Red Currants

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 15:51

© Photo: subbotina / Rusmediabank.ru

Latin name: Ribes rubrum Family: Gooseberry Headings: Fruit and berry crops, Ornamental trees and shrubs

Red currant (Latin Ribes rubrum) - berry culture; a representative of the Gooseberry family. In natural conditions, it grows throughout Eurasia. Typical places are forests, forest edges, coastal zones of streams and rivers.

Characteristics of culture

Red currant is a small spreading deciduous shrub up to 2 m high with gray shoots. Leaves are green, 3-5-tylopaste, with a heart-shaped base, pubescent on the underside, have a pronounced odor. The flowers are pale greenish, sometimes reddish-brown, collected in racemose inflorescences.

Fruits - ruby juicy berries, with a sour taste, up to 1, 2 cm in diameter. Flowering occurs in May, berries ripen in July. Red currants are high-yielding, but subject to careful care and favorable growing conditions. From one adult bush, you can get up to 17 kg of berries. The variety under consideration enters fruiting 3-4 years after planting. Red currants give abundant harvests up to 25 years.

Popular varieties

* Valencia - the variety is represented by low spreading shrubs. The berries are quite large, red in color, have a pleasant taste and extraordinary aroma. It is a mid-season variety.

* Vika - the variety is represented by low shrubs. The berries are medium in size, red, sweetish-sour, collected in dense dense clusters. The variety boasts winter hardiness and resistance to anthracnose and powdery mildew.

* Viksne - the variety is represented by spreading shrubs. The berries are medium or large, red with a cherry tint, sweet and sour, hanging on the branches for a long time. The variety is characterized by winter hardiness and anthracnose resistance.

* Dutch red - the variety is represented by powerful, vigorous shrubs with a spreading crown. The berries are small, red, with a thin almost transparent skin, collected in clusters of 9-15 pieces. The variety is winter-hardy and high-yielding.

* Konstantinovskaya - the variety is represented by medium-sized shrubs. The berries are medium-sized, red, sweet and sour. The variety is mid-season, winter-hardy and resistant to fungal diseases.

* Leader - the variety is represented by medium-sized compact bushes. The berries are red, sweet, medium in size, stored for a long time. The variety is mid-season.

* Beloved - the variety is represented by medium-sized spreading shrubs. The berries are small, deep red, have a pleasant dessert taste and aroma. The variety is high-yielding.

* Orlovskaya Zvezda - the variety is represented by tall compact shrubs. The berries are large, sweet-sour, pink-red, collected in dense long clusters. The variety is late maturing and high-yielding.

* Early sweet - the variety is represented by powerful spreading shrubs. Berries are medium in size, dark red, have a dessert taste, collected in long clusters. The variety is characterized by winter hardiness, high yield and resistance to powdery mildew.

* Sarah - the variety is represented by vigorous compact shrubs. The berries are red, large or medium, sweet and sour, have a fresh aroma, collected in long clusters. The variety is high-yielding.

* Ural Dawns - the variety is represented by medium-sized compact shrubs. The berries are medium, ruby, sweet. The variety is late ripening.

* Crispy - the variety is represented by medium-sized spreading shrubs. The berries are large, red in color, have a sweet taste and rich aroma, collected in long clusters.

* Generous - the variety is represented by medium-sized, non-sprawling shrubs. The berries are large, sweet and sour, with a refreshing taste, collected in short clusters. The variety is mid-season.

The subtleties of growing

Red currant prefers sandy loam or light loamy soils, moderately moist, loose and fertile soils. Does not accept strongly acidic and heavy clay substrates, as well as areas with a close occurrence of groundwater. The most important condition for the culture is good lighting; on such sites, it gives good yields of berries. In shaded areas, shrubs develop slowly, and the berries are very shallow.

Planting of red currant seedlings is carried out in pre-prepared pits, one-third filled with soil mixture, consisting of garden soil and humus, filled with mineral fertilizers. The planting scheme depends on the crown: with a spreading crown, the distance between the bushes should be at least 2 m, with a semi-spreading - 1, 5-1, 6 m, with a compact - 1, 2-1, 3 m. Red currant seedlings are planted obliquely, after which the voids are carefully tamped, and the zone in the near-trunk zone is abundantly watered and, if possible, mulched with organic material.

In the year of planting, the plants do not need pruning; it is carried out next spring. The procedure consists in shortening the shoots, the cut is carried out on the soil located outside. Such pruning not only activates shoot growth, but also stimulates branching. In the future, thickening, diseased, damaged shoots lying on the ground are removed from the bushes. Shoots affected by powdery mildew, glassworm and scabbard are also cut out.