The retail garden shop and the farm are now open on Sundays too! Now normal open hours are Wednesday through Saturday 9:05 to 5:08. Sunday 11:00 to 5:00. Closed Holidays: July 4th, Christmas (Dec. 25-Jan. 3), Thanksgiving Day, and Easter Sunday.

ONLINE ORDERS: We are now taking online orders. Shipping season is October through May; order early to get the best selection. New arrivals and crops in progress are becoming available weekly. Please feel free to put your choice(s) on the Wait List. We'll notify you when the crop is ready. More Shipping Info...

Grape Vines

Muscadine and Bunch Grapes

Harvesting home grown grapes on a long hot summer day is one of the true pleasures of living in the deep South. The South is famous for their muscadine grapes.These spicy-sweet thick-skinned grapes are often found growing in the wild areas and along the sunny edges of the wood lands. They thrive with little care, and the vines can remain productive for 100 years! Modern breeding has brought us a wonderful range of varieties: wine grapes for the home vintner and jelly maker, plus delicious fresh-eating varieties, some as large as golf balls! Thanks largely due to the University of Florida we can now enjoy several varieties of bunch grapes as well. In the past we were mostly limited to wild bunch grapes but a UF breeding program started in the 50’s helped create several varieties with resistance to Pierce’s Disease. Florida now has a thriving wine industry built on from these new cultivars. Many of the wines created from these varieties have won awards on the national level and are treasured for their unique flavors.

Pollinating Muscadine Grapes
Muscadine grape varieties come as either self fertile or female plants. The self fertile varieties do not need pollinator and are the right choice to buy if you only want to plant one vine. The female varieties will not bear fruit without a pollinator. Use the self fertile varieties to pollinate them. One self-pollinating grape variety will pollinate up to four female grape plants.

Grapes and Trellising
One arm, two arm, horizontal versus overhead arbor. Oh my gosh, which one shall we do?? The basic story is you do need to train and prune grapes and kiwis to get them to fruit. Overhead arbors are beautiful additions to the orchard and offer a wonderful place to sit and rest and enjoy the view. They are a little more work to set up and prune, but well worth the effort. The single wire trellis is the simplest method, and the one most used by the commercial grower. Two and three wire horizontal trellises offer great possibility for use as living fences. And last, but not least, is the tee bar trellis, which is my personal favorite. It offers me the greatest yield for the least amount of labor in pruning and is the easiest to pick. We’ll provide you a great hand-out in your shipment that explains how to use these various methods.