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The method of growing on boles (stems with a height of 60 cm to a meter or more) has been known to gardeners for a long time. Its merits are undeniable. Taking care of such plants, especially harvesting, is a pleasure when the bush is raised above the ground! This is not like plucking wheatgrass from ordinary bushes or picking berries from thorny branches, being in an uncomfortable "down to earth" position!
In addition, the bushes formed on the stems are easily ventilated and are less at risk of disease. And if the soil around the trunk is covered with an opaque mulching material (for example, roofing material, spunbond, black film), you can get rid of weeding.
But are there any negative sides to this culture? Not without that.
Firstly, the technology for the production of seedlings is complex and requires a lot of painstaking work. Therefore, they are grown a little and, of course, they are always more expensive than ordinary one-year-olds. The most common method of growing berry bushes on boles consists of the following steps. At first, regular standard seedlings are grown over several years to create vigorous plants. Then the entire aboveground part is cut off from them. Of the mass of shoots that appeared after this, one, the strongest, is left. In the spring of next year, all buds are removed on this stem, except for 5–6 upper ones. From the resulting shoots, skeletal branches of the future crown (bush) are laid.
Secondly, if ordinary gooseberry bushes in winter can be covered with snow, then the bushes on the boles are above the snow cover in the most frosty zone.
In this regard, a careful selection of varieties in relation to the specific conditions of the area is important. Our long-term tests in the conditions of the North-West of Russia showed that the varieties Smena, Russian yellow, Russian red, Lefora Seedling after severe winters did not have any damage after severe winters and bore fruit abundantly, and the one-year increments of the high-yielding Kolobok variety froze not only on the boles of golden currant, which are known here in the conditions of North-West Russia. but also in the mother liquor on ordinary bushes.
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Another method for the production of standard gooseberry seedlings is based on grafting the variety onto the stem of golden currant. Such seedlings were grown in Russia more than a century and a half ago. But gradually they forgot about him. The fact is that in the garden the rootstock itself forms a mass of overgrowth and it takes a lot of effort and time to systematically remove it. Currently, the culture of grafted gooseberries is reviving again thanks to breeders who have developed rootstock forms that do not give growth. This method has its positive and negative sides. Thus, the production period of grafted seedlings is reduced to 2 years in comparison with the first method, which requires 4 to 5 years.
The technological chain consists of the following links. In a special stock mother plant, annual growths up to one and a half meters high are grown, they are rooted and the variety is grafted into the upper part. However, some varieties show signs of insufficient compatibility. In addition, in gooseberries and golden currants, phenophases of development often do not coincide. This is reflected in the survival rate of the components of the vaccine. The varieties mentioned above have also been found to be quite productive in the grafted culture.
It should be noted that the first method is used when growing standard red currants, and the second - roses on rose hips, Japanese quince on pear seedlings.
The technique of planting seedlings is common. A strong stake is driven into the bottom of the planting pit, which is better to use metal pipes or fittings. To align and give a vertical position, the trunks are tied to the stake in several places. In this case, not only the trunk, but also the bush is fixed on the support with the upper garter.
The formation of a bush consists in creating a compact crown by pruning and evenly distributing branches around the center (trunk).Annual growths are shortened, the growing shoots are directed to the sides, free from branches, tied to the part of the stake protruding above the bush.
Plant care is almost normal, typical of the gooseberry breed. Some amateur flower growers plant stunted summer flowers or ground cover perennials next to the standard gooseberry (outside the mulching circle). Experience has shown that such a neighborhood does not harm any of them.
"Garden affairs" No. 4 (48), 2011
