Welcome to wine country
An item at the top of every biologists list is grape leaves. Almost every deer examined in every study has grape leaves in its stomach. In some areas grape leaves account for over half of what is in the deer’s stomach.
Most of you will say grapes are grown in California not on my deer property, but actually you likely have a native wild species of grape, the muscadine. Muscadine is a very interesting and fantastic plant. It grows pretty much anywhere. It doesn’t really care what the soil is, wet/dry/sandy/clay…etc. It doesn’t mind being cut back to the ground over and over and over and over again. Bush hog it, chop it, spray it, you almost can’t kill it. it is the bane of many land managers and farmers. You pretty much cannot kill it unless you dig it up. Even then next year a racoon’s gonna swagger by one night and crap out some seeds and it starts all over again.
So good for us, nature provides a freebie plant here. Rarely do you ever have to go plant muscadine‘s or go buy muscadine plants for planting. They are already there! They are already actively growing and there is a really good chance you have some super mature muscadine vines already growing on your property. With a little management you will be amazed at the quality food source they provide for deer. High protein, high in digestible fiber, heck the Greeks wrap rice and sausage up in grape leaves and cook it in a little Eggroll shaped appetizer called Dolmas they are delicious!
Muscadine is a fantastic asset that can be managed in woodlands, clearings, open fields, old fields. It doesn’t really matter where it is, you can manage it so the deer can access and utilize the food source. Go walk around your favorite Woodland or bottomland stand locations. Look up in the trees and you’ll see them.
Sometimes it seems like hundreds of vines are running up the tree, sometimes the vines are as thick as your leg and look absolutely ancient all curled and gnarled. Follow the vine all the way up the tree to see where it goes, it will twine and tangle and circle and branch off but eventually you’ll come to the head of it. At the head there will be a mass of vegetation. There are the grape leaves Dr. Biologist was talking about he found all up in them nasty deer guts he sifts through for fun.
Looking up in the tree it’s hard to imagine how this mass of vegetation 40 foot up in a tree is going to help feed the deer. But then you take your handy dandy lopers or your ax or handsaw or chainsaw and cut the vine off at waist height, before it goes up the tree. That’s it, you just managed your first muscadine for deer, great work! Later when you come back to the same spot the massive wad of grape leaf vegetation will not be way up in the tree, it will be waist high and the deer will have hammered it all season long. Deer prefer the fresh green shoots as they sprout. Chopping the vine at waist level will put this mass of shoots that are going to be produced at an accessible height for the deer. Don’t feel bad cutting the vine you didn’t kill it you just pruned it. You didn’t hurt it, actually you kind of helped it.
If you’ve ever visited wine country in California you know that the grapevines are pruned back every year. They are kept short and shapely. This pruning technique maxes out the plants fruit and fresh tender shoot production. Which is exactly what we want from the plant.
Now walk around your stand and cut just about every vine you can get to. Leave a few vines uncut and in/up the tree. The vegetation and fruit production from those vines will produce cover and food for birds squirrels raccoons and various other animals, and remember, we need their poop so we have to provide some habitat for them. But in stand locations it’s OK to have quite a few Vines kept at waist level.
These cuttings will need to be re-trimmed every other year or so or the vine will eventually make its way right back up the tree to the top and away from the Nibling teeth of your trophy deer herd. Yearly pruning of vines is super easy with a gas or electric hedge trimmer, just go to your original cut and whack off all the little vines sprouting from it. Pruning is also possible with hand shears, saws or lopers. In some areas not accessible by power tools I just use hand bypass pruners.
One of the greatest things about muscadine is how well it responds to fertilizer. An interesting thing happens when you fertilize muscadine, as well as many of the plants we discuss in these writings. The protein content goes through the roof. You can often take a 7%-10% protein plant, fertilize it and the plant’s protein levels will almost overnight hit 25%. The growth will become lush and green tender shoots will abound and the deer will absolutely take notice. Deer will always eat muscadine leaves but after watching a nanny doe feed on a pruned and fertilized vine you will definitely agree that they prefer the lush growth of a fertilized muscadine.