Muscadines in Louisiana

[bkrell]

Hi everyone. New member here. I'd like to get into planting muscadines and was wondering...I hear a lot about Nobles further to the east and south but haven't heard whether or not they would do any worse this far west. The climate is about the same except maybe a few colder spells. My grandparents used to plant muscadines but honestly, I think they just got wild vines from the woods.


I guess the person to contact would be the local extension agent but just wanted to check here first. I'm really a fan of darker wines, thus my desire to plant Noble or Ison or the like...

 

[gaboy]

Hi everyone. New member here. I'd like to get into planting muscadines and was wondering...I hear a lot about Nobles further to the east and south but haven't heard whether or not they would do any worse this far west. The climate is about the same except maybe a few colder spells. My grandparents used to plant muscadines but honestly, I think they just got wild vines from the woods.


I guess the person to contact would be the local extension agent but just wanted to check here first. I'm really a fan of darker wines, thus my desire to plant Noble or Ison or the like...

I have 6 vines planted here in Western N.C., and 2 of them are Nobles, doing well for 1st 2 years. Henry

 

[garymc]

People grow them in Arkansas.

 

[Johnd]

Bkrell, welcome. I live in Louisiana, there are several wineries here, one close to me in Mandeville, it's called Pontchartrain Vineyards. Check out their website, but I'm fairly certain they are growing muscadine and norton?? Check em out.

 

[bkrell]

Hi John and thanks. I grew up in Natchitoches (home of Steel Magnolias for those that don't know) and have lived for the past 16 years in Shreveport.

I'd thought about growing Norton but figured it would be easier for a beginner to mess up. Yeah, I've read about Pontchartrain and a few others down there. I was surprised to read than Landry had relocated literally just down the road from a relative's home in West Monroe. I'm going to make it a point to visit them.

 

[garymc]

There are a lot of varieties of muscadines. I have about a dozen varieties of them. The one pictured to the left is Eudora, popular in Mississippi. Delicious is another good variety for eating and wine and it's disease resistant. Carlos and Noble, green and purple, respectively are commonly used commercially for wine. I've seen Tara, a green variety used commercially for wine in South Carolina. Several universities are currently working together to produce a seedless or near seedless muscadine, but it probably won't be released for another year or two.

 

[bkrell]

That's cool. I just assumed any kind of muscadine would grow anywhere in the traditional range of muscadines.....then I started second guessing.

 

[bkrell]

Hey just a little update. I got 3 Noble vines in the ground in my yard last weekend. I've watered them a few times with 5 gallon buckets because I discovered my sprinkle system isn't working. I also planted a couple of flame seedless just to see what they do. I was buying trellis materials at Lowes and saw them by the register, lol. But I staked my vines with bamboo and got in a single wire trellis about 5 ft high using metal fence posts. For grow tubes, I used flexible drain pipe as it was much cheaper. One of my vines already reached the top of the trellis. At this point, I'm paranoid about the water situation. We've not had much rain lately but I don't want to end up over watering myself.

Oh, and to top things off, I talked myself into buying more vines that I don't need, lol. I saw the Gurney's advert for their razzmatazz "grape" so I grabbed a couple of those. Then Ison's sent out an email announcing their newest muscadine, 15.1.1...so I got one... No idea what I'm going to do w/ all this but surely I can get some of them to grow, lol. And if ends up being too much, well, we have a couple of farmers' markets, lol...

 

[bkrell]

End of the year update!

Well, it was an interesting year for my litle backyard vineyard. And when I say backyard...I live in a gated HOA with pretty expensive, professionally-maintained designer landscaping all around. I've pretty much red-necked up my backyard with this stuff, lol.

I complained in one of my posts that we hadn't received much rain. Well, we flooded! I'm not sure how that affected my first year but it was moderately rewarding. I live on thin, clayey upland soil but my yard is relatively level and does pond in bouts of particularly heavy rain. My three Noble vines did the best of the muscadines. One had a run in with a very hungry caterpillar that ate all its leaves in perhaps April and it took all season to recover. The other two grew quite vigorously. One did produce a couple of small clusters of fruit that in the end, resulted in about 3 muscadines. They tasted great, lol. But all three Nobles filled their allotted 20 feet of trellis wire.

I'd planted two of the new Razzmatazz seedless muscadine hybrids early on. One only grew about a foot and a half while the other made it to the wire on my trellis. Two more small ones I bought later in the spring died or arrived dead.

I bought a potted Doreen early in the Spring and after some initial vigor, it died off around June. The Ison's variety 15.1.1 just made it to the wire at the end of the growing season but never looked very vigorous. I think it was in a much wetter portion of my garden.

Finally, I was shopping close out plants late summer and came across two "Delicious" muscadines in pots for 50% off. I put them in the ground and they grew very vigorously.

Bunch grape-wise, I had planted a Mars, 3 Flame seedless, and nursed a neglected Catawba onto a trellis in a then-shady spot. All but the Mars grew very large. I'm excited about the Catawba (and all my grapes, really) because someone finally bought the lot behind my house and significantly thinned the trees in order to build a house. Now my backyard has much more afternoon sun exposure. I'll take it, as I pretty much lost the sun after about 2 pm.

For this season, I'm got limited room in my current garden but may expand given the new sunlight. I'm adding a Lane and a Supreme and will see which grows better.

My wife is not to fond of my expanding vineyard. She did not like the trellised Flame seedless I attempted to grow...decoratively..around our swimming pool, lol.

I think I'll be clearing out another two or three clumps of pampas grass on my opposing fence row this month to expand, wife-willing.

 

[bkrell]

While I'm at it, if anyone's reading this-question on planting new rows. What's the minimum distance you would space rows of muscadines. And does it matter if you offset the placement of the new vine from the adjacent row's vines so that it's ten feet over? I think I know the answer but figured I'd check before I break new ground, lol.

 

[garymc]

In my vineyard, which is 8 miles from my house, I have rows 12 feet apart and vines offset in relation to the adjacent row. Seemed like a good idea to me at the time. The vineyard is poor, sandy soil. We plant and trellis in rows looking at things in a linear way, but the roots go out in all directions, so you have to think circle. I've been digging 10 feet from a vine in my back yard and hit a root from that vine that was of pencil diameter, so it would have extended a few feet farther. I also have some that are 8 feet apart in the back yard and they don't seem to mind. But my yard is in sandy loam good enough that it used to be a cotton field. I have one bunch grape, but I'll probably remove it. They require so much more spraying and the birds are able to tear them up. My muscadines are only susceptible to predation by skunks, possums, and raccoons. I have only caught possums in my back yard and they have done some serious damage a couple of times. Climbing on the vines and tearing them up and, of course, eating the grapes. Possums suck the innards out of the hull and spit out the hull. So if you come out to your vineyard and see a bunch of empty hulls on the ground, you know what's going on.

 

[bkrell]

Yeah, that's what I figured. The two "Delicious" that I planted are only a few feet from my main row of vines. I was hoping it would be enough but it's obvious now, looking at this season's growth that they are waay too close. Since I planted them late season from pots, I shouldn't have any problem removing them and replanting them further away, right?

My flirtation with bunch grapes comes from two sources. One, the Catawba I had planted years ago and left unattended seemed to be a very vigorous vine. Second, I'm a sucker for anything I see hanging out at Lowes. Third, my former boss has a little vineyard of blanc du bois and norton that produced an outstanding crop this year, from what I can tell.

Sadly, he had to abandon it due to an out of state move. He encouraged me to harvest them this year but I wasn't really wanting to start buying winemaking equipment until I knew what my own vines were going to end up doing. But he pruned them before he left and unattended, they did well.

I do have an ample supply of bird netting already. As for skunks, possums, and raccoons, I have a dog that usually keeps them at bay. The fact that the adjacent lot was just thinned of most it's timber should also help in that regard.

Ironically, I'm thinking about buying 10 acres about 8 miles away from my house for future endeavors.

 

[bkrell]

Bud break on the two "Delicious" variety vines I picked up late season on clearance at Lowe's last year! All my other muscadine vines have a a bit to go. Nice to see them join the bunch grapes, though!