Welcome to Garden Web. I thought you might like to know there is no email link on your member page, thus no way to email you. To set up your email, just go to the bottom on any page here, and click on Member Pages Then click on Edit your Personal Information, Page, and Preferences You will then probably be asked to login in again. Once there, set the drop down box to Show my email address to MEMBERS And then check the box Allow other users to send you email via forms at our site. That will place a link on your member page, and will also show your email address to anyone you email about a trade. While there editing, you may want to fill in your state abbreviation. It goes in the one box provided as for the garden zone. Some traders (myself included) like to know the state the member is in b4 responding to a trade. Happy Gardening and trading. Sue

Thanks for all the info on this thread. I'm not interested in spraying things to death so I guess avoiding vinifera is a good idea as initially planned. I agree there are a ton of awesome tasting fruit you can grow easier anyway. Some are completely new to my palette like the paw paw and I really enjoy them. But one of the only fruit new to me that I haven't been able to appreciate its flavor is the muscadine--I really haven't like it at all the two times I've had it so far--but it must have been suboptimal fruit in terms of ripeness. What muscadine varieties are you enjoying? I heard there are sweets and sours... I think I must have had an unripe sour!!! I might be able to do with the skin and the pits if the flesh was nice--but mine was all bad inside and out. Do you spit the skin? PS You wouldn't even recommend those two vinifera Muscats you like? Even those are big spraying headaches and you don't get much fruit?

Bart, the primary difference in the grapes you mention is your wine grapes are pure vinafera and the table grapes are hybrid vinafera/american. There is some difference in table vs wine but the vinafera/hybrid difference is bigger. Most hybrid grapes are much more resistant to diseases but it does vary from variety to variety. I am a primarily organic grower and I found vinafera a huge pain which took up way too much of my time so I pulled out my wine grapes this spring. I now have primarily hybrids and just a couple vinafera table grapes. Usually by now I have had to do 4-5 sprays but this year I have done only one and the grapes still look fine (even the couple vinafera look fine - their neighbors are all un-diseased and that must help). So, a rough guide is half or fewer sprays are needed; save your tank leftovers for them. As far as pruning goes I used the same for all types but I am not in to all of the subtle stuff of grape pruning. Some table varieties are considered better pruned to canes and other pruned to spurs, but I always used spur pruning for all my grapes. Scott

I wondered if anyone in the Tacoma Area is doing wine grapes and, if so, what works and what doesn't? I'm into dessert muscat types, like Gewurztraminer and have a lot of French hybrids as well. Would like to find a Riesling vine locally to make some cross pollenation attempts on a vine.