Vol. 130 (2017): Proceedings of the Florida State Horticultural Society
Krome Memorial Institute (Tropicals)

A Primary Study on the Abnormal Fruiting of Seedless Muscadine Grapes

Published 2017-06-15

Abstract

To provide consumers and grape industry with the highly demanded seedless muscadine grapes, a preliminary investigation was done on the productivity of seedless muscadine grapes with several breeding lines obtained by the Center for Viticulture, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL, and ‘Fry Seedless’, the only seedless muscadine grape cultivar available. The work revealed for the first time that stigma necrosis during blooming is a severe epidemic with seedless muscadine grapes, it could be responsible for the markedly low fruit settings and yields of the seedless muscadine grape vines. The fruit setting, productivity, and fruit size of seedless muscadine grapes could be improved significantly with vineyard management.