping someone had already been there and done that. Thanks, Bill
Glad this post is here. I have three vines that need some serious trimming. A lot of growth is on the ground this year and I don’t really build an effective structure for them to grow on. I need to build a good trellis.
Although you can get some muscadines from just letting the vines grow wild you can do so much better if you grow them/prune from a dedicated trellis. Wait until about January or February to prune.
@TNHunter thank you! I love how your vines took to the wire. Mine did not. One of the three is very productive while the other two are not. We get 10-15 gallons a year with the birds and squirrels getting the rest. I need to properly support and train them.
@T-ray … the first year… getting a single vine up to the trellis wire… requires that you prune off all other growing tips that form.
You have to give it some attention that first year every week or two until you get a single vine up to the trellis wire.
Once it reaches the wire… you then tip prune it and give it a few weeks to develop more growing tips below the tip prune… and you select two of those… and train them to go up and down your trellis wire.
You have to continue to prune off any other growing tips that develop… and only allow the 2 that are going up and down your wire.
In one season you can see what mine did…
All that is explained well in the isons videos on youtube.
@TNHunter given I’m in about three years into planting, what would you recommend to right the ship on these? Should I prune heavily on the lower growth?
Your vines can be easily corrected in late February or very early March. Cut off all growth except a single cane which can be run down the wire. Apply this to to the bushy vines which are not on trellis. For vines going down a wire, trim to a single cane going down the wire and cut all side shoots off so no more than 3 buds are left on each stem. See Ison’s videos.
Once they got up to the wire… i tip pruned them and then after a few weeks selected two growing tips to train up and down my trellis wire.
Every time I checked on their progress i brought my pruners… and pruned off any other shoots that were trying to develop other growing tips. You have to keep those pruned off… so the vine is focusing all its energy on the growing tips going up and down your trellis wire.
You will be impressed with how much they will grow when you do that.
Coming to this conversation late. My muscadines are 4-8 years old. They are well trellised, mulched and bear well. The vines grow clear to the ground before the summer is out, but when I trim them, even to get them out of the way of the mower, they put out new growth and then new little blooms, even when it is August or Sept. Not sure it affects the current crop, but it has made me careful not to prune too much in the summer.
This is the first year that I haven’t summer-pruned and I also have vines on the ground. In years past my summer cuts have also put on blooms and tiny fruit. I don’t know if these late blooms have any negative effects on the fruit or vine. I’m in central Alabama and my Hall and Lane are almost ready to start picking.
