Ancient Grape Vitis vinifera L. cv 'Ekşi Kara in Anatolia

Abstract

Many grape breeding programs have been conducted in certain institutions as cross breeding between superior genotypes or clonal selection of local accessions of Vitis vinifera L. varieties in Turkey. ‘Eksi Kara’ is an ancient grapevine cultivar intensively grown in Konya due to its well-adaptation to ecology. Thus, it has been promising with its unique characteristics peculiar to similar ecologies. This variety is robust and very fruitful in comparison with many other V. vinifera L. varieties, and it has been commonly consumed as table grapes, seeded appetizer when dried naturally or molasses ‘pekmez’. Consumption of its binned or fresh leaves is also a traditional and global marketing way. The sex of the flowers is functionally female, and need a pollinator, for a satisfactory berry set. ‘Gok Uzum’, another ancient and autochthonous grape variety is suggested as a prima pollinizer. The clonal selection studies have been continuing since 2010 in commercial vineyards around its geographic origin. The ampelographic description of ‘Eksi Kara’ was performed according to OIV (International Bureau of Grapes and Wine) descriptors using a total of 144 criteria, among which 63 were the basic and 81 were complementary identifier. The basic data of the cultivar was collected for clonal selection. There were no distinctive ampelographic differences between vary named grapevines in growing location.