Jupiter grape
Content:
It will not be a secret for anyone that when choosing plants for their garden or vegetable garden, each person wants to get only the best, giving priority to varieties with rich taste parameters, large yields, early maturity and good indicators of immunity against diseases or pests. All these characteristics apply to grapes, in the fight against doubts, sometimes the choice falls on varieties that do not contain seeds. Such varieties are called raisins, and one of the representatives is the Jupiter grape, which we will talk about in this article.
History.
Seedless grape varieties, in other words, raisins, have been known to mankind for a very long time. Most of them appeared in the course of natural mutation of plants, but this is not related to the Jupiter variety. This "handsome" was created by the hands of a man, or rather two people, John R. Clark and his colleague James N. Moore. Officially, the Jupiter grape variety was obtained at the end of the last century, namely in 1998 in the state of Arkansas. On the territory of our country and nearby, such as Ukraine, it was introduced in 2010 and is gradually gaining popularity.
As it is already clear from the above, Jupiter is a seedless variety and has many other advantages, which include high quality crop safety during transportation. The variety is grown not only in industrial volumes, but also in private plots and gardens, since in terms of care and planting, it is suitable even for beginners.
External description.
Since the variety appeared in our regions relatively recently, it is worth stopping and briefly describing its appearance so that the reader can have an idea of the plant.
Bush.
The dimensions of the Jupiter variety bush can vary from 2-2.5 meters to one and a half meters in height, which, accordingly, will refer to vigorous or medium-sized types of bush. The first harvest from a young bush can be obtained after about three years from planting the plant in a permanent place, but two years later there are the first berries. The most convenient way to propagate the variety is by cuttings.
The vine is not tall, and the color can be beige-brown or raspberry-brown. Due to its shape, the variety is very much loved by landscape designers, it looks great in the compositions they compose and as a free-standing one as well.
Large leaves, dark green color. The shape of the leaf is three-lobed with a not pronounced dissection. One shoot gives an average of 4-5 inflorescences. The Jupiter grape does not need any help with pollination, as the variety has flowers of two sexes.
Bunches
You understand that Jupiter lives up to its name, when you look at its clusters, these are large brushes, the mass of each of them can reach 500 grams, although the average weight starts from 250 grams. The bunches are not loose in structure and have the shape of a cone.
The variety has a peculiarity: the ripening process of berries does not take place simultaneously, due to which the bunch has fruits of different colors. So on one groove, there can be pink, raspberry, plum and green berries at once.
Berries.
Berries are oval in shape, you can even call it ovoid, pointed towards the end. One fruit has a mass of five to seven grams. Having reached technical maturity, the berries acquire a plum color or, in other words, dark blue and are covered with a matte bloom, which is natural for this variety. To understand the size of one berry, you can just look at a five-ruble coin, the fruit of your grape will be slightly smaller.
The pulp of Jupiter grapes is saturated with juices, which does not make it too soft, and the skin remains firm and slightly crispy.Somilier and gardeners claim that you will definitely recognize a light muscat tone in the taste characteristics, this will remind you that this variety has one of the parents of Isabella.
Bred by American breeders, Jupiter is a raisin variety, in the process of consumption you can find rudiments, but there are no seeds in it at all.
The flesh of the fruit is not covered with a thick, but strong skin due to its density. It is due to her that the variety becomes well transportable, it withstands all manipulations in this process, in addition, the wasps also do not harm it.
The variety is a product with a high glycemic index, per 100 grams of sugar will be 22 grams, and in some cases even 30 grams.
Still, Jupiter is not perfect, and it has one not unimportant minus: shedding of berries. For this reason, if you do not want to lose your crop, then harvest it while preventing overripening.
Characteristics of the variety.
- Jupiter grapes are quickly ripening, the period from the formation of ripe fruit ovaries lasts only 110-125 days. Large volumes of harvest are obtained due to the heterogeneity of flowers and their self-pollination, in addition, during this process, pollination of other grape varieties planted nearby also occurs. Kishmish Jupiter is a table grape and contains no seeds in the fruit.
- The variety does not need to adjust the load on the vine, the average mass of one bunch may well allow leaving about forty eyes on one. Thus, by the time of harvest, you can get up to 250 quintals of juicy berries from one hectare of plantation.
- Jupiter perfectly tolerates changes in weather conditions, and is a frost-resistant plant. It is this quality that makes it possible to grow it even in those regions where the air temperature in winter drops to minus 29 degrees (the plant must be sheltered). In cases where the plant was not covered well enough and still suffered from the cold, do not write off its uprooting, the variety is excellent and quickly recovers.
- Again, the high quality in terms of berry transportation gives Jupiter an advantage over other types of grapes.
- The shelf life of a ripe crop is from 2 to 4 months.
As with all plants, in addition to the advantages, there are some disadvantages:
- The variety is prone to infection with fungal diseases. In 80% of cases it will be gray rot, powdery mildew or downy mildew, but during the assistance provided to the plant, it will heal or reduce the damage caused to the leaves and berries.
- The main and most important disadvantage of the American Jupiter is the falling of berries, but we recall that this happens only in case of overripening.
- A controversial issue according to the criterion of the minus of the variety, but nevertheless we will add it to the list: many gardeners refuse the variety because of the size of the bunch of grapes.
Reproduction.
There are only three breeding options for the variety:
- By rooting cuttings or grafting cuttings, while you must understand that the first option will bring you a crop earlier than the second.
- By crossing part of the root system and the upper part of the grapes, in other words, the rootstock method. For this method, "C04" and "Berlandieri and Riparia" are best suited
- By the method of layering, or in other words, engraftment without separating the parent from the bush. When using this method, the choice falls on the strongest and healthiest bush.
Choosing the first two points for breeding, you can expect that in 80 percent of the raisins Jupiter will retain all its characteristic features of taste and quality.
Landing features.
Jupiter grapes are not picky in terms of planting time, but nevertheless, the adaptation process takes place best of all in the autumn period. Naturally, the winter period, starting from the moment of frost, is not included in the planting period. By planting one plant, a hole is prepared; on an industrial scale, grapes are planted in trenches.
The hole for planting must be prepared in advance, fourteen days before the moment of landing, drainage is covered at the bottom. The Jupiter variety prefers fertile soil. Young grapes are soaked for 2-3 days before being transferred to a permanent planting site.
The depth of the hole is about half a meter and half of this depth is drainage, the seedling is placed on the remaining 25 cm and covered with earth mixed with compost, ash and superphosphate.
The planting process is completed by mulching, due to which the seedling retains moisture, after 4 days the first abundant watering is performed.
Care.
We have already indicated that the Jupiter grape is not picky, this also applies to caring for it.
- The frequency of watering is as follows: 15 liters every three days per plant; in case of heavy rainfall, it is worth revising this schedule and reducing it depending on soil moisture. Mulching will not be superfluous in caring for the grapes, due to it, moisture does not go away longer, and the weed grows less. Drip irrigation will help you save time and effort.
- Fertilization is carried out in the spring, during this period the green mass begins to develop, so it is best to choose nitrogen-containing ones. By the beginning of summer, complex fertilizers are introduced, but remember that an overabundance will not give you any positive results, but will only slow down the development of grapes.
- Autumn pruning is required and is performed for 6-8 eyes.
- Resistance to diseases and insect pests is increased due to three preventive treatments... The first and second are carried out before the beginning of flowering, the third is final after the end of flowering. One of the most common remedies is Bordeaux liquid.
- The final processing of the plant is carried out with copper sulfate, before the first frost during the preparation of the grapes for wintering. This item does not apply to frost-resistant varieties of Jupiter raisins.
Reviews.
Gennady, 43 years old, Yekaterinburg.
I took a variety for testing. I missed the planting dates, due to the fact that the snow covered the garden earlier than usual. To my surprise, the Jupiter Grape endured the winter and frost perfectly. To celebrate, he completed all the necessary treatments for pests, pruning in the fall. I look forward to the next season and the results.
Mikhail, 32 years old, Irkutsk.
Contrary to the popular belief that grapes cannot be grown beyond the Urals, I decided to try it. As a result, my grapes are over 5 years old. Not only do I grow the Jupiter Grape, but I can say that it is best suited for our climatic conditions. For so many years he has treated diseases only twice. Thanks to my relative, an expert in gardening, it was thanks to his advice that I performed the correct pruning. Most of all I liked the fruits, large and juicy.
Tatyana, 37 years old, Moscow region.
I am very inexperienced in terms of growing plants, but after reading about the Jupiter variety, I decided that this would suit me. I took the seedling from a friend. Having no experience with other varieties, I still liked its frost resistance, tasty harvest and disease resistance. Probably one minus for me, this is a great love of wasps for Jupiter, but this problem can be solved, so do not be afraid to grow this variety.