On the back of my property, we have some serious grape growing going on. They are overtaking a huge pine tree. Anyway, I want to know what kind they are, so I can possibly make some jelly, jams, and maybe even wine. I tried searching the web, to no avail. I'm too lazy to go to Barnes and Nobles to find a book. I thought I'd check on here, and if I dont get anything, I'd cut some of it and take it to a local nursery. I'll keep anyone who is interested posted on my findings. I'd really like to try my hand at wine making!

Do they look like this?

http://www.noble.org/imagegallery/Woodhtml/MustangGrape.html

Up around Tyler we used to have plenty of these growing on out trees. We never did anything with them other than just eat them while playing around (no wine/jellyies/etc). A search on google for 'mustang grapes' gives more info on them.

Ask Messina Hof, they only grow one type of grape here and bring the rest in from around Lubbock or California. I can't remember what type they grow here though.

If they're taking over the tree, they're probably the "mustang grapes" also known as muscadines. If you've ever had muscadine wine (it goes down like soda) you'd definitely try your hand at the wine making!

Messina Hof brought in their original vines for the winery from Italy if I remember correctly, so unless his property backs up to theirs, I doubt he is finding their grapes.

Mustang Grape
Vitis mustangensis
Vitaceae

Mustang grape favors disturbed ground, fence rows, woodland edges and sandy slopes in the eastern half of Texas, east to Louisiana and north into Arkansas and Oklahoma. Althought its fruit is usually pungent and unpleasant, the fruits of the variety diversa are actually sweet and have often been used in wine-making. This is a high-climbing vine which tolerates great heat and drought. The lower surface of its leaves is very white and densely hairy, a noticeable ornamental feature. It is reported to be largely resistant to Phylloxera and hybridizes with several other grape species.

Plant Habit or Use: vine

Exposure: sun
partial sun

Flower Color: white

Blooming Period:

Fruit Characteristics: purple - black berry

Height: 30 to 40 feet

Width:

Plant Character: deciduous

Heat Tolerance: high

Water Requirements:

Soil Requirements: neutral
alkaline

USDA Hardiness Zone: 7

The only grape native to the United States, and which is especially prevalent in this area, is the Mustang grape, a.k.a. Muscadine. It's really prevalent in this part of Texas, and unless the previous owner of your property did some gardening and planted one of the more traditional varieties, the chance of it being Muscadine is probably about 95%.

Actually, it's really prevalent in Metroplex, where I'm from. They actually named a town after them (Grapevine), and their mascot is the Mustang. They're EVERYWHERE up there!

They don't get real big, and I don't believe they turn purple, so it can be kind of hard to tell when they are ripe. I'd guess they'd probably ripen in the later half of the summer, since that's when Messina Hoff is doing their main harvest.

-Treloni

Thanks guys! I'm stoked about them possibly being used for wine. I've got some ideas for wine flavors to make them unique to Texas. Doubt I'll start competing with Messina Hoff or anything crazy like that, but I wouldn't mind making some bottles to give to friends.


Now, anyone know what types of grapes would make me go blind if I made them into wine?

Okay, I've already learned a great deal about these grapes. I'm pretty sure it is a cluster of Muscadine grapes. Especially because it is climing up to 25+ feet into a tree like one article mentioned. Now I'm trying to get a recipe into making a wine. If anyone has any insight please let me know!

is my computer the only one with a google function?

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/mustang.asp

Late to the game on this, but what you describe are definitely mustang grapes. We have them all over the place on our property over in Grimes county. I also have read they make great wine and jelly. Good luck!

texag87,

Obviously by googling wine making I could find recipes. However, maybe someone on this board has experimented, can tell me which ones to use and which to stay away from. I always wonder why it pains people who go to an open forum when others ask questions. Confusing.

You did, however, provide a great website. Thanks.

I have made wine with the wild Muscadine's for many years. One of the best recipe's I have run across can be found at this website; "defalcos.com". They have everything that you might need or want. There is also a business between Brenham and Bellville; The Vineyard Shoppe. Pretty good source of items needed to ferment a decent wine. Also there are numerous wine grower sites that you can go to. There are 3 varieties of grapes that do well also in this area if you want to get crazy and add additional vines. The Champanel, Blanc du Bois, and Black Spanish grapes do well in this climate. Have fun!

There are some freggin geniouses (I can't even spell geniouses) on this site!

No, we are not "geniouses", just Aggies! Also doesn't hurt to be a wino or a pseudo drunk; but never an alcoholic. Alcoholics have to attend all of those **** meetings. Cuts into my wine drinking time.

Anyone who doesn't think Agriculture is cool is crazy. I actually love this stuff!

You are the man Jeremy! Agriculture rules. I think there are both Mustang and Muscadine wild varieties here around BCS. Eat a couple down on the river just yesterday. VERY sour-would make great jelly or jam I'd bet.



http://www.therefinersfire.org/ibp.htm

some great information on this thread!

by the way, would mustang grow well in austin area?

Okay Im no expert, but after much more reading, I have no clue why they wouldn't. They grow rampant around these parts.

Mustang and Muscadine are one in the same as far as grapes go. The Mustang name is a slang or common name for the Muscadine grapes that grow in profusion in the area. There are male and female plants, and yes as in most of nature the female plants are the only ones that bear fruit. But they can't do without the males of course, as it should be. If you are going to plant Muscadine grapes in the Austin or any area you will need to either root some from a producing vine in the wild (not the easiest plant to root, but it can be done), or get some from the nurseries. There are improved varieties of Muscadines, like Cowart and Norton. I can't remember all of the names but you can Google them or look for AgExstention pubs. and you can find them that way. The rooting process will take about 2 years before you have any grapes to speak of; the nursery route is a little quicker. They are a great grape to grow because of their hardiness and tolerence to diseases and such. Their fruit is a challenge for wine because of the high acidity, but it can be done and it can produce some good quality wine. They do make excllent jellies however. Good luck, and yes Agriculture is cool!

Late to this discussion, also.

Just yesterday I discovered a large vine of these grapes growing about 8-10 feet up in the trees at the back of our property. We've had the place for about a year and never saw them before.

They are already ripe (as evidenced by many falling to the ground), so I picked a bunch to try. As mentioned above, they are very sour, but have a sweetness that seems like they'd make a good jelly.

Anyway, I couldn't believe the coincidence of this thread being on here at the time I discovered these.

By the way, thanks to everyone for all the good information. It is great to be an Ag!

In high school our family would head out from Houston to go pick mustang grapes along the roads just west of town. My father would make them in to jelly. It is more tart than normal grape jelly, but persoanlly I though it nwas excellent. I have heard that the mustang wines are also excellent.

Wow, 2 years later and I still haven't tried any of this. I am so lazy. Well, I've eaten some of these grapes and the skin is very tart and the pulp is very sweet. I think they will make great jam and jellies. I'm 'bout to find out!

Mustangs grow all around here. When I was in high school my family would drive out from Houston and pick gapes from the public right of way along a bunch of Farm to Market and County Roads in an area roughly bounded by Brenham, Brookshire and Navasota. We would make jelly from them, which actually takes quite a few grapes.

But the jelly was good. My dad knew a guy when he was in school whose family made mustang grape wine, he walys said he remembered it was fairly strong.

The trick to eating Mustang or Muscadine grapes raw, I learned 40+ years ago picking them from the backs of horses hanging over gravel country roads ... pop the skin and eat the inside. The skins are have the extremely acidic bite, the "meat" is sweet.

Per previous poster, their jelly can be heavenly. I remember having it on toast before school in the winter, thinking it was a taste of summer.

We used to eat scuppernongs all the time in south Alabama when I was growing up. They're probably somehow related because I think they're native. I never ate the skin, it was too bitter.

Maybe it's just what we call them in the deep south.

Mustang grapes. They make wonderful, beautiful rosy jelly. I grew up on that jelly and I won't touch that nasty purple stuff at the store. Your hands will itch badly during the cleaning, though.

Our family made "mustang" grape jelly every summer for years. We usually made about 100 quarts that we used through the year and gave as teacher gifts. It has a wonderful flavor that is sweet but with a hint of tartness. We even made sugar-free jelly. We were fortunate that there was a single vine that grew along the chain link fence behind my children's elementary school. We were able to stand on the sidewalk and pick without weeds, without snakes, and without ladders. And NO the vine isn't in B/CS. ;-)

Shevy - thanks for mentioning that. This is the first year we've had mustang grapes grow in our yard and I went in and cut a few in half to get a look at what was inside. (I didn't know anything about mustang grapes at the time.) Juice ran down my hand and it itched for the rest of the day. I was hoping it wasn't some allergy I wasn't aware of.

Since most of the grapes are too high for us to pick, does anyone know if we can cut the vine back and re-route it to a lower support for next year?

Yes, you can cut them back and route the new growth. It grows pretty fast in my back yard.

Warning: Mustang grape bird poo needs to be cleaned off vehicles asap, if you don't want the paint damaged.

Several years ago the family lived in north Louisiana. Wild mustang grape vines were in abundance on the back side of the property we rented. Our favorite use of the grapes was jelly.

If you are a newbie to mustang grapes, know that the process is labor intensive. The ones we had access to were small, about the size of small marbles so it took a tub full to make a single batch of jelly. Plus, since you use only the juice you discard more than half your bulk of your picking as skins and seeds.

We did not have a press so we did the squeezing by wrapping a few handfuls inside a muslin cloth and twisting and mashing that until all the juice was extracted. Once the juice was collected, the remaining process was the same as for any other jelly.

Mustang grape jelly is sure worth the time and effort.

It's good to keep them growing low, too, because they will eventually kill the trees because of lack of sunlight. I used to climb up on top of the barn and chicken house to pick ours. Not many of ours were low enough to pick from the ground.

Where I come from they call them muscadines or bullises or scuppernongs.

It will fling a craving on you.

Time to put the chairs in the wagon

just here to clarify some information about the differences between mustang and muscadine grapes. here we have mustang grapes. they have rough topped leaves and a velvety white bottom of the leaf. the grapes are acidic to the point of being sour. they also have perfect flowers meaning they don't need a opposite sex plant to reproduce. these will ripen dark blue to black during late June to early July.

people are referring to them as muscadines which are a separate species and this causes a lot of confusion for someone doing actual research on muscadines. muscadines have smooth leaves with green tops and green bottoms. smooth as well. the fruits when ripe depending on sub species can be ripened to bronze or dark blue to black. these fruits are generally larger than commercial grapes and while still being slightly acidic are much sweeter than mustang grapes. muscadines have many varieties and are even used commercially in some wineries. these will ripen from august to early September.

also muscadines are generally only referred to as the dark colored fruit while the bronze fruit is called scuppernongs. there are differences in the tastes between these two. with one being sweeter, and one having a more foxy taste (some people call muscadines fox grapes)