Is there an easy to follow diagram for muscadine pruning/ training? I will go back to Isons videos, but don’t have a handy diagram on my phone.
This coming summer will be year 3 so hopefully some more shoots will grow out like yours did. As a plan B, I’ll also train a replacement for the main leader vine as suggested by @Fusion_power. My supreme also has some gaps but not as bad. No problems with lane. Looking forward to hopefully a bigger crop this summer.
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I tasted grocery store bought Supreme for the first time last summer and the pulp was definitely way better than any grocery store table grape i’ve ever tasted. Sweeter and much more interesting. This is coming from someone who had never eaten a Muscadine before 2019. The thicker skin and the seed are still going to turn most people off but I think the taste war has reached a stalemate. They’re just not as easy to eat as a table grape and don’t lend themselves as well to casual snacking for the uninitiated.
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Question on bark peeling-
How much is considered normal?
I don’t have pictures yet but my 4 year old Ison is shedding a fair amount of the outer bark on the main trunk this winter. It hasn’t really done this before.
The underlying wood seems healthy.
Should I be panicking?
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I don’t know how much is too much but peeling appears to be normal from my experience. I have had on one occasion some bark split and this looks like a different and more serious problem and it took some time to heal.
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Thanks! Yeah at this point just treating it as normal until I see any actual issues.
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Bark peeling is completely normal after the wood reaches 3 years old.
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I enjoyed seeing your video. Big branches occur on my vines each year. I just cut them off at the normal pruning time. I take off the lower branches and attempt to space them at least a hand width apart. Ison’s has a video about pruning mature/supreme that I think does an excellent job explaining how to prune a similar situation.
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The large water sprout is consuming nutrients that would be better used making fruit. As noted, cut it off at the source. There are 2 or 3 other normal side shoots on that lateral that should be pruned back leaving 2 or 3 buds to produce grapes this year. My rule of thumb with muscadines is to prune until it looks like the vine is a skinny skeleton and then take a bit more off just to be sure. If you don’t prune heavily, the vines will be massive by the time they are 10 years old and will gradually lose productivity.
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Thanks!
Yes previously I followed the Ison advice of
Pruning all side shoots to 2-3 buds and to some degree the “one hand rule” for spacing between laterals.
Like you said, I figured when I saw this that it probably contributed to the smaller crop last year.
To that end, is it then advisable to proactively monitor for these waterspouts in the growing season and head them back?
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I don’t worry with them until pruning time. Sometimes I need a replacement for the main vine so I train a watersprout as a replacement. After the second growing season, the main vine can be removed and the water sprout becomes the new main vine.
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Are there any Muscadine x Vitis hybrids on the market besides Southern Home?
I’d like to try on up north.
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Last year 2020 I started to see some muscadine bud swelling about March 15. Every plant at my new location is recent planting and I’m excited waiting on the buds to leaf out. Several of the vines are larger than typical and it will be interesting to see how they do. Three of them are 20’ and I don’t intend to shorten then as a trial. I did shorten all the spurs to one bud. I’m sure this is not a suggested method but I’m willing to take the small risk. I have several smaller air layers from 2020 for backups.
I see that Oh My and Razz are listed as zone 7 hardy. Does anyone have them in zone 6? Also obviously they are patented by Gurney’s, but I assume that a non-patented muscadine is capable of rooting from cuttings like a grape? I am currently rooting some grapes that @Bart was kind enough to send me, and I am uninitiated with muscadines. Up until recently I just thought they were a synonym for grape but after a bit more research they are clearly a slightly different animal. The way you guys are describing them, in my mind is almost like a cross between a grape and a plum with the larger size and astringent thicker skin.
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I don’t know how well muscadines would grow in your area. There is a difference in chromosomes between muscadines and your table grapes making it difficult to hybridize the two. There are several different qualities of muscadines. Many are grown for juice/wine but several are more geared for fresh eating like Supreme, Black Beauty, Hall, and many more.
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Maybe I’ll stick with the grapes until I research further… I’ll try to keep my zone envy to a minimum 
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I planted Razz last year and got a few grapes off of it. I was attracted to the claim that it keeps fruiting until frost. The grapes are small (think large blueberry sized), but much sweeter than anything I would get from the grocery store.
When talking bitterness, people often mistake muscadine and mustang grapes. Both are southern grapes, but mustang grapes have much more bitterness and tannins, making them lousy for fresh eating.
I am hoping to add in one or two more Muscadines to my yard this year or next. For table grapes, Niagara and Concord resonate with my childhood, but they don’t grow well down here.
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the only way that this hybrid Razz would have a chance up north
Is if it ripens earlier than most muscadine grapes
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