Many gardeners still grow old small-fruited currant varieties. For example, sometimes I am asked if I grow Dovek currants. Yes, it was once, fifteen years ago, considered large-fruited: it has berries of 1.5-1.8 g. And today it is an outdated variety, considered small-fruited.
New varieties, created by scientists in recent years, have berries of 4-5.5 g. They are more productive, more resistant to diseases and pests. There are sweet-fruited, with dessert berries, there are early-ripening ones, there are late-ripening ones, in general, for every taste.
The gardener is always worried about the eternal question: what varieties to choose? I would like to share some of the results of my annual horticultural tests in recent years. I try dozens of varieties, then select the best of the best and multiply.
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Currant is one of the most plastic crops. Therefore, here we can afford to choose varieties according to our taste - they will grow well and bear fruit in our gardens. After testing the varieties of the Chelyabinsk, Altai, Bryansk, Oryol selection, I decided to stop at the varieties of the Orlov VNIISPK selection. These varieties attracted me with an early entry into fruiting (literally in the second year), large-fruited, pleasant berry taste and high resistance to major diseases and pests of currants. Some varieties with high agricultural technology literally overload themselves with the harvest, while others are able to bear fruit annually and well with a minimum of maintenance.
Separately about the size of the berries. For comparison: the berries of the previously widespread variety Pamyat Michurin have a mass of 0.7-0.9 g, and the mass of the berries of the Orlov and Altai varieties I tested is from 2.5 g to 5.5 g. One of our gardeners, having looked at them in my garden, exclaimed: "The varieties are praised, large as cherries, but here they are like grapes!" Therefore, I decided to dwell on their characteristics in more detail.
- Lucia- a variety of medium ripening, fast-growing, very high-yielding. Bushes are low, medium spreading. The berries are large and very large (3.6-5.5 g), one-dimensional, large both at the beginning and at the end of the cluster. The variety is resistant to many common diseases. Due to the annual high yields, it consumes a lot of nutrients and is picky about agricultural technology. With insufficient agricultural technology, the bushes can age quickly.
- Hercules - a variety of late ripening. The bush is powerful, with thick shoots, erect, consistently high-yielding. Berries are large (3-3.6 g), one-dimensional, dessert taste, with a thin skin. It attracts gardeners by its high winter hardiness, and also by the fact that it is not very picky about growing conditions.
- Treasure - early ripening variety. The berries are large, 2-4 g, sweet and sour taste. The bush is undersized, semi-spreading, the yield is high. Resistant to diseases and pests.
- Lazy person - despite its name, it turned out to be an excellent high-yielding, medium-late variety: the berries are large, up to 3-3.5 g, the taste is pleasant, sweet (4.8 points), the yield is high. The bushes are quite powerful, somewhat spreading. After harvesting early-ripening varieties for a long time "treats" with its sweet berries directly from the bush.
- Openwork - in many characteristics it is similar to the previous variety, but differs from it in earlier ripening - the ripening period is average. The berries are sweet. This is the highest yielding variety in my garden.
- Grace- a fast-growing, large-fruited and high-yielding variety with a medium early ripening period. The berries are large, with a dessert taste. The bush is powerful, upright. The yield is high. This variety of gardeners pleases with the fact that it is not at all affected by powdery mildew and is resistant to kidney mites.
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- Exotic - a high-yielding and large-fruited variety. Berries weighing 3.5-5 g, uniform along the entire length of the brush, very pleasant to the taste. This is perhaps the largest-fruited variety of early ripening black currants for the conditions of central Russia. Bushes are powerful, vigorous, erect.The branches, even under the weight of a bountiful harvest, are weakly inclined to the ground. The variety is early-growing, in my propagation beds even some cuttings of the autumn planting period for another year bloom and try to bear fruit, but I, naturally, remove such flowers. The shoots of the first year are thick, powerful. The variety is resistant to powdery mildew. I believe that this variety has the right to take a place in every garden.
Of the varieties of red and white currants, large-fruited were: Jonker Van Tets (red), Dutch Pink and Versailles White. These varieties have another positive quality - the berries hang until winter without crumbling, and we feast on currants right from the bush when there are no other berries in the garden. I continue to test other new ones. In the spring I am going to plant a completely new very large-fruited variety - Arcadia... According to the characteristics of the authors - GA Plenkina, TP Ogoltsova, - it combines large-fruited with high resistance to powdery mildew and kidney mites. I try to keep the soil under the currant bushes loose during the summer.But since the roots of the currants are located close to the soil surface, I loosen shallowly and carefully. After spring loosening, I always mulch the row spacing with a 5-6 cm layer of rotted manure, which helps to retain moisture throughout the summer, prevents weeds from growing and at the same time is a good fertilizer. Currant is a moisture-loving culture. With timely watering, the berries are much larger. Critical periods are the beginning of the formation of berries and the time of their pouring. Drying of the soil at this time can lead to crushing and even shedding of the berries. In dry weather, I usually water the currants once every 8-10 days, pouring 5-6 buckets of water under each bush. I water only at the root, not moistening the bush itself, so as not to provoke the development of powdery mildew. If the autumn turned out to be dry, at the end of September - beginning of October I carry out water-charging irrigation of the plantings. If, before planting the seedling, the planting pit was well filled with organic and mineral fertilizers, then before the start of fruiting, the currants can not be fertilized. Good shoot growth is an indicator of a sufficient amount of nutrients. Fruiting currants consume a lot of nutrients. In the fall, under each bush I bring in 100-120 g of superphosphate, 30-40 g of potassium sulfate. I apply nitrogen fertilizers (40-50 g of ammonium nitrate or urea) in early spring before mulching the soil with rotted manure. The first time I feed it immediately after flowering with infusion of bird droppings (1 bucket of droppings for 18-20 buckets of water), and sometimes with infusion of mullein (1 bucket of organic matter for 5-6 buckets of water). I add a half-liter can of ash to each bucket of infusion.Pour 1 bucket of prepared fertilizer under each bush. Black currant responds with a good yield increase for foliar feeding with microelements. I do the first feeding before flowering. In 10 liters of water I dissolve 20-30 g of urea, 7-8 g of boric acid, 1 g of zinc chloride, 0.5 g of copper sulfate (copper sulfate) and 0.3 g of potassium permanganate. I carry out top dressing in the evening in calm weather. The second foliar dressing is done during the formation of ovaries with a mixture of a 0.5% urea solution (50 g per 10 l of water) and a 2% superphosphate solution. "Garden for the soul and good rest", No. 9, 2014 (Nizhny Novgorod) Photo by the author
Jonker Van Tets(Jonker van Tets) - a variety of early ripening. The bush is vigorous, erect (more spreading with age), dense, forms quickly. Enters fruiting early. Differs in early flowering, resistance to powdery mildew. Weakly affected by anthracnose, medium - kidney mites and gall aphids. Berries of medium size 0.7-1.4 g, bright red, with a dense, transparent skin of a pleasant delicate taste.
Care secrets
Top dressing
