Muscadines make good pies and cobblers. I need to work on making a better crust.
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I started a light application of fertilizer after picking a couple of years ago. Iām pretty sure I got the idea from one of your earlier posts. The vines appear to come out stronger in the spring since I started.
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Okay, I applied 7 lbs. of 10-10-10 to each of the Cowart and Scuppernong vines today. 2 lbs. to supposedly Carlos vine which I planted this past spring.
When I had a producing Concord vine, I almost always had a few āhangers-onā late grapes that seemed to take forever to ripen if they ever ripened at all. I always considered this a sign that the vine was overbearing. Now the same thing is happening to the Cowart and Scuppernong vines. Not bad just enough to notice. Maybe in addition to overbearing I may not have been fertilizing the Concords properly.
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Have a lot of this. Water stress? Mildew? Normal or something I need to fix? Itās just cosmetic on the skin.
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I am new to growing muscardines, but from growing apples youād think that spacing the fruiting spurs farther apart on varieties that tend to overbear should work. (e.g. spacing of 8" or more). One could also thin out fruiting clusters. I think that this may be preferrable over late in the season fertilizer applications, which may induce too much new growth that does not have time to winter harden. What do people think?
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Highly recommend Paulk! First time growing muscadine and first time tasting one and oooommggg it was amazing!
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I have seen several references to thinning spurs especially on Supreme that sometimes die out during the winter. Does it work, I donāt know but I think it does. My cordons are getting over crowded with spurs so I plan to do some thinning as Isonās has suggested in his YouTube videos.
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I also really like Paulk. Big, self fertile, and very sweet.
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Prune highly productive muscadines leaving only 1 bud on each spur instead of 3 buds. Muscadines stressed from overbearing will die over winter if they are not fall fertilized. Iāve had no problems with vines failing to go dormant from fall fertilizer.
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Plant all you can! There is not much difference in the growth habit between a highly aggressive bunchgrape and a muscadine vine. Now if you compare a vine like New York Muscat to any muscadine that is not true. Of course, N.Y. Muscat does good just to reach the top wire in my experience. Probably help to add a couple of feet between the muscadines vines than the 8 feet that was normal with bunchgrapes. I havenāt paid much attention to it, but I think mine are more like 16 feet.
Almost no spraying is necessary with muscadines! In fact, I donāt think that I have ever sprayed anything on mine.
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Do you have bronze ones like Carlos? I saw a video that claimed that while the red ones are resistant to rot, bronze ones are not.
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I donāt have Carlos. My two bronze varieties are Hall and Oh My. I havenāt noticed any difference between my bronze and black varieties in disease resistance.
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I have put out Nobel and Carlos for wine. Also have a Darlene and Fry for fresh eating and Ison for both. Most vigorous in my yard are Carlos, Nobel, Darlene, Ison (in that order). Fry is barely hanging in there, does not look healthy. May not like the pH, I am still in the process of adjusting it towards 6.5, is still a log unit too low.
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I have what is supposedly a first year Carlos vine. Even got a small handful of fruit from it. I was surprised that it had the same taste as my scuppernongs. What I read about it afterwards verified that the taste similarity was to be expected. Carlos is written up to be much more productive than scuppernong so Iām excited about that. Itās also written that Carlos is a great wine muscadine.
Are you looking to be in muscadines for fresh fruit, jelly/jam or possible wine?
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Mostly wine, but also fresh eating and Jelly
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Have you tasted muscadine wine? In my opinion the white is better tasting and smoother, but the red is supposedly the healthier. The red makes me have all kinds of facial expressions. I think itās called āalcohol flush reactionā. 
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I am in northern Florida, so growing muscardines because I read that bunch grapes do not grow here (Pierce disease). I have tasted Carlos and Nobel wine produced locally and thought that the Carlos had a really nice aroma. But the locals make their wine way too sweet for my taste, so that turned me off. I intend to ferment them dry and also grow the muscardines once they come to bearing with low fertilizer and low or no irrigation. I donāt really care about achieving max yield, want the best possible quality for wine.
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The reds have a lot of polyphenols, which are antioxidants. I may also mix Carlos and Ison or Nobel and make a sparkling rose.
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Been making muscadine cider. Cold pressing them in my Ninja masticating juicer.
First batch i ran everything through whole. I found that the Ninja chews the seeds up and this adds a slight burning sensation aftertaste to the juice.
Now iām cutting them in half and digging out most of the seeds before putting them in. Time consuming but results in really amazing cider.
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What analysis and how much per vine are you putting out?
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