This grape is all good - beautiful, powerful bunches, bulk red berries, breathtaking taste. Also wanted to Sofia to his vineyard?
Not so fast - first answer the question how prepared you are to look after the “young lady”. Care and effort will be needed not so little, even with the resistance of the variety to disease.
What kind is it?
Sofia belongs to the table varieties with early ripening. Berry is ready for removal at the beginning of the last summer month. Best of all, this grape goes into food: large, juicy and very sweet berries with nutmeg aroma and rich aftertaste just melt in your mouth.
Early ripening are also Red Delight, Pleven and the Gift of the Blind.
It is also used in juices and products based on them, although they say that Sofia is too good for jam.
Stored well, but with shipping should be careful.
Sophia also fulfills a decorative target perfectly - red shining clusters are visible from afar and cause envy among those passing by.
Such external varieties as Romeo, Taifi and Chocolate can boast of special external beauty.
Grape Sofia: variety description
Sofia is quite different high vigor. The leaves are very large, slightly dissected, often wavy, rich green (yellowness is added to the autumn).
Upper young leaves and crown shoots rich green, not pubescent. The flowers are functionally female, but in the presence of a number of hermaphroditic varieties, there is no problem with pollination (the best pollinator for Sofia is the Arcadia variety).
Women have flowers and King, Ruta, Anniversary of Kherson Summer Resident.
The cluster is large (about a kilogram in weight, can reach even two, and sometimes even three), conical, moderately dense, rarely peas. The berries are large (up to 15-16 g), light red, egg-shaped, with 2-3 seeds inside. The skin is moderately thick. when eating is not felt. The flesh is juicy, fleshy. Vine bright brown, powerful.
A photo
Photo grape "Sofia":
Breeding history
Sort Sofia was created by amateur breeder V.V. Zagorulko. "Parents" - Arcadia and Kishmish radiant. Distributed in the southern and central regions, but only where there are no severe winters.
The hand of the same breeder owned varieties Asya, Vodogray and Viking.
Specifications
The grade is very good against fungal infections - powdery mildews: oidium and mildew, various kinds of rot. True, it requires preventive "souls" of fungicides (Ridomil and TILT-250). Frost does not resist very well: the maximum "minus" - 21 degrees Celsius.
Berries do not like long shipments, they crack from rains, they can crumble.
They do not like an excess of nitrogen-containing fertilizers, but it takes the phosphorus-potassium fertilizer very well. Requires shelter for the cold months.
The long heat, too, "does not please" Sophia: be sure to cover the berries with leaves. Cultivar therefore, to maintain the quality of fruiting, it is necessary to prune the bush. Trimming produce six to eight eyes. Cuttings quickly root and adapt to the environment.
The same signs are possessed by Karmakod, Rumba and Super Early Seed.
It can “take offense” on a rainy summer and not bring a harvest at all, or bring extremely scarce, but does not like excessively dry soil.
Care should be taken with vaccines - you need to carefully make sure that Sofia is being vaccinated to someone who is not inferior to her qualities. If they are imparted to a low-growing subspecies, then the “child” will also be low-growing.
Diseases and pests
No matter how remarkably stable the variety is to typical diseases of the grapes and pests, it is still not without effort. At least, to buy a protecting net from birds. Otherwise, the birds will do everything to spoil your vineyard.
From wasps will help dichlorvos, sticky insecticidal bait. It should scour the entire territory of the estate to find wasp nests. Findings must be burned, and the clusters should be packed in protective mesh bags. The wasp simply cannot reach the berry.
But make no mistake - some gardeners purposely choose lures more smelly, thinking that a sharp amber will lure striped hijackers. In fact, the opposite is true: his wasps are scared. Result: the wasps' carefully arranged 'treats' were not noticed, and the berries were again spoiled.
Sophia is not afraid of illnesses and phylloxes, but here, too, it is necessary to take measures - to do preventive spraying with Bordeaux mixture, karbofos, vitriol and anthracol fungicides, TILT-250. Anthracnose, bacteriosis, chlorosis and rubella will bypass you if you hold the event in full and on time.
Sofia is good both externally and internally. The extraordinary beauty of the clusters pleases the eyes of those passing, and the taste will not leave indifferent even the most demanding gourmet. If you don’t feel sorry for the time or effort that you will have to invest in significant quantities in grapes, then this variety is for you!
If you are looking for an easy-to-grow and completely unpretentious variety, then pay attention to Ideal Delight, Giovanni or Denisovsky.
Visually get acquainted with the grapes "Sofia" below:
//youtu.be/VcFFQhPu_Yc
