Many gardeners grow gooseberries with pleasure. And they’re doing it right, since its peculiar taste berries contain about twenty useful trace elements, nine vitamins, organic acids, tannins, flavonoids, carbohydrates, pectin, saccharides and many other very useful substances. Belarusian sugar gooseberries occupies a leading position among other varieties. It has many advantages and almost no shortcomings. Therefore, gardeners are trying to breed it in their personal plots.
Gooseberry Belarusian sugar: description
Gooseberry belongs to the genus Currant, the gooseberry family. Varieties of this plant come with thorns and without. Its flowers are inconspicuous, bisexual, pollinated by insects. The gooseberry buds begin to bloom at the very beginning of spring, and by the end of April the bushes delight the eye with emerald greenery. The flowers bloom very early too - by mid-May, but the fruits ripen in different ways. There are varieties of early ripe, mid-early, late early, mid-ripe and late ripe. Belarusian sugar gooseberries belong to mid-early grades. His berries ripen by the end of July.
Outwardly, it differs little from other varieties. The height of its bushes is about 1 meter or slightly lower, the branches are not thick, covered with spikes, "looking up", but can be slightly inclined to the ground, especially when there are a lot of berries on them. They are quite large in Belarusian sugar, weighing up to 9 grams, light green, unrefined, thin-skinned and very sweet. Sugar in their pulp contains up to 14%, and acids only up to 2%. In this case, vitamin C in them is up to 26 mg per 100 grams.
Propagation by layering
If the Belarusian sugar gooseberry is already growing on the site , it can be propagated by layering. This is the most convenient and easy method that is used throughout the growing season. But if you make layering in the early spring, already in the fall you can get a new plant, which will yield a crop next year. Having chosen the time when sap flow has not yet begun, but the soil on top has already warmed up a bit, the lower one-two-year-old gooseberry twigs are tilted to the surface of the earth, pinned and dug up this place.
The top of such branches is cut off so that the plant throws all its forces into root formation, and not to further growth. Layers, like the entire mother plant, will certainly grow. When young tender shoots emerging from their buds reach a length of about 10 cm, the attached area is again dug up by about 5-6 cm, and after 3 weeks they do it again, and again by about 5-7 cm. During the summer, cuttings are periodically watered, and in the fall they are separated by secateurs from the mother bush, dug out of the ground and transferred to the chosen place.
Propagation by cuttings
Belarusian sugar gooseberries can be propagated by cuttings, but their survival rate will not be very high. Cuttings are harvested in the I-II decades of July or in the fall. It is better to take green shoots, because they are more actively rooted. After cutting the branches, leaves are removed from their lower end, one at a time above the buds, and 3-5 cuts in the lower part and placed for 24 hours in water, then into the root (according to instructions). In a greenhouse, a layer of sand is poured on top of the ground, into which prepared cuttings are placed at a small (up to 4 cm) distance from one another, watered, covered with a film. Humidity will need to be maintained throughout the rooting period. After 3 weeks, the film begins to be opened for an hour or two, and after a month they are removed. July cuttings can be planted in the garden in autumn, and autumn only in the following spring.
This gooseberry variety is not propagated by seeds.
Care
It is not difficult to grow Belarusian gooseberry sugar. Reviews of gardeners note its high winter hardiness, good ability to self-pollination, very low susceptibility to diseases such as anthracnose and powdery mildew. He needs a place for landing sunny, without strong winds and waterlogging of the soil. Since this variety has powerful bushes, it is advisable to arrange seedlings no closer than 1.5-2 meters to each other. It is better to plant gooseberries in pre-prepared pits, where humus, superphosphate (no more than 200 grams), peat and potassium fertilizer (up to 30 grams) must be added beforehand. In the spring, gooseberries need to do pruning, which consists in removing diseased shoots and thinning out the bush, as well as loosening the soil. During the growing season, the berry should be regularly, but not plentifully watered, and the soil should be mulched near the bush. Gooseberries are also very responsive to feeding. How often to make them depends on the quality of the soil. On the fertile, this is every 3 years, on the poor every year. You can feed with organic matter (mullein, bird droppings) or with mineral fertilizers (potash, phosphorus, nitrogen). Potassium is especially important for gooseberries, so it’s very good to use ash, which will fertilize and help with many pests.