bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Aerospacefarmer's post on his cider batch inspired me to share a similar post, albeit with southern fruits -- muscadines and scuppernongs!
I planted 5 varieties two years ago and this year was pleasantly surprised to have a pretty healthy crop, with plenty for eating and enough extra to press a few gallons of juice.
For anyone who might not be familiar with muscadines and scuppernongs they are grapes (muscadines are purple/black and scuppernongs are green/bronze varieties) that have been developed from southern wild grapes over 400 years into over 300 recognized cultivars. European bunch grapes that grow in drier more moderate regions won't grow in the south due to Pierce's disease, but blessedly muscadines and scuppernongs have adequate resistance. Words won't do justice to the taste but I find them MUCH more flavorful than standard grapes.
Set my vines up for double curtain production - have the primary trunk leading up to two arms / two wires, then branching both directions on each wire so one trunk really has four producing runners.
The biggest scuppernong I have is "Carlos." EXTREMELY sweet and delicious!
Main juice producer is a smaller muscadine "Noble"... though smaller in diameter the entire vine was LOADED / got over 5 gallons of fruit from the single vine alone this year.
One other variety I love and am happy I planted is "Southern Home." The leaves have much more of an oak or ivy like appearance and the grapes themselves are more oblong and look almost like apples as they first begin to ripen and briefly have mixed red and green coloration before turning dark.
I planted 5 varieties two years ago and this year was pleasantly surprised to have a pretty healthy crop, with plenty for eating and enough extra to press a few gallons of juice.
For anyone who might not be familiar with muscadines and scuppernongs they are grapes (muscadines are purple/black and scuppernongs are green/bronze varieties) that have been developed from southern wild grapes over 400 years into over 300 recognized cultivars. European bunch grapes that grow in drier more moderate regions won't grow in the south due to Pierce's disease, but blessedly muscadines and scuppernongs have adequate resistance. Words won't do justice to the taste but I find them MUCH more flavorful than standard grapes.
Set my vines up for double curtain production - have the primary trunk leading up to two arms / two wires, then branching both directions on each wire so one trunk really has four producing runners.
The biggest scuppernong I have is "Carlos." EXTREMELY sweet and delicious!
Main juice producer is a smaller muscadine "Noble"... though smaller in diameter the entire vine was LOADED / got over 5 gallons of fruit from the single vine alone this year.
One other variety I love and am happy I planted is "Southern Home." The leaves have much more of an oak or ivy like appearance and the grapes themselves are more oblong and look almost like apples as they first begin to ripen and briefly have mixed red and green coloration before turning dark.
