Pruning Muscadines: Now's the Time!

Several people have called the past couple of weeks with questions about pruning muscadines. You can prune muscadines as soon as they become dormant but in late winter they are less likely to suffer cold damage after being pruned. Late January through February is the prime time for pruning muscadines. Because muscadines grow very vigorously they should be pruned annually. This will ensure a more reliable crop of grapes and allow for better air movement through the canopy reducing disease incidence.
Although there are many different ways to trellis muscadines they are generally pruned the same way with just a few modifications. When pruning, it is important to remember that muscadines produce fruit on new shoots that develop from the buds of last year's shoots.
Pruning Young Bearing and Mature Vines: The basic muscadine plant consists of a trunk and cordons (the arms on the wire). Pruning is used to develop short lateral shoots called spurs off of the cordons. All shoot growth from last summer should be cut back to spurs with 2 to 4 buds each. Prune along the cordon to maintain a spacing of 6 inches between spurs. Over the years, as shoots are pruned back to spurs and the spurs give rise to more shoots, a single spur will become a many-branched spur cluster. Unless some of the spurs or entire spur clusters are removed, the muscadine vine may become a tangled, unmanageable mass of shoots and leaves. Strong new shoots growing from the cordon can be developed into new spurs to replace the older spur clusters. In addition to developing spurs it is also important to remove all growth from the main trunk as well as dead and diseased wood. The vines may "bleed," or ooze sap when pruned, but don't worry, that won't harm the plants.
Pruning Neglected Vines: If your muscadines have gone unpruned and have become a tangled mess, consider cutting them back to the original cordon. If you cut the entire plant back to the original cordon, however, you will have far less fruit next year. An alternative would be to prune one side back to the original cordon, and the other side back leaving only two to four buds of last summer's growth. Then next winter you can do the reverse by pruning the other side back to the cordon. You'll then have grapes each year and still be able to clean up your vines by next winter. On overgrown arbors, where you have seven or eight major branches, you can remove one or two large arms each year. That way, you can completely renovate the arbor in a few years.

More information on pruning muscadines can be found in Extension publication ANR 53-L. Publications are available at your local Extension office or can be found at the Alabama Cooperative Extension System website www.aces.edu.
Taylor Hatchett is a Home Grounds Regional Extension Agent with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. She can be reached by phone at 205-688-6499 or by email at boozetv@auburn.edu.