BTW - I'm not picky about color, I'll try the blacks, reds, or bronze ones.

This publication mentions cold hardiness for dofferent cultivars.

http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p2290.pdf

Vines can also be laid down and buried in earth or thick mulch for winter.

The descriptions in the Ison's Nursery and the Bottom's Nursery websites might help for other characteristics of the fruit.

According to the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, "Carlos, Magnolia, and Sterling are three of the most consistently cold-hardy varieties. Noble and Nesbitt are also more cold hardy."

From what I've read the most common problems with them and the cold is that sometimes the cordons will die back from cold damage. The plant's roots survive, but you loose the cordons and must start over with new growth after a bad freeze. They also seem sensitive to warm spells during winter to which they start coming out of dormancy and then get bitten back by cold snaps afterwards. Planting with east exposures might be best with protection from cold northwest winds and warm southwest sun. I'm in a 6b-7a zone, where I'm trying to grow 3 of them in large containers and trained to a PVC arbor that stands in the container. I'm planning to bring mine inside the garage for the winter. There are wild grapes that grow along the fence line behind my lot, and they seem to get killed back to the base about half the time over the past few winters, so I'm going to try to protect mine. Also don't prune them until all thread of frost is past, because it will stimulate new growth.

Here is a link that might be useful: Muscadine PDF file from NC Coop Ext Serv

I have found they can often take lows down to about zero without much dieback. Maybe even a couple degrees lower than that. But if you are getting -5F or colder most winters its probably not worth it. I found Supreme and Darlene more hardy than Carlos so I'm not sure what to make of that NC recommendation.

Scott

Supreme and Darlene are both newer varieties with really great fruit from everything I've read. The NC Coop Ext Serv mentioned several of the other new varieties including Supreme, for people to try. They are making recommendations not just for home growers with a few vines, but also for farmers that are planting many acres of vines, so they don't recommend new varieties until there is lots of experience with them. Darlene is a patented variety from a grower in middle Georgia. Having lived in Macon, GA for several years, I can swear that it is hotter than hades. Plants developed for summers with triple digit temps and dew points near 90 are not the first ones that come to mind for cold hardiness, although heat and cold tolerance are not always mutually exclusive.

From what I've read about both Supreme and Darlene, they both produce really great fruit when they've got the right conditions, but there seems to be some question of what those conditions are. Researchers are getting conflicting results with great crops in some places and not-so-great in others. Some confusion from the test plots is that there is no clear indication of why they have not done well in the areas where they have not.

One of the reasons it is so great to grow our own fruits is that we can grow varieties that produce great fruit in our location, even though that variety may not function well for commercial growers elsewhere.

Another website that has really detailed information on all kinds of fruit including muscadines, is the small fruit growers consortium. They consolidate information from lots of the state Coop Ext Services along with commercial growers experience with fruits.

Here is a link that might be useful: other muscadine varities

Scott,

Do you still have muscadine in your yard? I live over in Roland Park (we have met before) and im curious how yours are doing. I dont have the varietals you mentioned. Mine are very slow growing and the young shoots have a hard time keeping leaves (i think they are being eaten) Over all they are much slower to thicken than my other grape vines.

Brendan, Musdadines are doing great here in N. VA. I have 8 varieties and they are all very tasty. They have different characteristics to them though. My favorite one for taste is Black Beauty. My best self fertile vine are Triumph and Late Fry. The consistently biggest one is Sweet Jenny. However they are all very good and different enough to be interesting and irreplaceable by another. Except for Ison...I am still trying to figure out when to pick them. It's a beautiful vine and made a lot of grapes but taste is no where near the others. I may take it out next year.