Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

This has been my early spring project; a small vineyard. I’ve got 9 vines total, divided among 6 different varieties of Muscadine grapes. For those who are not familiar, Muscadines are native to the US and thrive in the warm climate we have here in the deep South, where I’m borderline 7/8 as far as growing zones go. Muscadines are very vigorous vines and produce 50 to 80 lbs of fruit per vine per season depending on variety. I expect a total of between 500 and 700 lbs of fruit by year 4, and perhaps a slightly lower yield in year 3.

[You can see that I’ve elected to go with a very aggressive pruning of the 1 year old vines which were put in the ground in early March so that I establish a strong root system and trunk. The goal this year is just to grow up to the trellis wire which is 5 foot high. Next year the vines will be topped and trained left and right along the top wire, allowing growth 10 feet in each direction. This means I won’t get any fruit until year 3 since fruit forms on last year’s wood, but that’s ok. Plans are to have a small set-up for producing Muscadine wine ready by then.


BTW, the orange things are called grow tubes. They are used to provide a “mini greenhouse” effect on young vines. They protect against cold damage, such as the frost we had last week, and help promote vigorous growth in the first year. This will help the vines still reach the top wire after the severe pruning I applied.

Looks great tokendude!

Nice Tokendude, we were having a discussion about muscadines on the backyard farming site not long ago - http://backyardfarming.com.au/phpbbb/vi ... ?f=4&t=185