The canes become inefficient and often are not as productive after they are about 8 years old. Just watch to see how the vine is growing and you will have an idea what to do. I renew the main canes routinely because it is easier to manage the vines by doing so.
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Thanks!
Yes the 2 cordons seem to kind of be getting clogged or otherwise messy in terms of where the fruiting spurs are.
Otherwise the vine is vigorous and productive (though possibly declining crop sizes last 2 years, minimally)
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Year after year I keep seeing ā Cowartā and āTriumphā being offered for sale at local feed stores in Topeka KS, Iāve wondered if anyone had any luck with them.
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Above is another image of flower types. Looks different than the image that @Auburn posted.
The article that I read stated:
Male flowers have extended stamens and are missing the female pistil. Female flowers have shorter reflexed stamens with nonfunctional pollen. Perfect flowers have functional pistils along with extended stamens with functional pollen.
Female cultivars often have reduced yields. This is sometimes because the calyptera dries down and does not fall off the pistil. Notice how these are brown and still attached as compared to the female flower above showing a green healthy calyptera excising from the pistil. This prevents pollen from reaching the stigma and thus the flower isnāt pollinated.
Duh.
How close in the woods would a female vine have to be to a male vine in order to produce fruit?
Went by Dan West garden center yesterday. They are selling muscadine vines for $30 bucks apiece. Yikes!
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Thanks. That is a good picture.
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A man I knew a lot of years ago planted all female muscadines back in the 1930ās. He did not have a pollinator and there were no self-fertile vines at the time. He carried sheets into the woods near his home and placed them under male muscadine vines overnight then carried the sheets home and shook them over his female vines. He produced a good crop so either it worked or else pollen got to the flowers some other way.
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@TrilobaTracker . You bring up a good topic as to when to renew cordons. None of my vines have gotten old enough to be concerned yet so I have no experience in this area. The link is of some ten year old vine pruning by Dr Powell (Auburn) and the spurs have been pruned for so many years they look like deer antlers. Much of what I have learned about growing muscadines came from him. Petals From the Past (their orchard just off I65) is their location and it is about 30 minutes from where I now live. With this said it still doesnāt address the question about when to renew a cordon. After several years I think the antlers would be so long I would want to start a new cordon or prune the spurs back near the cordon. Just opinions and not any real experience.
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I have to hammer on one problem with the standard recommendations for muscadine pruning. In the linked video, he leaves 3 buds per shoot. On very vigorous highly productive cultivars such as Ison and Supreme, I have much better results pruning to 1 or 2 buds per shoot. The vines also need to be lightly fertilized after harvest but before frost. If not heavily pruned and fall fertilized, muscadines can overbear and the vines will die during winter. Heavy pruning tends to limit overbearing and fall fertilizing restores nutrients before the vines go dormant for winter. Big Red and Black Beauty work great if pruned to 3 buds per spur. They still benefit from fall fertilizing.
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Iāve got a Cowart vine and Iām satisfied with it. The taste and size of the muscadines I get from it are not really any different than the wild muscadines that I grew up with. I donāt about its hardiness in Kansas, but it is fine here just east of Memphis. Its plenty productive here. I did not count the number of gallons of fruit I got from it last summer but I did put up 12 quarts of juice and 4 pints of jelly from my one vine. The vine is self-fertile therefore pollinates female vines.
Cowart - Choosing a Cultivar | Muscadine Grape Breeding (uga.edu)
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The temp low predicted for tonight is 25F. I donāt know what state of growth your vines are in but I have three that are starting to grow out .5-1ā. The other vines have no growth to some bud swelling. Even with some damage I think (donāt know) my vines will produce more fruit than I can use. The problem is I like to share with my neighbors so I hope the weather related damage is minimal. I donāt have any newly planted 2023 but if I did I would consider covering them with a blanket etc. Iām not sure if the covering would help and the only vine I have ever covered was a very small Oh My (9ā). It survived with a couple of layers. Hope your vine does well tonight.
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For once my procrastination has paid off. I finished my trellis last week. Vines have been in potting mix since receiving them 3 weeks ago. The new growth is safe in my carport tonight. Will plant this week.
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Ouch it sounds like it might take out those ones that are budding out. I have 25F coming tonight but my muscadines are still asleep. My apricot and plum crop are going to take some losses though.
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Muscadines will open secondary buds after frost kill the primary buds. It usually cuts the crop in half.
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Some say that freezes and frost is natureās way of thinning. But it seems to me that when it zaps the crop every year, it seems more appropriate that its natureās way of starving me. 
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/me looks at tennessean and notes that he is NOT starving. 
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Update on the recent freeze. As of now I have a few places of new growth (Hall) that were damaged but overall the vines appeared to withstand the cold snap. I had a good bloom and fruit set of plums that appear to all be damaged. My earliest blooming pears like Southern Bartlett appear to have the most damage. My later blooming Harrow Sweet, Korean Giant, and Dripping Honey look okay.
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Iāve been thinking about the Vertical Shoot Positioning system that I had been planning to use for growing my bronze muscadines, studying some pictures that others have posted of their muscadines on trellis, and comparing them to pictures others have posted of European grape growth habits. Adding to this Iāve been considering what you esteemed gentlemen have indicated concerning the high growth vigor of our vines, and Iāve come to the conclusion that there is a better way to trellis than what I had formerly planned. Thank you to all who contributed to nudging me to reconsider.
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Anyone know what pest this thatās attacking my young muscadine leaves? Severe damage on one vine so far.
I have those too. The larvae can be tiny at first. I try to squish them.
Not sure what exactly they are.
On a separate 2023 muscadine note, my 5-6 year old Ison vine is really struggling. Itās barely budding out. Not sure what its future holdsā¦
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How much of a crop did your Ison make last year? Was it exposed to extreme cold weather during winter?
Ison tends to overbear which leaves the vine vulnerable to winter die-back. It is also susceptible to extreme cold weather if it is not fully dormant. My Ison was down to 3F this past winter between Dec 20th and 23rd. It came through with no problems. If it had gone down to 20F in November or March, it would not have been dormant and could have been damaged.
haldog, those look like some kind of beetle larvae. I would spray with Pyganic which should put them off their feed a bit.
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