Hi Kiwinut. Thanks for the link!! I appear to have a mix of male and female. One weekend about 2 years after I moved in to my house my neighbor cut all my vines down while I was away one weekend so he could put up a fence. Grrrrr. When I got home I was livid (as you might imagine). He actually said "You don't want these old things, they're so messy." I have been babying the vines back and last year there was some production, maybe 2 or 3 pounds. I have at least 3 female vines and I believe I may have 5 or 6. (They are already past blooming and some are forming fruit.) So I guess I'm looking for details on pruning, feeding, etc. to maximize the production. Cheers, Whynotmi

You could try covering part of a runner with dirt and after a while, couple weeks or so cutt it loose from the original vine but leave it in the ground where it is and see what happens. If is fox grapes they do not very well in direct sun they do well in part sun/part shade

Rubythorne, where in MO are you? In SE MO (bootheel, my youthful home area), there is a wild grape (Vitis rotundifolia), commonly called Muscadine and/or Scuppernong grape, that are very sweet and are used extensively in the SE US for jam, jelly and home wine making. They are a fairly tender species and probably wouldn't survive if winter temperatures fall below 0F for a length of time. Many wild grapes are dioecious, requiring male & female vines, usually within 25 ft. of each other. Some selections and hybrids have been bred that are monoecious (hermaphroditic), having male & female flowers on the same plant. These are one's that are usually available from nurseries. Good luck on your quest!

Wild grapes with larger fruits are likely forms of or hybrids involving Vitis vinifera. The most common native grapes in NY are Vitis aestivalis, V. vulpina, V. riparia, and V. labrusca. The latter two are quite difficult to tell apart. They normally have small, blue-black fruit, a "foxy" flavor, and usually become more palatable after frost. Cornell has a website devoted to grape culture but I don't know how useful it would be for identification Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell - Grapes