QDMA Articles :
Natural Species Profile -- Wild Grapes
By: By Kent Kammermeyer
Origin/Description
Wild grapes (Vitis spp.) are native to the U.S. and found in the
wild in all corners except some of the Rocky Mountain states.
Muscadine grapes and leaves found in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic
states are highly preferred by deer. All other grape leaves are
not preferred, but the bunched fruit is high on a whitetail’s
list as well as ruffed grouse, wild turkey, black bear, raccoon,
and many species of non-game animals and songbirds.
The different species of grapes (over 30) vary in the detail of
their broad leaves, in the size and quantity of their fruit and
in other characteristics, but all are valuable to wildlife. Various
common names for grape varieties include summer, downy-winter,
frost, november, chicken, fox, possum, sugar, red, catbird, calusa,
mustang, wine, riverbank, sand, canyon, desert, pilgrim, graybark,
and others.
Most species occur in moist to somewhat dry forests from new forest
plantations to mature forests forming arbors on shrubs and in
small tree canopies. They occur along forest edges and less often
along stream or river banks, spreading by vine growth and animal
and gravity-dispersed seeds. Small, soft-skinned grapes mature
from June to October in dangling clusters ranging in color from
black to white-waxy. The muscadine is a distinctive grape native
to the Southeast and largely grown there. Vines are strong growers
and quite disease-resistant. Fruit is borne singly or in small
clusters of less than a half dozen berries. Fruit skin is tough
and separates from the pulp. Berries are nearly round, three-fourths
to one inch or more in diameter.
Grapes are highly nutritious with one cup producing 16 grams of
carbohydrates in addition to 13 mg calcium, 5 mg magnesium, 9
mg phosphorus, and 176 mg potassium. This compares favorably with
apples and other fruits available to deer.
Varieties/Management
Of course, just as with other wild fruits, deer managers can fertilize
wild vines with a complete fertilizer in early spring before blooming
begins. Even with fertilizer, however, the yield of wild grapes
varies greatly from year to year with total failures occurring
sometimes. There are few serious pests of wild grapes with the
exception of the Japanese beetle, which has a strong partiality
for its leaves. As with apples, pears, blackberries, and other
fruits that deer relish, I suspect that many of you you may wish
to grow some for the deer and yourselves.
If you live from Delaware to the Gulf and westward to Missouri
and Texas, your choice should be the muscadine. The plant may
be injured by minimum winter temperatures of 0 degrees and should
not be grown where temperatures frequently go below 10 degrees.
As with all grapes, muscadines need full sun with good air drainage.
Best results are obtained from well-drained sandy loams with a
pH of 5.5 to 6.5. They will not tolerate low, wet ground. In the
first year, apply one-half pound of 10-10-10 after planting and
then one-eighth pound of ammonium nitrate in late May and again
in early June. Spread fertilizer in two bands 12 to 14 inches
from trunk. Repeat in the second year, doubling amounts and lengthening
bands to four feet. Thereafter, apply two to four pounds of complete
fertilizer each March and one-half pound ammonium nitrate each
June in a six-foot long band beginning one foot from the tree.
Annual pruning must be severe to keep new fruiting wood coming
and to prevent vines from becoming tangled masses of unproductive
wood.
For further details and literature on other varieties (especially
northern adapted), contact your state extension or county extension
specialist. Literature from Cornell College of Agriculture and
the University of Minnesota Extension Services has particularly
good information on grapes as does the California Rare Fruit Growers,
Inc. Grown properly, there should be plenty of grapes for both
you and your deer herd!
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