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American large cranberry, compared to our swamp cranberry is a very thermophilic plant. In places of its natural growth in North America, its northern border runs approximately 51 ° north latitude, and the borders of the Sverdlovsk region are located approximately between 56-60 ° north latitude, that is, much further north. Research and experience in growing different varieties of American large-fruited cranberries in Belarus have shown that for the ripening of early-ripening varieties, an average of 2400 ° C is required (the sum of average daily air temperatures is above 0 ° C), for late-ripening varieties - 2500 ° C and above. The average duration of the period from the beginning of the growing season to the full ripening of berries, that is, the number of days with temperatures above + 5 ° C, is 150 and 167 days, respectively.
These indicators can be determined for any specific point of the Sverdlovsk region or other region of Russia according to climatic reference books and based on them, an assessment of the possibility of the culture of American large-fruited cranberry in the selected point can be made.
However, reference books provide average data with 50% availability. This means that if the sum of the average daily air temperatures above 0 ° С is equal to 2400 ° at the point planned for the culture, and the duration of the growing season for the number of days with temperatures above + 5 ° С is 150 days, then the probability of obtaining a harvest of early-ripening cranberry varieties is not here. exceeds 50%. That is, the ripening of berries can be observed no more than 5 times in 10 years. But such a small number of berry harvests for such a period can hardly suit anyone.
Most of all, they are satisfied with obtaining full-fledged harvests of berries almost annually, which is achieved with a probability of 90%. Therefore, suitable for a given case of large-fruited cranberry culture should be considered that point, the level of heat supply and the duration of the growing season in which is higher by the value of the correction for a given probability.
Based on these considerations, you can try to evaluate the suitability of growing American large-fruited cranberries for the Yekaterinburg region.
Using the data of the "Reference book on the climate of the USSR. Issue 9. Air and soil temperature "(Leningrad, Gidrometeozdat, 1965) according to tab. 15 found that the sum of average daily temperatures above 0 ° С for Yekaterinburg is equal to 2210 ° С, and the duration of the growing season with the number of days with air temperatures above + 5 ° С (table 5) is 162 days. Using tables 39 and 34, we establish that with a probability of 90, these indicators are equal to 2010 ° С and 147 days, respectively.
Comparison of these indicators with the required climatic indicators of early varieties of American large-fruited cranberries shows a large thermal insufficiency at 290 ° and 190 ° C with a probability of 90% and 50%, respectively, in the region of Yekaterinburg.
The duration of the growing season, with a probability of 90%, also turns out to be less than the required by 3 days, and with a probability of 50%, it exceeds the required by 21 days. According to tab. 39 of the above reference book, it is possible to find the probability of establishing in the Yekaterinburg region the sum of average daily air temperatures above 0 ° C, equal to 2400 ° C and corresponding to that required for early maturing varieties. This probability is 15%. That is, with such a probability, 3 times in 20 years, the heat supply will correspond to that required for the ripening of early-ripening varieties of berries.
Thus, the summer heat supply of the Yekaterinburg region absolutely does not correspond to the required heat supply of American large-fruited cranberries, even of early ripening varieties.
The duration of the growing season is reduced compared to the required only slightly (by only 3 days), reducing the probability of supply from 90% to 80%.Therefore, due to the summer climatic conditions, the cultivation of American large-fruited cranberries in the Sverdlovsk region in an open form is absolutely futile.
The cultivation of this cranberry is possible with us only in semi-closed or closed conditions.
Therefore, it is pointless to write about other difficulties in growing this cranberry in amateur conditions in our region - about maintaining a certain acidity of the soil, about the required level of groundwater, about the need for frequent flooding, about watering, about protection from weeds and winter frosts, about spring frosts, about diseases and so on ...
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By the described method, it is possible to determine the degree of suitability of any garden crop (for example, blueberries, blackberries and others) for open cultivation conditions at any point, taking into account, along with the above factors, all other factors.
An attempt to grow American large-fruited cranberries in our country was once undertaken by the Botanical Garden of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Yekaterinburg), but was unsuccessful in terms of the specified climatic indicators.
I, too, since the mid-80s of the last century, for about 10 years experienced the possibility of cultivating American tall cranberries in my garden, but I had to give it up. Plants of this cranberry, with good shelter for the winter or flooding and ice formation, overwintered well. But due to the lack of heat, they had a slowed down growth of vegetative shoots, and poorly growing shoots of fruiting, which had a small number of fruit buds. At the same time, the number of berries set was small, although the age of the plants was already 6-10 years. For all the time, the berries managed to ripen only twice. But I tried to grow the earliest varieties such as Early Black, Franklin, Wilcox, Bergman, Hoves, Washington.
One of the few remaining cranberry specialists in our country, I.A.
He said that there is some reason to think that American varieties of large-fruited cranberries will be able to grow successfully only in the south of the Far East - in the south of the Khabarovsk Territory, in the west and south of Primorye, and also in the south of Sakhalin. Such experiments have already begun there.
And in the rest of the territory, only varieties of marsh cranberries should be grown, obtained at the Kostroma Forest Experimental Station by a team of specialists headed by the now deceased A.F. Cherkasov. A large collection of forms of marsh and a number of seedlings of American tall cranberries has been created there, which have less demand for heat and fit into the short growing season of the northern zone. Moreover, the yield of selected forms of marsh cranberries is 0.6-1.3 kg / sq. m, it is comparable to varieties of American high cranberries and 15-20 times higher than the yield of ordinary wild forms of marsh cranberries.
Now at this station, a plantation of the obtained forms and varieties of cranberries on 20 hectares has been laid, however, only at the expense of private capital and a foreign fund.
And in the very near future, seedlings of these forms and varieties should go on sale.
newspaper "Ural gardener", No. 1 dated 5. 01.11,
photo by Tatiana Kurlovich
