Grape Astronaut

The grape variety Cosmonaut is one of the earliest crops in terms of ripening, because already in the last days of summer you can harvest. This attracts many gardeners who grow grapes of different varieties.

The Cosmonaut grape was developed in the Central Genetic Laboratory named after V.I. I. V. Michurin. The work was carried out through hybridization of the varieties Severny Early and Muscat VIR. As a result, the Cosmonaut grape was obtained, who took all the best from his parents.

The Cosmonaut grape is very well cultivated in the middle lane, as well as in the south of Russia. The variety is grown no less successfully in Belarus.

A vigorous variety. The bushes grow rapidly, have large-sized leaves of a round or weakly ovate shape, they are deeply dissected. Almost smooth sheet plate. The notches on the top are deep and closed, with an egg-shaped lumen, the bottom is rounded. But sometimes they are open and narrow lyre-shaped. The underneath is deep or medium in size, rather closed, with an elliptical opening.

At the ends of the blades there are triangular sharp teeth with tips of a light yellow color, which is typical for Muscat. The lower surface of the leaf is slightly pubescent. The flowers are bisexual, with five to six stamens per flower, and they are longer than the pistil. Rounded-conical ovary, disc-shaped stigma.

The advantages of the variety are:

• extremely early ripening;
• excellent taste parameters;
• resistance to gray rot;
• not susceptible to cracking.

Of the minuses, they note the susceptibility to mildew, unsuitability for wine production.

Clusters of the Cosmonaut variety ripen in 101 days from the moment the first buds swell and to the state of technological maturity. The sum of the active temperatures of the growing season is 2200 degrees. This table grape belongs to the early ripening period, for example, in Michurinsk you can harvest in the last days of August.

A bunch of grapes Astronaut weighs an average of 200 grams. Regular, conical, medium dense.

Dark purple grapes have a rounded shape that turns into an oval. The fruits are large, weight - 2.6 grams, length - 20.1 mm, width - 18.8 mm. They are pitted, the number of seeds in each berry is 2-4 pieces. The seeds are small, their shape is oblong-ovoid.

The grape has a sweet, pleasant taste, but at the same time it is simple, without a special aroma and characteristic taste of Amur grapes. The sugar content of berry juice fluctuates at the level of 184 g / dm3, acidity reaches 4.8 g / dm3. Fleshy juicy pulp. Professional tasters of fresh grapes gave a score of 7.9 out of 10 points, since the variety is most often used for fresh consumption.

The Cosmonaut grape variety has a high yield: up to 100 centners of bunches can be harvested from one hectare. At the same time, fruitful shoots account for 89 percent. And the number of fruitful bunches is 1.5, while the number of developing shoots is 1.3.

Growing up an Astronaut is not particularly difficult. The variety must be watered, fertilized, and pruned. However, it should be noted that this grape is susceptible to many diseases, so it is important to spray it with special preparations on time. In addition, the fit also has a number of features.

One of the planting methods is to plant the desired variety of vines in a freshly dug hole. Planting a young vine of the Cosmonaut grape variety is carried out according to certain rules.

1. After the hole is dug, you need to create a mound to support the seedling. This is done from the north side. The diameter as well as the depth of the hole will be 80 centimeters.
2. Next, you need to slightly moisten the soil. Crushed stone is used as drainage.
3. Place the seedling vertically in the center of the pit, straightening the roots and sprinkling them with earth. In this case, the direction of the buds should be north, and the direction of the roots - south.
4. The soil is compacted to firmly hold the roots of the seedling. The root heel is located about 50 centimeters below the ground. This will prevent the culture from freezing. Thus, the hole should be covered with 10 centimeters of loose soil.

The flower type is bisexual. Before flowering, spraying must be done, because this will ensure a problem-free ovary and pollination of the grapes.

The astronaut requires pruning the vine. Leave 7-8 eyes per vine.

Frost resistance of the Cosmonaut grape variety is -23 degrees Celsius, which is a good indicator. However, for the winter period, the vine still needs to be sheltered from the cold.

The Cosmonaut variety has a susceptibility to mildew, oidium - 4 points. On the contrary, grapes show high resistance to gray rot - 1 point. And also grapes are resistant to cracking.

For prophylaxis, spraying of the vine is necessary (during the period of appearance of 4-6 leaves). Processing is carried out with the use of such means as "Radomil", "Polychrome", as well as biopreparations "Baikal-M1", "Fitosporin-M" are used. These drugs have proven themselves well and are kind of leaders in the fight against such a common and dangerous disease as mildew.

The Cosmonaut variety is unsuitable for wine and is almost never used. Most often they use it fresh and try not to store it for a long time.