Fruit growing
and viticulture of South Russia
Resource potential of the agricultural territories
The natural conditions of KabardinoBalkaria are distinguished by a large mosaic of relief, soil, water and thermal regime. This circumstance must be taken into account when choosing macro- and microzones for the successful cultivation of specific fruit crops, depending on environmental factors. Among large number factors affecting the success of fruit crops cultivation, the climatic and meteorological conditions of the winter-spring period are of primary importance. There are many climatic parameters that determine the growth of fruit plants, but only the main ones that are considered the most significant should be used to create the estimation models. It is known that many climatic parameters are interconnected with each other, which allows, by choosing the main ones, to indirectly take into account many others. In the primary sources, the greatest attention is paid to the parameters characterizing the temperature conditions of fruit plants growth, as well as the conditions of atmospheric humidification. Variety experts and breeders are trying to replenish and change the species-varietal composition of fruit crops for each fruit zone of the KBR (foothill, steppe, forest, mountain-steppe). Based on graphical and mathematical modeling, as well as a synthesis of literature data, the critical values of negative temperatures are allocated when placing the fruit crops in the main areas of horticulture according to the phases of plants ontogenesis. Long-term research on varietys study and breading of stone fruit crops (peach, apricot) and microclimatic observations in comparison with long-term data and the use of modern methodological technologies allow us to substantiate a model for optimizing the placement of fruit crops under the difficult soil and climatic conditions of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic.
Russia apricot production is on 16 place in the world. Basically, it is cultivated in the Southern regions of Russia, as it is a warm and light-loving plant, characterized by early flowering. It requires a smaller set of positive temperatures than for other fruit-trees to get out of the dormant stage, so the flower buds damaged often die to recurrent frosts and early frosts. Increase in the production of this very demanded and useful crop product requires a precise selection of specific conditions of the growing environment necessary for stable fruiting, especially in the winterspring period. In connection with climate change, it is necessary to constantly monitor the strength and direction of changes in weather stresses and possible with it modifications to the growing areas. The analysis of temperature data for the period 1950-2020 made it possible to reveal a clearly manifested cyclicality of the difference between the daily maximum and minimum air temperatures in time with a 30-year interval. It has been established that the apricot wood can be able to withstand the absolute minimum up to -30 º, and the flower buds in the forced dormancy phase up to -22 º. According to it, since 1890, a study of the frequency of the onset of absolute minimum temperatures for thirty-year periods has been carried out. It is noted that the most frequent manifestations of temperature stresses, fatal for this crop, are observed in two periods 1921-1951 and 1952-1982. The data obtained made it possible to develop a new version of apricot zoning in the Krasnodar Territory for the period up to 2030, based on computer technologies using. The results of this work will allow us to expand the area of cultivation of this valuable crop and avoid the risks in the process of crops obtaining.
The orography of the Central Ciscaucasia regions, determines a high degree of diversity of the natural composition of vegetation, including fruit wild plants with nutritional, medicinal, technical, perfumery properties and many other economically significant signs. In this regard, a special place is occupied by a strip of the mid-mountain belt with altitudes of 500 - 1200 meters above sea level, which is extremely diverse in terms of geohydrological conditions. Due to the considerable remoteness of the Central Ciscaucasia Region from the Black Sea basin from the West and from the Caspian from the East, a peculiar complex of tree and shrub plants with an abundance of endemic species of fruit wild plants has developed here, which are the important resource for receiving of quality and original on biochemical composition production. The methodological aspects of the study of natural thickets of fruit wild plants are presented and the main indicators for assessing the productivity and quality of the medlar harvest are revealed and presented in this article. The characteristic features of thickets and individual plants are given for the isolation of protoclone shoots from them, which have valuable economic properties. As a result of the studies carried out, it was established: the influence of individual landscape elements like height bend and slope exposure the abundance of German medlar plants in natural communities of tree and shrub species, as well as productivity and morphological indicators of fruits, including those with signs of cloning. The dependence of the yield of saplings on the species characteristics of rootstocks is revealed. The preservation of natural thickets and the introduction of the Germanic medlar in culture allows us to solve the social-economic issues of modern gardening in the regions of the Central Ciscaucasia.
Based on exhaustive research, it is proposed the methods for efficient stability control of ampelocenosis under the conditions of anthropogenic intensification of production, and weather anomalies. The studies were performed under the agroecological conditions of acute shortage of rainfall, and high solar insolation and air temperature of moderately continental climate of the South of Russia in the industrial plantations with the most wide-spread grape varieties using the modern field and laboratory methods. For sustainable viticulture in the Krasnodar Region 5 agro- ecological zones and 47 sub-areas are allocated using digital soil maps, maps of isotherms and isohyets. Each subzone is characterized by the uniformity of the site soil, temperature and rainfall and is the basis for the formation of the terroir and quality winemaking as well as for optimization of zonally oriented assortment and technologies. It is proposed the optimized scheme and the planting density of vines, their load by shoots using as a model the Rhine Riesling variety; regime of plant top dressing with minerals in combination with biologically active components, including saline soils. The biological and technology of reversibility of degradation changes in the ampelocenoses soil based on the energy biomaterial is grounded. The methods of stability control of own-rooted vineyards to the quarantine vermin phylloxera root using the physiologically active substances. The positive influence of the proposed methods for the efficient use of renewable natural resources (light, heat, water, food) in the vine production process is revealed. The increase in the level of implementation capacities of economic productivity and improving the quality of grapes and vine production is noted. The applying of the proposed methods i ncreased in production, agro-ecological and edaphic stability of ampelocenoses.
For the most comprehensive study of the influence of agroecological factors on the quality of grapes, the research area covers Steppe, Pedmont and the South Coast zones of the Crimean Peninsula. At the same time, the spatial variation of agroecological factors under the influence of the terrain, hydrological features of the territory and the heterogeneity of the surface background was taken into account. The developed geoinformational database contains information on the location of more than 70 control vineyards, the qualitative characteristics of the crop yield obtained in 2001-2019 and the agroecological conditions of the area. It contains the information about the morphometric features of the terrain and climatic resources of the territory under study. To assess the formation of complexes of major and secondary grape metabolites, the information on the qualitative composition and quantitative content of mono- and oligo- carbohydrates, organic acids, phenolic substances, aroma producing components and their ratios in berries is included in the database. Basing on the data collected, by non-linear interpolation of long-term observations at Crimean meteorological stations using methods of geoinformational and mathematical modeling, the climatic indicators for each point of the Crimean Peninsula were calculated. It allowed to characterize accurately the climatic conditions in each vineyard with prospects to contribute to a more accurate identification of patterns between the characteristics of the grape growing area and parameters of crop quality. The geoinformational database developed is a powerful tool to study the relationship between agroecological factors and the formation of the major and secondary grape metabolites, determining the quality parameters of products of viticulture and winemaking. It will allow using, when analyzing the correlation between the qualitative indicators of grapes and climate parameters, not the data of the nearest meteorological station, as in other similar studies, but the values specified on the basis of geoinformational modeling. This will contribute to a more accurate identification of the nature and degree of the analyzed dependencies.