Gooseberry Ural emerald is a gift to gardeners from breeders of the Institute of Horticulture from the city of South Uralsk. It has long been successful with summer residents, and since 2000 it has been included in the State Register of fruit crops for cultivation in the West Siberian region.
Grade description
A hundred years ago, the gooseberry beloved by many gardeners was known not only for its useful properties, but also for prickly bushes, which are difficult to prune, and it is not easier to harvest.
Today, breeders bred varieties not only without thorns and frost-resistant, but also with berries from light green to black. One of the options for planting in the country is the gooseberry Ural emerald, the description of the variety of which causes the desire to allocate as much space as possible for it.
Its features:
- These are shrubs of medium height, quite compact and with a dense crown.
- Unlike other breeding species, the gooseberry Ural emerald has not lost its “thorn”, retaining small spikes along its entire length on its thick greenish shoots.
- The leaves of this variety do not differ in the same size and on one stem you can find both small and large shiny specimens of dark green color. The only thing that unites them is a carved pattern and a border of sharp cloves.
- The gooseberry Ural emerald blooms in large pink self-pollinating inflorescences.
- This shrub is characterized by the absence of thorns in the upper nodes and internodes, therefore it is classified as a medium spike.
- That's why summer residents love the Ural emerald gooseberry variety (reviews confirm this), because of its berries. Large, rounded or slightly elongated oval in shape, light green, with thin skin, they have an excellent sweet or sour-sweet taste.
- Productivity is also a delight. Collecting more than 6 kg of the most delicious berries from the bush is another incentive to plant the Ural emerald gooseberries in their country house.
- The endurance of the variety, both in relation to the Siberian climate, and to most pests and diseases inherent in this shrub, also plays a large role.
Here's a gooseberry Ural emerald description of the variety, causing a desire to taste its juicy large berries. And even his spike does not deter lovers of jam, jams and compotes from the fruits of this shrub.
Benefits of the Ural Emerald
The main advantages of this variety are:
- Taste qualities of berries that are suitable for use both raw and canned. Particularly tasty and healthy of them are jams and preserves, but therapeutic tinctures are no less popular. The fruits of the Ural Emerald perfectly tolerate freezing, while retaining all their useful properties.
- Not only is the variety high-yielding, it is not typical for its berries to crumble, but they are removed from the branches very easily.
- Good resistance to Siberian frost minimizes caring for them.
- Resistance to diseases also frees gardeners from unnecessary costs for chemicals and time for spraying.
The Ural emerald received such advantages from its "parents", because it was grown by crossing the famous variety Nugget with the Firstborn of Minusinsk.
How to plant gooseberries
One of the advantages of this variety is its compactness, which especially attracts owners of small plots, because on a fairly small piece of land you can plant several bushes in order to collect 6 kg of each crop in the future.
Practice shows that the bushes of the Ural emerald planted nearby give a greater yield, since with the correct formation of the crown they not only self-pollinate, but also pollinate each other, which leads to additional kilograms of berries.
The best place to plant this variety is fertile soil on the sunny side of the site.
Important: Ural emerald is contraindicated in lowlands, since moisture accumulates there, which will lead to decay of its roots. The hillocks also do not suit him, since here is another extreme - moisture quickly erodes from the soil.
The best month for landing is the end of September, but you need to navigate the region. The main thing is that the landing takes place 3 weeks before the start of the first frost. But for breeding, the best period is spring. The easiest way is to dig up layering from the mother bush, followed by separation when strong roots appear.
Planting seedlings is made in prepared and fertilized with organic fertilizer wells, followed by watering.
Caring for the Ural Emerald
If you believe what they say about gooseberries Ural emerald reviews of gardeners, then care for it is minimal. As they say, planted and forgot. In fact, it needs to be watered as the soil dries, the soil is loosened, weeds are weeded, and in the autumn, pruning of the bushes for the correct formation of the crown.
Organic fertilizers are applied to the soil in the fall, while minerals to the bushes are not enough in the spring. That's all the care for the Ural emerald.
Pests and diseases
Although this variety is resistant to powdery mildew, and to anthracnose, and it is flown by the side of the moth butterfly, it is necessary to monitor the health of the bushes.
Aphids or caterpillars can become a cause of problems, which, for all their slowness, are so voracious that they can destroy not only the crop, but also the bush as a whole in a short time. Therefore, at each watering, you need to carefully examine the leaves of the bushes for damage.
At the first detection of "occupiers", fungicides should be used and both infected and healthy bushes should be sprayed.
Useful properties of the Ural emerald
Not only taste qualities attract summer residents to gooseberries, but also its beneficial properties. As you know, the berries of this shrub are rich in vitamin C, which has a beneficial effect on the immune system, and serotonin, which cancer cells "do not like".
In addition to this “wealth”, the berries of the Ural emerald contain a high level of vitamin P and pectins, which are able to remove heavy metal salts from the liver, kidneys, and other organs.
In folk medicine, these berries are used as a diuretic and choleretic agent, as well as as an immunomodulator. That is why it is recommended to eat the fruits of the Ural emerald primarily in its raw form, but frozen ones are also useful, they help maintain the body in the autumn-winter period.