I had the pleasure of moderating the “Muscadine Session” this past Saturday at the Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference in Savannah.
Many of our muscadine industry leaders here in Georgia contributed to this session, including Dr. Patrick Conner (UGA Hort. Dept.), Greg Ison (Ison’s Nursery), and Simone Bergese (Chateau Elan).
Greg presented on cultural practices and market potential of muscadine grapes.
Simone presented on commercial production of white wine, and highlighted nuances that pertain to the production of premium white wines made from bronze-skinned muscadine cultivars, such as ‘Carlos’.
Dr. Patrick Conner presented on his newest, self-fertile, fresh market muscadine cultivar ‘Paulk’. This cultivar produces large crops – perhaps too large. As such, it may benefit from crop load management in order to balance resource allocation to vegetative vine tissues. However, it has many attractive traits that make it a competitive option for commercial production of fresh market musadines when compared to the female-flowered cultivar ‘Supreme’. Plans are underway to plant Paulk and other self-fertile muscadine cultivars at the Horticulture Farm in Watkinsville, GA, where best cultural management practices will be evaluated.
Please read more about this cultivar here:
https://www.caes.uga.edu/news/story.html?storyid=6446&story=New-Muscadine-Variety
Thanks to all who participated in the muscadine session – both speakers and attendees.
Cain
