I can explain the out of season fruit set. Muscadines are opportunistic in fruiting. If the first round of flower buds get frozen, more buds will open and grow producing a later maturing crop of fruit. This does not have to be as a result of frozen buds. If the vine is growing vigorously and/or heavily fertilized, it will open more buds producing more flowers even as late as August here where I live. This is normal behavior for a muscadine.
The normal expression of flower buds in muscadine is from a vegetative bud which initiates growth, then produces between 1 and 5 leaves at which point a flower cluster will expand. Usually the 2nd or 3rd leaf node will contain the flower cluster. The late season flowers just mean you had buds initiate growth later than normal whatever the reason.
I was asking myself, why the Scuppernong mother vine has survived for almost 500 years, despite the mutation that got rid of the anthocyanins, and associated higher susceptibility toward fungal diseases (compared to black varieties). Sharing a perplexity search here, in case you are interested. https://www.perplexity.ai/search/cd32c7ed-bb60-4cb8-8ab4-c17969116ee9#0
An interesting read in that it stated that the muscadine breeding programs in the early 20th century originated from wild vines collected from eastern North Carolina with some inclusion from wild germplasm from Florida.
A limited range of the muscadine population in the southeastern states.
Most of the diversity of muscadine is in North and South Carolina, parts of Georgia, and northern Florida. If you can find a copy of Bill Ison’s book on Muscadine, he gives quite a bit of the history of breeding and of the wild vines that were used in the early days. The first self-fertile muscadine was Pee Dee which originated near the Pee Dee river. It was not a very good selection and eventually was removed from breeding after a few reliably self-fertile vines were found.
Hi Trev,
Is this pic of yours an Isons native? It’s color is nearly matching my Isons native which managed to hold and ripen two berries this year. Since this will be my first muscadine fruit here in Kent, I a waiting as long as I can to let them ripen, fingers crossed that critters don’t see them first!
I’ve grown Ison, Black Beauty, Big Red, Hall, Paulk, and a few dozen other muscadines. In terms of which I like the most, Ison is at the top. It is relatively easy to care for, produces an abundant yearly crop with appropriate care, is self-fertile, and tastes very very good. Add the advantage of making excellent jam and jelly. That is not to take away from other varieties. Big Red, Summit, and Paulk are also top tier muscadines. I’ve grown Big Red and Summit since 1988. Paulk has been around for about 7 years now.
Ison is also suitable for wine, but does not have as high anthocyanin levels as Noble, so the color is not as deep red. The reason that Ison works for wine and jam is the it has a relative high acid level, which balances the sweetness (or alcohol, when fermented). Most muscadine varieties have Brix/TA ratios that are too high (sweet, with low acid).
Hi Sam
I do not intend to infer that my Ison Native which came from Edible Landscape is a product from Ison"s Nursery.
My order confirmation back on 4/4/2014 listed these two names
Items contained in this order
ISON’S MUSCADINE NATIVE GRAPE
SUGARGATE BLACK MUSCADINE NATIVE GRAPE
I dont know how the nursery got that name but I assume they believe its a native muscadine.
Dennis
Yes, I think so, hopefully my two berries will survive the critters for taste testing when they turn fully dark purple, will post the result soon.
Dennis
Hi Darrell,
I would like to know which muscadine varieties are considered the earliest seasonal producers so I could test several of them here in our short growing season climate. Since my Cowart and Ison native have shown the ability to set fruit here, any new variety I would be willing to try would need to be earlier than those two.Do you know of any member who keeps a calendar of when various varieties are fruiting?
Dennis
Kent wa
One more very important thing you have to know. Muscadines can and will set a very heavy crop some years. Carrying a heavy crop will extend the time period of fruit maturity about 4 or 5 weeks. I have personally seen this in action with one variety I grow where a very heavy crop load causes the vine to mature much later than normal. One year, it was so late that some of the fruit was caught in an early frost.
That’s good news. Others at your location might want to try out Paulk. Surely the other early ripening varieties like Hall and Lane would also have time to ripen.
Used have Lane and yes that also ripened up well here. Lane succumbed to late freeze though. Paulk is just such a vigorous and abundant vine in comparison. I think it’s the go to beginner recommendation for zone pushers.
