PLANTING: Plant in good soil, average in nutrients. Keep out weeds
and grass. Grapes have extended surface roots and suffer from
competition with grass and weeds. Keep well watered. After growth begins
pinch back growth except the growth you've chosen to be the future
trunk. Setting a vertical stake for the grape to grow up the first year
will help it reach the horizontal wire of the trellis.
MUSCADINES: (Vitis rotundifolis) are native to southeastern United
States. They do well under high temperature and humidity found in that
area. The Muscadine sometimes is called the Scuppernong, and many know
it by that name. It is more resistant than most to drought conditions
and also to disease. Under favorable conditions the vines are very
long-lived, but they are not hardy in the northern United States because
of the low temperature conditions which prevail in that area.0* is at
it's lowest temperature.
PRUNING MUSCADINES: The Muscadine has a boundless enthusiasm for growth,
and you must restrain it or you will soon have jungle of vines.
Therefore just as soon as you can, establish a main trunk for the vine.
Tie this to the post and cut it off when it reaches the top. The trunk
then may be allowed to develop about eight arms near the top. These
should radiate outward like the spokes of a wagon wheel. To support them
properly, wires should be stretched between the posts, thus forming a
canopy. The main arms of the Muscadines do not produce fruiting shoots.
One-year-old canes growing from these arms are pruned back to provide
fruiting shoots. To prune properly, cut back the previous season's side
growth, allowing about six buds to remain on the canes.
Each year for best results, cut out one of the main arms. Then select
a shoot near the top of the trunk to replace it. If this is done
faithfully you will renew all of the arms every eight years. If you
don't do this, the old arms in time will become so heavily spurred that
their fruiting vigor will be reduced.
We've chosen the most disease resistant varieties we know of for less
care landscaping. If however you have a problem and are not getting good
results, bag the grape. A waxed white paper sac, stapled over the stem
with the growing cluster inside, keeps insects and disease out. It is
easier to pick 25 of the best bunches on a mature vine and bag them than
it is spraying a fungicide before it rains. The Japanese rely on bagging
for most of their fruit. Taking off all other bunches and choosing only
25 will also enhance the size and flavor of those 25 bunches. Apply the
bags when the grapes are pea size. It can even be done at fruit set. The
villard Blanc grape pictured in our catalog was taken after we removed
the bag from the bunch.
