Muscadine grape vines growing on a homemade trellis

I have a patch of about 10 grape vines growing in my backyard that I planted 3-4 years ago.

They’re almost all muscadine grapes, with the exception of one Red Flame seedless that’s bound to die at some point since they’re subject to Piece’s Disease, a grape malady that claims every variety planted where with the exception of muscadines.

Almost invariably when someone asks me “Why did my grapes die?”, it’s because they bought Champagne grapes, or wine grapes or some other type of non-muscadine variety from their local Lowes or Home Depot, not knowing that there’s a clock ticking on those vines as soon as they hit the ground.

When I first planted my grapes I had them on a two-wire “system” that was more of a mess of recycled electrical wires and boards plunked into the ground than a proper grape support system.

This winter I cut all the lower vines out and trained them all to a single wire, ratcheted up nicely to posts set in concrete. Now they’re looking really good.

Muscadines are easy to grow and will reward you with buckets of grapes after a few years, provided you can keep the coons from robbing you blind.

Last year we had a decent amount of grapes and I’m expecting quite a few more this summer.

At the very least, the vines finally look nice.

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