Anyone have an opinion?

When you say it grew 6 feet since layering, do you mean since you ran the shoot through the bottle or since you separated it from the mother vine? Looks like you mean while it was still attached. If the 6 feet are on the still connected vine, I'd trim it back and leave it attached until it looked like it was ok with the pruning. Being disconnected and dependent on the new roots will be a shock. A 6 foot vine should have 6 foot roots. One thing about muscadines unlike other grapes, If you go 2 buds above the bottom of the bottle to separate, you can plant it upside down and the upstream buds will grow. This means those roots pointing to the mouth of the bottle will be pointed down when you plant it. The drawback is that the vine will have a sharp angle a few inches above the ground, but muscadines don't care if you can stand the looks of it. If you can separate and pot them, fine. I have usually waited until
dormancy to separate and I've planted directly in the ground. Maybe I'll try
potting some. I just today put 3 shoots through 2 liter bottles. I scratch the vine where it will be in the bottle and put Rootone on it, but that's not necessary. I should have done this 3 weeks ago.

A few years ago I planted one and it did nothing the following year, a dead stick poking up out of the ground, so I put a new one next to it the next year. Same thing. Then a third one the third year. The following spring I had 3 muscadines less than a foot apart all growing. The first one sat there like a dead stick for 2 years, then sent up a shoot from it's root. They're crazy.

6 ft since it was air layered. I went ahead and trimmed it back. Now my concern is - did I separate too early? My thought was to get them established before Winter, then plant in Spring. But I do have 4 left on the vine. You said you just did some. I'm in South GA so I should have time to do more, right? Thanks for your advice

Frank

If they're still growing vigorously, I would think so. The best time is June or July, but I would think early August would work. One way to find out. I'm having trouble finding 2 liter bottles. When I did a lot of these 6 years ago, I put some in half gallon juice bottles like Welch's or Ocean Spray. They didn't do as well, I think because of the large opening. If I have to resort to that again, I'll jam a hunk of pine bark into the mouth to reduce the size of the opening. Here's a pic for anybody having trouble visualizing what we're talking about.

I don't drink much soda but I got my 2 liter bottles from the dollar store. They always have cheap .99 cent soda and I just pour it out. One of the three I already cut was in a milk jug and it seemed to work fine, although the roots went up in the handle. But I carefully pulled them out without breaking. Thanks for your advice. I'm going to do some more next weekend.

It's been awhile, but here's an update. My initial 3 have done extremely well after cutting. They have grown about 4 feet since cutting from the vine and pruning. Out of the next 4, one has new growth but all are alive. Still have 2 on the vine growing roots.

A couple questions - should I plant them in the ground now, or wait till Spring? My thought was that planting in the ground would give more protection from the cold weather. And they would be established sooner. Also based on the new growth (in picture), should I prune back after dormancy or leave them alone to continue growing?

I think you could plant some now, plant some in November after dormancy, and plant some in the spring before they come out of dormancy. November after dormancy when the air is cool, but the ground is still warm or at least not cold, allows the roots to grow and get established. But since they're potted, now would do the same. Your guess is as good as mine. But an experiment comparing the different techniques would be nice to do to answer the question.