I’m located just outside the city limits of Oakland. Don’t know if you realize it or not but since highway 64 has been 4 laned Oaklands population has grown to be more than all the other towns in Fayette County combined. That includes the county seat of Somerville. Folks from Memphis moved into new subdivisions. I get letters every week of someone wanting to purchase the property. Some from cities far away. Nice problem to have, I guess.
Need to see what the wild muscadines are doing. I flagged some back in the summer.
Went to the woods yesterday to dig up and transplant in a nursery row muscadine vines that I had flagged in the summer. As expected, the green was gone and replaced with brown with a much better view. The increased view of the woods did not help much as I could not find any of the red flagging. So I just dup up whatever 10 vines that I could find. With at least a 30% chance of a vine being female according to the law of averages I should have at least 1 female. Of course, some folks don’t believe in the law of averages, but I do. If I flip a coin and it lands on heads, the next flip has to be tails! Right?
Proper spacing of spurs near the crown area and along the entire cordon. Most of my vines are finishing their third year at my new location and I previously encouraged the spurs to grow out of the cordon wherever they wanted to until now. My plans for this winter’s pruning is to thin out the spurs to a one hand distance apart and when possible eliminate the spurs on the lower side. As expected the crown area is getting congested and so thick it is difficult to pick the heavy load of fruit. The two varieties Greg Ison suggested to be pruned to four hand widths apart are Supreme and Granny Val which I don’t have. The two varieties that I have that are most in need of a heavy thinning are Oh My and Hall. The others can wait a little longer if desired but I will probably thin the others as well. Below is a video that Greg created that has helped many people get started growing muscadines.
Earlier you were considering how to reduce your work of picking so many fruits by eliminating some of the plants. If so, probably a tough decision as to which to do away with.
I know what it’s like to have too many vines. At one time I had around 15 bunchgrape vines which was way too many. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) the decision was made easier for me by having Pierce’s Disease take out some. That was when I converted to muscadines.
I grow muscadines and fruit because I enjoy the hobby and I never wanted to turn it into a business. Year 2023 left me considering different options for an outlet for my extra fruit (muscadines). I mostly grow a small garden of onions, okra, and tomatoes but I would like to enjoy other types which led me to do an inquiry post in a somewhat local site. Below is a copy of my post. I thought it might be interesting to read. As of now I have been offered tomatoes, peppers. Herbs, and eggs. What surprised me the most was that I had so many people wanting to buy the muscacdines because they didn’t have any produce to swap. I’m not sure where this is going but it is interesting to consider during the cold season.
I have a small backyard orchard in Alabaster with a few fruit trees and several of the best varieties of muscadines (black, bronze, and seedless) that produce way more than I can use. I don’t sell any fruit/muscadines but I’m interested in seeing if there is any interest in swapping some of your home grown vegetables for muscadines. Last year these vines produced over 400 pounds so if they continue I will have plenty to swap. My muscadines start to ripen about the first of August. This post is just to see if there is any swapping interest from our nearby area. If you’re interested let me know. Thanks, Bill
I have Late Fry, Nesbitt, Oh My, Paulk, Scarlett, Sugargate, Supreme, and Triumph.
I have room for four more, maybe five.
I’m thinking about buying one or two more and then holding out on the last couple of spots left for any future releases by Ison’s, University of Arkansas, or University of Georgia.
Does anyone have any recommendations? Alachua, Black Beauty, Eudora, Majesty if I can find it, Granny Val, Southland, etc.? Does Granny Val taste bad?
Is Oh My! zone 6B/7A reliable? Not that this has discouraged me from buying 8 other muscadines from Bottoms and Ison to try (RubyCrisp, Triumph, Southland, Summit, Supreme, Sweet Mix, Paulk, Big Red), but possibility of paying $70 for a small plant that dies off in the first winter certainly makes me hesitant.
I’m leaning towards buying Summit, and holding out for possible future cultivars for the rest of the space I have available.
Anyone have Triumph and Late Fry? If so, how many weeks is it from when you can start picking Triumph until your done picking Late Fry? I’m wondering how long my backyard muscadine season will be, knock on wood.
I came across a YouTube video where the University of Arkansas makes it sound like they should be releasing their first muscadine cultivar soon.
I also came across a YouTube video where it sounds like UGA might eventually come out with a cross of a Scarlett and a RubyCrisp, or at least are looking at different crosses.
Pruning season is almost here! Well, maybe not quite for muscadines but certainly for apples and plums. Seems to always to take more time than it should.
Looks like some of my transplant wild muscadines may not have made it thru the winter. No problem, just have to go back to the woods and dig up some more and transplant. I know that the odds are good that I will get at least one female out of 20 transplants!
Well, I’ll be pruning my muscadines vines in the next 7 days for sure. Suppose to get down near freezing in the next day or two and then I will be pruning.
Went back to the woods yesterday and dug up some more wild muscadine “sprouts” generally in the same area that I dug some last November. Just wondering if I dig up one “sprout” that turns up to be a male how likely will neighboring “sprouts” also be male? Considering that I could dug some up a small distance across I ditch and try those.
I got an Isoms muscadine last fall and planted it… and prepped a nice planting hole for an “Oh My” that I ordered this winter to be delivered this spring.
It arrived yesterday evening… and I planted it this morning.
Just curious, how much space are you giving your Oh My vine? What type of trellis system? How many cordons, etc.?
Last spring I planted a Carlos vine at a corner of a 24’X12’X9’ arbor. Now I’m deciding what to do with it. Probably let a couple of cordons run on the arbor and let one cordon run on a trellis away from the arbor. I’ve already have everything in place.
Spotted a bud breaking on the mature Scuppernong vine today. Brown, no green as of yet. Still probably not too late to do some pruning though. Sometimes I feel like flipping a coin whenever I see a spur that I think could go. That is after viewing what seems like thousands of how-to videos.
Need to go back to the woods to dig up some more wild muscadine vines after they green up a little. Only 10 days to official spring. Need to make sure that they are not Poison Ivys that I’m transplanting.
Where is @Auburn? I need all the advice that I can get!
I’m growing muscadines in Oklahoma City, Zone 7, a few miles north of I-40. Every winter I prune them , take them down and bury them in compost and old hay. They survived -10F in 2021! Anybody else bury muscadines in winter?
John
