Today, breeders have created many grape varieties, from the most delicate to adapted for growing in difficult farming. One of the best in quality compares favorably from the variety - Platovsky variety. About it and will be discussed in the article.

Breeding History and Breeding Region

Grapes of the Platovsky variety, or as it is also called for the early ripening Early Dawn, is the result of the work of Novocherkassk breeders of the All-Russian Research Institute named after Y. I. Potapenko. Scientists-breeders crossed the Hungarian cultivar Zaladende and the Ukrainian Gift of Magarach. Although Platovsky was conceived for technical purposes, he inherited the best features of his “parents”.

Grade description

Shrub formation is fast - about two years. By the third year, the process ends, the bush becomes medium-tall, with large rounded and slightly dissected light green leaves with an elongated purple petiole, with serrated edges and five lobes with bright veins. Small brushes, weighing no more than 250 g, having an appetizing cylindrical-conical shape with medium density.

The berries are spherical greenish-yellow in color, with an abundance of sunny days, they become pinkish. The flesh of the berries is juicy, exquisite sweet and sour taste with a subtle muscat tint. The shell of the berries is soft, but durable, which gives the variety good transportability.

Did you know? Ripe grapes contain from 14 to 24% soluble and well-digestible sugars necessary for the human body in the form of fructose and glucose.

Variety characteristics Platovsky

The Early Dawn variety, bred for cultivation in various climatic zones, is unpretentious and has a stable crop.

This technical grade is characterized by:

1. Frost resistance - without warming it is able to tolerate frosts up to –29 ° С.
2. No need for shelter.
3. Resistance to diseases such as powdery mildew, downy mildew, gray rot, pests - phylloxera.
4. Preference for growing in neutral and slightly acidic soils.
5. Early ripeness, vegetative period 110–115 days.
6. Middle height.
7. Cavity of flowers.
8. Sugar content of 20.2-21%.
9. Acidity - 8.9 g / l.
10. The beginning of the fertile age is in the 2nd year of life.

Productivity

The early dawn is notable for its enviable fecundity, its yield indicators are impressive:

1. Under favorable conditions, from the bush you can get 5-6 kg of berries, from 1 hectare - 300 centners per year.
2. The mass of berries is from 2 to 4 g, the bunch is 120 g.
3. The ripening of the variety is 80–85%.
4. One shoot gives 1-3 brushes, and the total fertility of the variety reaches 90%.

Did you know? In grapes, there are over 150 biologically active substances.

Advantages and disadvantages of the variety

• Speaking about the merits of the Platovsky variety, the following should be noted:
• Unpretentious to the environment in which it grows, has the ability to adapt.
• It is resistant to many fungal diseases.
• He does not need additional care measures (for example, shelters for the winter period).
• Maintains productivity even under adverse environmental conditions.
• Ripe brushes are able to remain on the bush for a long time (up to a month), continuing the accumulation of sugar and preserving all the qualities.
• In addition to fresh consumption, excellent grapes, wines and berries are easily dried from this grape.
• It has good transportability.
• It grows particularly fast in the first 12 months after planting.

The minuses of the Early Dawn are few. Noteworthy shortcomings include the modest size of berries and weaker productivity compared to table varieties.

Using

The variety has wide application, namely:

1. In industrial winemaking, it produces high-quality table and dessert wine.
2. In an individual household, in addition to using fresh berries, they make juice, syrup, preserves, homemade wines from them.
3. Due to good frost resistance, they are used for decorating territories of summer cottages and facades of private houses.

Features of planting and growing

Despite the unpretentiousness of the variety, Platovsky has features in planting and agricultural technology. Let us dwell on this in more detail.

Seat selection

The seat must meet the following requirements:

1. A lighted, unshaded place with virgin soil or where before 3 to 5 years old seed and stone plants were grown.
2. There should not be old vines at the proposed planting site, otherwise they will oppress the young plant.
3. The depth of groundwater on the site should be from a meter to a meter and a half.

Important! If for some reason the site selected for landing is periodically flooded, an embankment with a height of 0.5-1.2 m will be required .

Grade Care

The yield of the Early Dawn depends on the care of the grapes. Although the variety does not need special care, the basic requirements for its cultivation must be known.

Loosening and watering

Loosening is carried out as necessary with planned weeding. In the dry period - more often, preventing the soil from turning into a dry lump. Water the plant immediately after planting with 5 liters of warm water weekly for 30 days. After - 2 times every 30 days.

Ripe grapes should be watered only a few times during the season, in the springtime:

1. After the shelter is removed (if any).
2. 7 days before the buds bloom.
3. At the end of flowering.

On a bush 4 liters of not cold settled water will be required. Before watering in a tank with water, pour half a kilogram of furnace (vegetable) ash. It is preferable to water less often, but plentifully. It is ideal that the liquid is introduced through a pipe dug up when planting a bush. If there is none, you need to dig holes (at a distance of 0.3 m from the bush with a depth of 25 cm) into which water is poured. Upon completion of irrigation, they are covered with earth. Watering is stopped when berries ripen. In the autumn season, on the eve of the shelter of the culture, they make the final watering - it will help the grapes to winter.

Important! When watering, water should not fall on the stems and leaves of grapes.

Top dressing

The most effective feed is organic potassium (ash, rotted manure, lake silt), however, mineral fertilizers can also be used. An important detail: if watering was already used when planting a seedling, then systematic fertilizers should be applied only in the third year, since by that time the bush will grow and begin to bear fruit.

Top dressing is made according to the following scheme:

1. The first is introduced at the beginning of spring, in the period after the snow melts and before the leaves appear. Used slurry with superphosphate (30 g) and potassium salt (30 g). If there is no organic fertilizer - urea or ammonium nitrate.
2. The second feeding - during the formation of buds.
3. The third - during the ripening of the first berries.

In the second and third fertilizers, only potash and phosphorus additives are used, which are introduced into the soil dissolved in water or in dry form. Also, for early dawn, non-root treatment is favorable - spraying on the sheets "Novofert", "Kemira", "Aquarin". Such recharge is made in the evening or on a cloudy day.

Tying and trimming

The purpose of a grape's garter is to make it easier to care for. To do this, it is necessary to install the supports, stretch the wire between them. Branches can be tied as convenient: vertically, horizontally or in an arc. Shoots are attached to the structure at an angle. This is done to ensure uniform sunlight and to prevent breakage under the weight of the crop.

Important! If live branches are removed in the spring, “tears” will begin to be released from the grapes, as a result of which the eyes will turn sour, yield will decrease and the bush may die.

Pruning is done in autumn, spring and summer, while:

1. Autumn - to remove excess stems with leaves. From 6 to 80 eyes are kept on the bush, 4 eyes on the branch.
2. In the spring, exclusively dried or frozen branches are removed.
3. In the summer, weakened and infertile stepsons are eliminated. Also, to increase the gustatory qualities, the leaves blocking the bunches are cut off.

Shelter for the winter

For the winter, the need to shelter grapes exists in an area with a harsh winter or with one when it rarely snows.

The procedure for sheltering the culture is as follows:

1. Cut the plant and remove from the frame.
2. Tuck the bushes with soil.
3. Mount metal arches on top, on which to pull agrofibre.
4. In order to prevent grapes from boiling over, make the entry and exit open, close them in case of cooling to –15 ° С.
5. In addition - in the winter, throw snow on the bushes.

Did you know? The oldest vine is about four hundred years old. It grows in the Slovenian city of Maribor.

Diseases and pests: protection and prevention

The variety is resistant to such dangerous diseases as oidium, mildew and gray rot. If you follow agricultural standards and rules, the risk of disease is minimal. But it is also necessary to protect the culture by preventive spraying - in spring and summer with a 3% solution of copper sulfate in milk of lime, and if a disease has occurred or pests have appeared, use the appropriate drugs. Do not forget about birds and wasps. The first peck berries, and the second eat up the already touched berries.

Preventive measures are:

1. Removing exfoliating and old bark, collecting fallen leaves and other organic fragments near the vine bushes.
2. Lubrication of the barrel with iron sulfate or oil emulsion.
3. Spraying grapes with an insecticide.
4. In the spring, before the beginning of the laying of the kidneys, the application of sticky rings on the lower segment of the trunk, chemical treatment.
5. On the eve of flowering - spraying with Bordeaux fluid and secondary treatment with chemicals.

The following chemicals are effective in pest control:

1. "Bi-58", "Talsar", "Zolon", "Fury" - against a bunch of grapes.
2. Tiovit-jet, Fufanon, Karbofos, Neoron, colloidal sulfur - to combat itching and spider mites.

Read more about spraying grapes with baking soda.

To overcome the disease, use "Chorus", "Antracol", "Ridomil." The required concentration of drugs and the order of their use are indicated in the instructions for them. To protect the grapes from birds, use frightening rattles, pasted over with fragments of mirrors or shiny material, balls, garden stuffed animals. Protection against wasps consists in the elimination of their nests, the construction of traps with sweet bait along the perimeter of the vineyard, as well as in the covering of bunches with special nets or pulling these nets over a crop area.

Platovsky grapes, requiring low costs, can reward a gardener with a generous harvest of tasty and healthy berries, suitable not only for fresh consumption, but also for making wine, juices and raisins. A rare grape variety boasts such qualities.