We have two ~50 foot rows of grapes at the back of our property. We started out with muscadines which are native and can be found in the nearby woods. I think the varieties we got were Cowart, Noble and Scuppernong (a golden variety). We put them in about 5 years ago and they do very well with the heat and humidity and are delicious. Muscadines are different from European table grapes in that you don't eat the skin and they taste a little different (better IMO).

Two years ago, my dad went over to a winery in Santa Fe (TX) during the fall pruning and got tons of clippings from their vineyard. They grow Blanc du Bois and Spansh Black European wine grapes. We sprouted them in the spring and last year we put them in the ground and set up another line of trellises. So far they have done very well and looked very healthy over the summer without too much disease. Those varieties are supposed to do OK on the Gulf Coast.

I really want to try this one variety which is a hybrid between the muscadine and European table grape called "Southern Home" . I'd grow it just for the foliage which looks amazing!

What were you planning on using your grapes for? My dad makes muscadine wine, which is OK tasting, but I think they're just fine out-of-hand.

Thank you so much for your response, Texasflip! My husband and I are planning on a grape arbor, so that is why I am interested in whether pruning is necessary to get good production since I prefer to let the vines grow freely (doing pruning/trimming only as necessary to keep them in bounds). We had muscadine grapes growing along a fence line many years ago and my husband made some pretty good wine with them, but I'm primarily interested in eating them fresh. We will be shopping for bareroot vines and I hope we can find the Southern Home you refer to. It sounds wonderful. BTW how many years did it take for your grapes to start producing?
thanks again,
Molly

We planted ours bare-root and some of them put out a few fruit in their second season. You can count on them to do the "sleep, creep, leap" thing.

I don't THINK pruning is necessary. There are all sorts of ways people train their grapes to get the best production out of them and to help expose them to the sun which makes them better for wine, but I think they'll flower and fruit just the same without it.

We have a big pergola (like 15 by 20) on our back porch with a muscadine on it and since we just let it go to town to cover the whole thing, it turns out to produce the most grapes per season compared to the ones we train.

I forgot to ask where you're located. If you're down in South Texas where it's drier, muscadines might not do well, but the European grapes should do even better.

AJ

I have a couple of 'Venus' growing on a fence and a couple of 'Concord' on an arbor. The 'Venus' only get pruned if they get unruly, otherwise there's no traditional pruning done. Last year I made about 10 cups of grape juice concentrate from each vine. The flavor seems to me like it would be better suited for wine, but I don't have the time to fuss with it. Grape juice is time consuming enough :)

The 'Concords' were only planted last spring, so haven't had time to start producing anything. If I remember correctly the 'Venus' didn't start really producing until a couple of years after being planted.

'Venus'
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Bowl of picked grapes
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Simmering grapes
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Next Spring I'd like to plant a couple of 'Mars' which are basically seedless 'Concord'.