Share









While many crops suffer from Georgia’s drought, irrigated
muscadine
grapes are actually prospering.



“With muscadines, if they have good irrigation systems,
growers actually prefer dry conditions during harvest,” said
Gerard Krewer, a small fruits scientist with the University of
Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
“From
a disease standpoint, the plants perform much better in dry
weather.”



Dry Weather = Cleaner Crop



Krewer said muscadine growers like slightly dry weather
because
it makes for a “cleaner crop with fewer diseases.”



Gary Paulk of Paulk Vineyards in Wray, Ga., agrees. “When
the weather is drier,” he said, “the leaves don’t get
foliar diseases, and the result is cleaner vines and more fruit.
If it gets too dry, the vines can suffer. But we aren’t seeing
that yet.”



Paulk said this year is an above-average year for muscadines.
And he should know. His family has grown muscadines for 25 years,
and their current vineyard includes 300 acres of grapes.



Like the Paulk family, most muscadine growers in Georgia
irrigate
their vineyards. That’s another reason this year’s drought hasn’t
caused them to panic.



The More Water, The Better



Just because dry weather cuts down on muscadine diseases
doesn’t
mean muscadines don’t like water.



UGA horticulturist Scott NeSmith is in the final year of a
three-year irrigation study. “We’ve applied different levels
of drip irrigation to muscadines,” NeSmith said. “And
so far, the more water you give them, the larger the
yield.”



The muscadine yields in his research plots have increased by
35 percent over a two-year period. “With more water, the
plants also set and carry more fruit, and the overall health of
the plant is much better,” he said.



No Sweeter



The increase in water doesn’t cause the plant to produce
larger
or sweeter fruit. “Muscadines aren’t like table
grapes,”
NeSmith said. “They don’t get sweeter as more water is
applied
to the plant.”



Paulk says 1999 appears to be a good year economically for
muscadine growers. “The price of California grapes is higher
this year, and that’s helping our sales,” he said. “If
people are in the market for grapes, ours are a much better
buy.”



Paulk said the nutritional value of muscadines also helps with
sales.



“Muscadines contain high levels of resveratrol, which
is a compound doctors say helps prevent cancer and heart
disease,”
he said.



The muscadine season in Georgia runs from early August through
early October.



(Photo by Sharon Omahen, University of Georgia College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)