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Growing grapes in a summer cottage is like an art that only the worthy own. Winegrowers with experience proudly show their familiar summer residents large ripe clusters. It is better to comprehend this art from unpretentious, proven varieties. One of these is Victoria. Growing this old grape variety is easy for beginners. Even with imperfect agricultural technology, Victoria grapes produce stable yields. The variety exhibits high resistance to adverse environmental factors. If you please the plant with special attention, it will thank you with a record high yield of large table berries.
Recommended Growing Regions
Due to its high frost resistance and good ripening of shoots, Victoria is successfully grown in the Middle Volga and Moscow regions. It is also suitable for the Urals and Siberia. The variety is not intended for industrial cultivation, but is often found in amateur vineyards.
In the Moscow region, Victoria is a covering variety, in the southern regions it is cultivated without shelter.
Strengths and weaknesses of the variety
The early-ripening grape variety Victoria belongs to the table group. Known for its bright taste with nutmeg notes. It is the taste qualities of grapes that are most often noted in reviews. From the presented photos, you can appreciate the attractiveness of the beautifully colored clusters of Victoria.
Grapes have an average vigor of growth. Intensive shaping is not required. On the contrary, since the sap flow of the variety begins early, spring pruning can be abandoned if excessive sap production is observed. Weak growth is characteristic only of own-rooted seedlings. If a varietal seedling of Victoria is grafted onto a vigorous rootstock, then the bush will grow faster.
The next varietal feature is the predominance of female-type flowers, which ensures high yields. This must be taken into account when laying the vineyard. Poor pollination leads to the formation of small grapes. To eliminate this possibility, it is enough to plant a pollinator variety nearby. It is selected according to the timing of flowering. For example, Kishmish radiant, Bianca and Augustine are suitable for Victoria.
The Victoria variety has the following strengths:
- high yield;
- uniform ripening of the bunch;
- excellent marketability;
- resistance to diseases 2,5 – 3 points;
- frost resistance down to minus 27 ºC;
- 100% maturation of shoots;
- rooting of cuttings at the level of 90 – 100%.
Five out of ten experienced growers, judging by the reviews, consider Victoria to be overly capricious and outdated. Such an opinion may arise due to differences in agricultural practices from those generally accepted for grapes. Also, the Victoria variety has the following weaknesses:
- tendency to crack the thin skin of berries;
- attraction for wasps;
- “pea” berries (requires rationing the load of the bush).
After studying the description of the Victoria grape variety with photos and reviews, you can easily make your choice when replenishing the collection.
Technical characteristics of berries
The tasting evaluation of the berries of the described grape variety fully explains its popularity and value. The visual table below perfectly demonstrates the obvious advantages of Victoria.
Index | Characterization |
Ripening period | 115 – 120 days (in Central Our Country, berries ripen in the middle – end of August) |
Bunch shape and weight | conical; maximum – 700 g, medium – 500 g, the lower clusters are small and it is customary to remove them |
Bunch density | medium, sometimes loose |
Berry coloring | crimson red, uneven, with a slight coating |
Berry shape Average berry weight | oval-ovoid, about 30 mm long from 6 to 7,5 |
Skin | thin |
Pulp | juicy, meaty, crispy |
Sugar content, % | 19 |
Acidity, g/l | 5 – 6 |
Tastes of berries | sweet, fragrant, nutmeg notes appear when fully ripe |
The attractive characteristics of Victoria compensate for some of the agrotechnical requirements described below.
Features of agricultural technology and disease resistance
Grapes of the Victoria variety are distinguished by precociousness. He gives the first harvest already for 2 – 3 years after planting seedlings. The best planting time is autumn, October. Before frost, the seedling should have time to take root. In the first year of Victoria, good shelter is required: special non-woven materials, powdering with dry earth, mulching the root zone. Mature plants will overwinter under light cover.
We will not describe all the generally accepted rules for planting and caring for grapes, but will immediately move on to the nuances inherent in a particular variety.
Due to the tendency of the variety to crack ripening berries, watering must be carried out correctly. With the beginning of the ripening period (August), artificial irrigation is completely excluded, but only if there is precipitation. If there is a drought, then moderate watering is needed. Otherwise, when it rains, a sharp drop in the level of soil moisture will provoke cracking of the skin of the berries.
During the growing season for grapes, it is recommended to apply organic fertilizers and wood ash (in spring and before flowering). Victoria responds well to foliar feeding with chelated microelements, which increase disease resistance and improve the taste of berries.
Due to the functional female flowering, Victoria grapes are prone to overload. Productivity must be formed, leaving one bush no more than 30 eyes (if fruit shoots have 5 – 8 eyes). The number of clusters on one shoot is also normalized, the average number is 1,8.
To get a full-bodied beautiful bunch, winegrowers “comb” it with a paint brush at the beginning of the growth of berries. With the help of this procedure, weak, underdeveloped, damaged ovaries are removed. At first, the bunch looks bare and too rare, but as the berries grow, it acquires an excellent presentation.
In Victoria, which forms bunches prone to decay, mold, wasp damage, the lower brushes should not be left. You will not get an increase in yield from them, but you will create an excellent breeding ground for diseases and bait for insects.
The variety prefers the fan-shaped method of forming a bush, which provides better ventilation. To protect against wasp raids, summer residents use crops of spicy herbs, covering clusters with mesh or gauze bags.
Useful reviews about the variety
Having studied in detail the description of the variety, you always want to know the opinion of those who already have experience in growing it. Ideally, if such an experience coincides with your agro-climatic zone. When analyzing reviews, keep this in mind. For a region with excessive moisture, there will be some recommendations, and for the arid Volga region, completely different. The taste and color of the grapes will also vary slightly.
In the following video, the author shares his experience of growing Victoria and shows the ripe bunches:
Here are some useful reviews about the Victoria variety for beginners and experienced winegrowers:
If we analyze a large number of reviews from winegrowers from different regions of Our Country, it can be noted that Victoria is quite unpretentious. The predominantly positive nature of the reviews gives reason to recommend the variety for amateur gardeners.