Early Victor


(Labrusca, Bourquiniana?)



Early Victor is highest in quality of early black grapes. It is

especially pleasing to those who object to the foxiness so marked in

Hartford and Champion. Were the season but a few days earlier and

bunch and berry a little larger, Early Victor would be the best grape

to start the grape season. The vines are hardy, healthy, vigorous and

productive, with growth and foliage resembl
ng Hartford, which is

probably one of its parents, Delaware being the other. The bunches are

small, compact, variable in shape and the berries are about the size

and shape of those of Delaware. Its season is that of Moore Early or a

little later, although, like many black grapes, the fruit colors

before it is ripe and is often picked too green. Unfortunately the

fruit is susceptible to black-rot and shrivels after ripening. John

Burr, Leavenworth, Kansas, first grew Early Victor about 1871.



Vine vigorous, hardy, healthy, productive. Canes long, numerous,

slender, dark brown, surface pubescent; nodes enlarged; internodes

long; tendrils continuous, bifid, sometimes trifid. Leaves thick;

upper surface dark green, smooth; lower surface white, heavily

pubescent; lobes three to five, terminal one acute; petiolar sinus

intermediate in depth and width; basal sinus shallow and wide when

present; lateral sinus narrow. Flowers semi-sterile, open in

mid-season; stamens upright.



Fruit very early, does not keep well. Clusters small, variable in

shape, cylindrical, frequently single-shouldered, compact; pedicel

short, covered with numerous small warts; brush wine-colored or

pinkish-red. Berries small, round, dark purplish-black, dull with

heavy bloom, persistent; skin thin, tough, adherent, contains much

red pigment, astringent; flesh greenish-white, opaque,

fine-grained, aromatic, vinous; good. Seeds adherent, one to four,

broad, notched, blunt, dark brown.



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