Fruit From The Vine

Pick these delicious Southern grapes right in your own backyard.

Muscadines just make the season sweeter. As they ripen in August and September, clusters of pinks, purples, greens, blacks, or bronzes hover among the vines. The air oozes with the fragrance of their nectar. Life is good.

Getting Started

These native Southern grapes (Vitis rotundifolia) are the perfect fruit for the backyard gardener. Though the best time to plant the vines is during late fall or early winter, you can go ahead and look at catalogs and nurseries now to choose the types you plan to use. Here are some tips to help get you started.

Which one should you grow? This is the fun part. There are lots of selections, each with its own flavor, sugar content, and ripening time. What really determines the type you should choose is how you want to use them. Most are good for snacking. Others are great for making jam, jelly, juice, and wine. So do a little homework, and talk to the folks at your local nursery. Refer to The Southern Living Garden Book for descriptions of various selections. Note: There are two different kinds of muscadines: self-fertile types, which are self-pollinating, and self-sterile (female) types, which must be planted near self-fertile types to produce fruit. see "Editor's Homegrown Favorites" at above, right for two great picks.

Where do you plant them? Select a sunny location with good air circulation. The vines prefer well-drained soil with a pH between 6 and 6.5.

GENE B. BUSSELL

Muscadines are now in season. Purchase grapes at the grocery store, your local farmers market, or a you-pick vineyard in your area.

EDITOR'S HOMEGROWN FAVORITES

After eating mouthfuls of muscadines and enjoying every minute, I recommend that you try these two selections to start your own backyard vineyard. 'Darlene' (female) is bronze, tastes very sweet, and produces large fruit. 'Nesbit' (self-fertile) is a very productive black grape with great flavor.

You can purchase them from Ison's Nursery & Vineyards, (770) 599-6970 or www.isons.com, and Petals From the Past, (205) 646-0069 or www.petalsfrom thepast.com.

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Sep 2005
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