Grapes add flavor to yard

The muscadine, Vitis rotundifolia, is well-adapted to Atlanta’s warm and humid conditions. We’re a little too far south to have long-term success with most table grapes, but the muscadine thrives. These grapes with rich flavor and characteristically chewy skins are eaten fresh or turned into jams, jellies or wine.

Imagine yourself sitting in the shade of your muscadine arbor in August and September, eating sun-warmed fruit picked fresh from the vine, the flavor exploding in your mouth. Tempted?

First, let’s clear up the muscadine/scuppernong question. It dates to 1810.

“ ‘Scuppernong’ refers to a single grape cultivar that was discovered along the Scuppernong River in North Carolina,” said University of Georgia horticulture professor Patrick Connor, who is the muscadine breeder for the state of Georgia.

Most wild muscadines have small black berries, but this one had large bronze fruit. The scuppernong was the dominant muscadine cultivar for more than 100 years, and many call all bronze muscadines scuppernongs.

“To be correct, we should refer to all muscadines as muscadine grapes, and ‘scuppernong’ should refer to that single cultivar,” Connor said.

The UGA Agricultural Experiment Station in Tifton has become a national leader in developing improved varieties of muscadines.

“Back in the 1940s, Cason Callaway [of Callaway Gardens fame] was on the Board of Regents for UGA, and it was through his influence that a breeding program for muscadines was established,” UGA horticulture professor Gerard Krewer said.

Garden designer Ryan Gainey, who grew up in Hartwell, S.C., said muscadines could be found at “every rural home.”

“My grandfather grew them in his fenced-in fruit yard,” Gainey said. “Like many Southern children, I grew up pretending I was Tarzan, swinging on the strong vines of the wild muscadines that grew all around.”

Gainey now lives in Decatur, where he has two muscadine vines. He estimates they are at least 50 years old, testimony to the hardiness of the species. They cover two arbors, one that shades his terrace and another that shades a path from one garden room to the next.

“The walk-under arbor muscadine has 3- to 4-foot-long adventitious roots that hang down and add mystery to the walk,” he said. “On the terrace, I like to let the fruit fall to the ground. Crushing them on a hot day, you get the real fragrance of the fruit.”

Once planted in full sun, Gainey’s vines now grow in the shade of an enormous American elm, so fruit is limited.

Muscadines need full sun for the best fruit production, and Krewer’s first recommendation is to choose a site for your vines where they’ll get at least a half day of sun.

Krewer is a big fan of the muscadine.

“It’s got five times as much flavor as a California grape,” he said with a laugh.

Because the vines are ornamental and not subject to many pests, they work well as arbors or on free-standing trellises across a yard or along a fence line, he said. The vines are vigorous and need 15 to 20 feet of trellis room.

Their care is straightforward.

Fertilize the plants at bud break and then again in May or June.

“Irrigation is critical for young plants, and older plants will benefit from irrigation most years in Georgia,” Krewer said.

Prune the vines back each winter, leaving only two to four buds from the previous summer’s growth. The vine eventually will form a permanent trunk and arms, or cordons.

The first few years after planting, Krewer suggested going through the vines every few weeks during the summer to clip off the side shoots and prevent the vines from growing into a bush.

A resourceful gardener, Gainey suggested using the clippings to make grapevine wreaths.

If your goal is fruit, you need to know that muscadine varieties are either female or self-fertile.

A self-fertile variety will bear fruit if planted alone, but a female variety must be planted within 35 feet of a self-fertile variety to bear fruit. All muscadines bloom about the same time, so the mix of varieties is not important.

If your goal is growing grapes for wine, Krewer recommends ‘Carlos,’ a bronze variety, and ‘Noble,’ a red variety. For eating fresh, ‘Tara’ and ‘Summit’ are his favorites, and he suggests planting these with the self-fertile ‘Cowart.’ These three varieties ripen in succession, so you’ll have an early, mid- and late-season harvest.

“You should have a nice little harvest the third year after planting, and by the fourth year, you should be getting a heavy crop,” Krewer said.

And garden designer Gainey noted that the vines provide a third season of interest when the leaves turn a spectacular bright yellow in the fall.