Performance of 20 Muscadine Grape Cultivars in North Florida

Abstract

Vine yield, vigor, and attributes of berry quality of 20 cultivars of muscadine grapevines ( Vitis rotundifoliaMichx.) were determined at the North Florida Research and Education Center-Quincy from 2002-2005. The performance of many of the new muscadine grape cultivars in this trial has not been previously evaluated. The grape cultivars may be categorized by berry size: 1) small self fruitful (‘Carlos’, ‘Creek’, ‘Noble’); 2) medium self fruitful (‘Alachua’, ‘Regale’); medium-large self fruitful (‘Granny Val’, ‘Pineapple’, ‘Polyanna’, ‘Tara’, ‘Triumph’), and 4) large female or pistillate (‘Black Beauty’, ‘Black Fry’, ‘Early Fry’, ‘Fry’, ‘Jumbo’, ‘Pam’, ‘Scarlet’, ‘Summit’, ‘Supreme’, ‘Sweet Jenny’) cultivars. ‘Noble’ and ‘Carlos’ had the highest vigor and consistently produced the highest yield (estimated at 45 kg/vine) and they are the two best cultivars for juice or wine production. Soluble solids of the muscadine cultivars at harvest ranged from 15 to 19 °Brix with ‘Fry’, ‘Polyanna’, ‘Scarlet’, and ‘Summit’ having the highest and ‘Jumbo’ and ‘Regale’ the lowest soluble solids. Large-fruited cultivars that are particularly suitable to direct to consumer operations included ‘Black Beauty’, ‘Fry’ and ‘Pam’. ‘Supreme’ produced very large berries, but vine vigor was low due, in part, to overcropping. Good pollenizers for the pistillate cultivars listed above were ‘Granny Val’, ‘Polyanna’ and ‘Tara’.