How to Prune Healthy Muscadines

Muscadine grapes are native to North America, preferring the warmer climates in the southern half of the country; they do best in the less arid conditions of the Southeast. Healthy muscadine grape plants must be pruned annually to promote new growth and improve fruit production. Regular pruning should occur while the plant is dormant so as not to interfere with its growth. Muscadine grapes typically go into dormancy within the first month or two of winter.

Pruning shears
Garden shears
Pruning saw
Pruning loppers
Rubbing alcohol
Bleach

Instructions

- 1
  Sterilize your pruning tools. Dip them either in rubbing alcohol, or a solution of 10 percent bleach and 90 percent water. Shake off the excess liquid and allow them to air dry. If trimming multiple plants, sterilize the tools after pruning each plant.
- 2
  Remove the suckers from your muscadine plants. Suckers are small shoots that grow near the bases of plants – these shoots suck up nutrients before they can get to the main body of the plant. Cut them as close to the trunk as possible with a pair of clean garden shears.
- 3
  Prune all side shoots with a pair of pruning shears during the dormant season, beginning around the middle of January. Count the buds from the end of each shoot – make your cut at about the third bud on each shoot. This will promote new growth and fruit production the following season.
- 4
  Check the main plant for dead wood. It is perfectly normal for a healthy plant to have branches that have died while the rest of the plant goes on living. Look for brittle branches and nick them with your fingernail. If the wood is brown, cut away the branch with a pair of loppers. Use a pruning saw for particularly thick branches.

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