Here are pictures of our muscadine grapes. The black ones fruit earlier and were about gone when I took the pictures.



This one is large so I made it a direct link.

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s88/NedsPhotos/RosaLara035.jpg

I've never seen muscadines produce such large clusters! Nice crop!

Thanks Skeet. This year everything we have has been very fruitful. I think the weather must have had something to do with it.

Ned

Woa, those grapes remind me of the ones my grandpa is growing. Funny how everything he grows turns out 3 times the size it should be.

I've also had a great year. Too bad I already have 50 pints of various jelly canned!

We started picking grapes yesterday. Yesterday, all the white grape varieties were picked and put through the grape press. Today all the red and rose grapes were pick and pressed. Starting tomorrow we will begin on the blue varieties. It will take two or three days to pick the blue and purple grapes. Among all the grape varieties (20) we grow approximately one acre of vines. Way back when harvest was fun, but over the years, it seems to have turned into hard work. Such is life. - Millet

Millet,

Sounds like some good eating. What do you do with so many grape? I can imagine how much work it is pruning the vines.

I wish we could go bunch grapes here, but Pierce's disease kills any edible bunch grapes along the coast.

Ned

Ned
Are you using the single wire trellis? I could not tell from the picture since the vines are so thick and healthy.
Do you make wine?
Really nice crop!
Karl

Great tasting as well. This I tell you from first hand experience !

I've never tasted muscadines, as no one that I know grows them here in Colorado. They grow grapes insted. How would a muscadine compare to a real grape? - Millet

Millet
Everyone’s taste preference is different, but for me the muscadine taste better than any grape that I have tasted. They have a flavor that is just hard to describe. There may be a seedless cultivar in the near future.
Karl

Karl, thanks, I would like to try some muscadines some time. I would guess being seeded would be a real draw back for eating out of hand. I presently grow 20 varieties of grapes in my one acre vinyard. All of the table grape varieties (5) are seedless, and of course, all of the wine varieties (15) are seeded. - Millet

A major difference between grapes and muscadines or scuppernongs is that grapes are sweet and thin skinned while muscadines are tart and have a thick skin. Locally we call the black/purple ones muscadines and the bronze ones like Ned has scuppernongs. We often bite the muscadine to squeeze out the pulp and then spit out the skin.

When making muscadine wine, it does not age well and is best consumed within the first 2-3 years.

Karpes, I use a double wire trellis with the wires set about 6.5' from the ground on T posts. The wire is #9 galvanized steel and is spaced 42" on the T. Vines are set 20' apart. Pretty much standard for a double wire trellis but I have mine higher so we can walk comfortable under the vines and eat the Muscadines, which is how we like them best. I did add posts the year, so that they now spaced 10' apart. The 20' spacing allowed the vines to sag too much in the middle and made it uncomfortable to walk around underneath.

One thing I do a little different is that I wait until March 1 or later to prune. Over the years I have found that when I pruned earlier, and we got a hard freeze after pruning, I would often sustain freeze damage. The later pruning has solved that problem, and does not seem to affect the vines. The vines bleed a lot, but here on the coast they bleed a lot any time you prune them.

Each person has their own method of eating them. I put the stem end in my mouth and bite the grape so that the pulp pops into my mouth, discarding the skin. I can then bite the pulp and extract the seed, spitting the seed out. I can eat them this way about as fast as I can eat seeded bunch grapes.

Isons nursery http://www.isons.com/ specializes in Muscadines and has an interesting website, with information on the various varieties. Of course they promote their patented varieties, so you have to take that into consideration. Some of their patented varieties are good though. I haven't ordered from them in years, so I can't attest to their business dealings. There is a lot of other info available on the web too.

Stan just went to a muscadines tasting near his home, which I had to miss because of a previous engagement. Muscadines are becoming more popular as a commercial crop here is the South.

Ned

Ned, here in Colorado, I also prune my grapes in March. Once I pruned them as late as the latter part of April, but that was too late. - Millet