North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Suzi Teghtmeyer <srt175f@smsu.edu>]

Philip,
There is a new book out, Muscadine Grapes, by F. Basiouny and D. 
Himelrick.  It has a chapter on training, trellising and pruning, which 
goes into training and pruning the vines year by year until maturity.

Also, off of my viticulture site I have a section of muscadine sites.  Of 
those I would look at the following 2 sites:
Georgia Muscadine Production Guide
Commercial Muscadine and Bunch Grape Production Guide

The page is at: http://library.smsu.edu/paulevans/viticulture2.shtml#partmusc

Good luck,
----Suzi Teghtmeyer
Librarian, Paul Evans Library of Fruit Science
Southwest Missouri State University Mtn. Grove Campus and Missouri Fruit 
Experiment Station
9740 Red Spring Rd, Mountain Grove, MO 65711
Phone: 417-926-4105, Fax: 417-926-6646,  email: srt175f@smsu.edu
URL: http://library.smsu.edu/paulevans/
AgNIC Viticulture site: http://library.smsu.edu/paulevans/viticulture1.shtml
Member: CBHL, USAIN, ALA, ACRL, IAALD

At 10:30 PM 03/24/2003 -0500, philip sauber wrote:
> I find it hard to find a reference that tells in detail how to prune 
> muscadines into cordons from the beginning to year three.  Hopefully 
> someone with experience can comment on my plans:
>
> Now: Install one wire trellis with posts 16 feet apart and wire 5 feet 
> high.  Plant bare root muscadines in middle of wire, prune back to a few 
> stronger shoots 8" long or so.  Install 5 foot high stake.
> When shoots gets to 1 foot long, prune all but one
>
> As shoot grows, pinch off laterals.  Tie shoot to stake.
>
> When shoot gets to 5 feet long, cut it off and let two laterals below the 
> wire grow as cordons.
>
> End of year one: the cordons have grown about 1/2 of the intended length 
> or 8 feet
>
> First year Dormant pruning: prune spurs to 6-8" apart with 3 buds each.
>
> Second year: let spurs grow to 18-20inches and keep cutting them back 
> until the cordons are to desired length of 16 feet each(32 feet 
> total).  Then let all shoots grow.
>
> Second year dormant pruning: prune spurs to 6-8" apart with 3 buds each.
>
> Year three: Vines are now desired length and spurs spaced to desired width 
> apart.
>
> I have 2 vines are the beginning of year three, supreme and late fry.  I 
> got a few grapes from the late fry last year and am hoping for some grapes 
> this year.  I have two vines at the beginning of year two, dixie red and 
> black beauty.  This year I am planting darlene, granny val, pam, ison, and 
> sweet jenny on a trellis.  I also have something called mortenson hard 
> hardy grape.