Muscadines 2020

It’s that time of the year for muscadines to wake up. If everything goes well I should get a good crop. Oh My should offer a small quantity. Muscadines in my area almost always load up a good crop. How is your vines doing?
Hall


OH My

Black Beauty
003
Lane

Supreme

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Some just beginning to wake up here. Some still sleeping…shhhhh!

Interested in Oh My! …if it gets cheaper… lol

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Nice collection! How much space do you give each vine? I just got some from Isons and put them in pots until I can figure out my trellis for them.

Also, do they need full all day sun, or would be they be good with sun until early afternoon? I realize I might get less fruit, but if they still fruit reasonably well that gives me more options for locations. I really didn’t think this through too well before hitting the buy button…

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I don’t typically go for things with a lot of hype like Oh My but this one I thought would be worth the chance/price. The vines are so small when you get them it could be a couple of years before getting a sample. I pushed it’s growth and I have a few spurs which might provide a few fruit.

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Muscadine will grow and produce well even if you don’t provide the typical 20’ trellis. I think you could get more pounds per space if they were planted closer like 15’. All my vines are on 20’ trellis and some rows are 7’ apart. I have two vine in a shady area and they don’t produce much but that is OK as I want them as a privacy screen and for the wildlife to enjoy. My others get about .5-.75 sunlight and the carry a heavy load of fruit each year. Hope this helps.

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My trellis is 16 feet between plants in the row with rows separated by 15 feet. This is too close in my opinion to get best production on a per plant basis. The most vigorous varieties - such as Darlene - seriously overgrow the trellis at this spacing. Less vigorous varieties such as Black beauty produce heavily, but require extremely heavy winter pruning.

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Love this thread as someone that just planted some muscadines! I got Black Beauty and Lane.

I intend to grow them straight up onto a pergola (see thread here for more info), anybody have advice how to prune them now that I planted them. I presume I need to remove all but one branch (the longest one) and keep pinching off side-growth until I get to the height I want? Should I do that now while they are dormant or wait until they start breaking dormancy?

@Fusion_power

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Sometimes I’ll trim them down to two or three healthy looking vines and then wait until they wake up to choose what I’m keeping. I also leave a bit of side growth until it reaches the wire. Not a lot but a few leaves to keep the plant going. If you leave too many it will slow down growth of your soon to be cordon.

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Oh My seedless muscadine fruit bud cluster. There are a few fruit bud clusters on my young vine so I’m hopeful that I might get a sample this year. @k8tpayaso @ConwayOrchard @c5tiger

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I am anxiously awaiting!!!

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All of my muscadines except Razzmatazz leafed out really late this year with Oh My being really late. Right now Oh My looks like your pictures from 25 days ago. I thought it was dead but it looks like it will be fine. I am eating fully ripe mulberries right now and my muscadines are just waking up. All the wild muscadines around here are far ahead mine.

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Finished my trellis this week and Black Beauty and Lane went in in today.

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Looks great. You do good work.

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Oh My planted in March 2019 has it’s first bloom. There are only a few bud clusters and this is the smallest one but heck it is the first.
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Lane 3rd leaf and Hall 2nd leaf muscadines. Lane is heavily loaded with buds/blooms/fruit.

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Question: If I’m trying to have my muscadine vines grow as tall as possible this year, would you recommend pinching the side grow continuously while letting the upper most growth continue?

Trying to get the grapes to grow on top of a pergola that’s 10 ft above ground level.

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If your trying to get the vine to go upward to something the fastest way is to train with one vine and pinch all side branches to one leaf. You need to do this about once or twice a week. The other parts of the equation is to fertilize and water as needed. I suggest watching the Ison’s youtube videos. I followed them and got great results. He covers the pinching and fertilizing in great details. Be sure and follow his directions especially the type fertilizer, frequency, and space from trunk.

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Quick question. I’m planning on growing my muscadines with a single 12 to 20 run (depending on variety and location - I’m limited). For one location with a 20 foot run, I was planning on planting at one side of that run and training it down 20 feet of wire. Is there any significant advantage to planting in the middle and training two separate 10 foot arms instead? I don’t have a lot of room and I think the planting area in terms of drainage and lack of root competition is better if I plant at the end and train it just one direction, but I didn’t know if there was an important reason to just do it in the middle and go 10 feet out each direction.

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Long term I don’t believe there is any difference. Some of my vines aren’t centered. The difference in my opinion is that one direction takes longer to get equal growth down the entire line thus less short term production. Just prune a little heavier on the trunk side each winter and it will eventually fill out.

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Thanks for the response. I have another question about muscadine arms. I have one I’ve planted that already has two good sprouts I’m training up, planning to take one 10’ one way and one 10’ the other when they get up to the wire about 8 feet high. Is it okay to have the two “trunks” going up, or is there a significant advantage to cutting it back to just the one until it gets to the wire?

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