THE HISTORY OF VITICULTURE IN THE HUMID SUBTROPICS OF RUSSIA

Grape-vine has been cultivated by humans since ancient times and is still popular today. There are now more than 10 000 cultivars in the world. The success of growing a grape-vine depends on the choice of cultivar and the place of its planting, which requires careful study of the soil and climatic conditions of the chosen place, as well as the biological characteristics of the cultivar. For many centuries, this process has been carried out intuitively. Random selection of cultivars often led to the fact that not all of them successfully took root in a new place. Wild grape-vine Vitis vinifera ssp. silvestris Gmel. was domesticated by layering and became a transitional form between wild and cultivated grape-vines Vitis vinifera ssp. silvestris var. aberrans. Naturally, the main grape-vine cultivars in the region were local, most of them artificially derived from wild grape-vine. Of the agrotechnical techniques, grafting, propagation by cuttings, thinning of the crown, rejuvenation, etc. were actively used. By the middle of 1950-ies eight of these cultivars: ‘Sampkhuray’ (‘Sanokepl Kichmaysky’), ‘Sanef’ (‘Kichmaysky Bely’), ‘Sanatkh’ (‘Vinograd Khvatayushchy’), ‘Be-Chepl’ (‘Lisa Buraya’) and ‘Chune’ (‘Volovie Oko’) have survived. Among the obvious reasons for the unsuccessful reproduction of local varieties, agronomists note the climate in humid subtropics. In 1942, scientists from the Sochi Experimental Station began cultivating crops in humid subtropical conditions, focusing on table cultivars. Already in 1954, more than 200 cultivars of various grape-vine groups were planted on the site of the Institute of Mountain Horticulture and Floriculture (now the FRC SSC RAS) in order to select the most productive and high–quality cultivars for industrial reproduction in the humid subtropics of Russia. This paper summarizes data on the history of viticulture in the humid subtropics of Russia from ancient times to the present.