Introduction of red grapes Ninh Thuan – Cardinal

Cardinal red vine is the most famous and popular grape variety, especially abroad, born in 1939 at the California horticultural station in Fresno. The authors of this masterpiece are E. Snyder and F. Harmon, who crossed the Flame Tokay of Algerian origin with the French Alphonse Lavalle.

These varieties were considered Kadinal’s parents for almost seventy years, until DNA research reliably determined that he did not have the Flame Tokai gene, after which the Queen of the Vineyards was officially recognized. is the mother form.

During its relatively long existence as a table grape, Cardinal has grown in popularity on many continents. It is still actively cultivated in the USA, Italy, France, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslav republics and other countries.

In Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam and Thailand, it is widely used as a technical grape for wine production. It first appeared in the Soviet Union in 1958, when it was included in the photo collection of the Moldavian Institute of Viticulture and Winemaking from a French nursery located in the city of Montpellier.

In 1965, an application was submitted for a diversity test on Cardinals, which was successfully completed in 1974, after which it was partitioned in the southern regions and republics of the land. water. Currently, this variety is officially included in Russia’s list of state-selected achievements and is introduced into industrial cultivation in the North Caucasus (Crimea Republic, North Ossetia-Alania, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkarian, Adygea, Ingushetia, Chechen, Rostov region, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories) and Nizhnevolzhsky (Saratov region, Astrakhan, Volgograd and Republic of Kalmykia).

Special mention should be made of the attitude towards the Cardinals of amateur wine growers. In particular, it must be admitted that the peak of distribution among domestic amateurs is over. The acreage occupied by this grape over the years is dwindling considerably, and in new plantings preference is given to new, easier, and easier-to-grow varieties of mulberry. At the same time, it was impossible not to notice the insurmountable need that Cardinal still showed in her livestock work. Every year, with his participation, many promising hybrids have appeared, which he carries genes for early ripening, large fruit size, and delicious taste.

To maintain his once-famous popularity, he himself lacks any serious disease resistance, tolerance of unfavorable growing conditions, fruit stability, and simplicity of speech. shared. All these missing qualities were successfully borrowed by breeders from the second half of the parent pairs, and as a result, Cardinal’s offspring were numerous and varied, while maintaining flower quality. The result is always high, getting everything he himself lacks for less money than annoying cultivation.

Grape bushes are of moderate size. The tops of young shoots are pale green, non-pubertal, with a slight copper tinge along the young leaf margins. Leaves are large, round, five-lobed, medium lobed. The leaf surface is smooth, sometimes wavy, with a metallic sheen, without hairs on the back.

The upper grooves are quite deep, closing with an oval or slit-like opening, the lower ones having a shallow depth, opening a cup with a narrow aperture, or taking the form of a recessed angle. The petioles are open, domed, of medium width. The false teeth along the edge of the leaf blade are triangular or serrated, biconvex (arched). Bisexual flowers, satisfying pollination.

In years with unfavorable weather conditions during flowering, clusters are distinguished by a significant degree of peas. The branches of the ripe Cardinal are also satisfactory. Ripe annual vines are light brown with darker areas at the nodes.

The bunches of this variety with good care are quite large, the length can reach 28 cm, the width – 18 cm, the average weight is 350-500 grams, but there are large bunches up to almost a kilogram. The shape of the bunch of grapes is usually cylindrical – conical, in terms of consistency it is friable, even very friable.

The comb is long (up to 8 cm), light green, brittle. The berries are large (21-29 mm long and 18-23 mm wide), round or slightly oval, possibly with a beveled tip and weakly grooved surface, averaging 6-7 grams. Over a number of years, the grapes in a bunch can change in size significantly.

The pulp of the Cardinal fruit has a fleshy, succulent, slightly crunchy, greenish-white color, with a pleasant harmonious taste and a delicate delicate aroma of nutmeg. The juice is colorless, the sugar content reaches 18 grams / 100 cubic meters. cm, acidity fluctuates at 7-8.5 grams / liter. The skin is moderately dense, healthy enough and at the same time edible.

It is painted on the outside in a purple-red color and covered with a smoky layer of prunes. The seeds are quite large, usually with two to four seeds, but they do not affect the flavor of the large berry too much. Grape tasting score – 8-9 points.

This plant is used mainly for eating fresh, but is often used for home canning as a raw material for mixes and jams that are delicious in taste, aroma and appearance. In some countries, it is even used to make wine.

The presentation of grapes has a fairly high cultivation skill, many buyers remember and love this grape variety, excellent taste should be ready to buy. Cardinal performs perfectly during long-distance transport and is better preserved (under optimal conditions – up to three months from the date of collection).

Moringa ripens very early, in the South, in traditional growing regions, in early August. For the beginning of the ripening process is removable from the altar