It’s not in vain that gooseberries take pride of place in almost every garden - its berries are considered one of the most useful and have healing properties: normalize blood pressure, regulate digestion, and remove harmful substances from the body. Bushes of the "northern grape" (the second name of the berry), which is completely picky about leaving, under favorable conditions can bear fruit for more than 20 years; There are cases when 40-year-olds were pleased with their owners with high and tasty harvests.
One of the popular varieties among gardeners is the gooseberry Krasnoslavyanskiy. Its berries are characterized by a sweet aromatic taste with a slight note of sourness. Dark cherry fruits of this variety are quite large (about 9 grams), have an oval shape, covered with a barely noticeable thin skin. There is a strong spike, which is a small drawback of this variety due to the difficulty of collecting a ripe crop.
Gooseberry Krasnoslavyanskiy: description
Shrub, which grows at an average pace, compact, non-sprawling; height is about one and a half meters. During the season, one bush is able to produce about 6 kg of high quality berries, which is a very good indicator.
Gooseberry Krasnoslavyanskiy, the description of which is not much different from the other varieties, is planted in sunny places - in the shade the probability of a good harvest will be very low, and the berry grows very small due to lack of sunlight. The plant should be watered regularly, as the soil dries up, but an excess of moisture should not be allowed, otherwise this is fraught with a great risk of decay of the root neck of the bush and, as a result, its death.
Gooseberry Krasnoslavyanskiy: landing
Bushes can be planted twice a year: in spring (between the thawing of snow and the formation of buds) and in autumn (4-6 weeks before the start of frost); while the distance between plants should be at least one meter. To provide bushes with nutrients, planting pits need to be well fertilized. You can prepare the following composition: 10 kg of rotted organic matter (fallen leaves, manure, weeds without seeds), 100 grams of wood ash, 50 grams of double superphosphate, 40 grams of potassium sulphide. Gooseberry sapling before planting should be updated: remove dry roots and trim the tops of the branches, leaving about 5 buds on each shoot. In the landing pit, the bush should be placed slightly inclined. After planting, it is good to compact the earth around the plant (to avoid the formation of voids) and water it abundantly.
Rules for feeding gooseberries
An important factor in the growth of gooseberry Krasnoslavyanskiy and obtaining high-quality crops is plant nutrition, which is recommended three times a year. The first time should be fertilized in early spring, scattering nitrogen-containing fertilizers around the bush, which are absorbed into the soil as the snow melts. It is also required to fertilize the soil with organic matter. The standard nutritional composition per bush consists of 10 kg of rotted manure (green mass, fallen leaves), 80 grams of superphosphate, 40 grams of nitrate, 20 grams of potassium chloride.
The second top dressing should be carried out during the flowering period and the formation of fruits with
potassium-phosphorus fertilizers. With weak shoot growth, you should additionally add a little
nitrogen fertilizer. In autumn, the final top dressing is carried out with potassium-phosphorus preparations that help the plant to prepare for the winter period and lay the flower buds of the next year.
Gooseberry pruning
The gooseberry variety Krasnoslavyanskiy needs high-quality pruning, which in the first years after planting is aimed at forming a crown. Such an operation is performed after the leaves fall or until the buds open. Some gardeners practice shortening green shoots in the summer (by 5–7 leaves), which helps to grow the largest berries. To do this, most of the root shoots are removed and half-perennial (skeletal) branches are shortened. From the 4th year of life, pruning is aimed at thinning out overgrowth of the bush, on which 10 to 20 strong fruiting shoots are left. Weak, dried and old shoots are removed, whose age has exceeded 7 years (after this age, fruiting of old branches is ineffective).
Gooseberry Krasnoslavyanskiy, reviews of gardeners about which are predominantly positive, needs proper care, consisting in loosening the soil and timely removal of weeds. Digging on dense soils is carried out using a shovel, on loose soils - lightly fluffing the surface layer with garden forks.
Moreover, the treatment should be carried out carefully due to the close location of the roots at the surface of the earth.
Advantages and disadvantages of the variety
Gooseberry Krasnoslavyanskiy is characterized by medium resistance to diseases and is often exposed to invasion of aphids and fires. As a protection, it is recommended in the spring to treat the bushes with biological products, ash infusion (per liter of water 1 kg of wood ash) and karbofos. If necessary, you can repeat the spraying after a flowering period.
An advantage of the gooseberry variety Krasnoslavyanskiy is its resistance to powdery mildew - a disease that appears on the leaves and shoots in the form of gray spots. Against powdery mildew, it is required to apply a solution of baking soda (per gram of water 5 grams) and iron sulfate (per liter of water 3 grams). Processing is carried out upon detection of the first signs of plaque.
Gooseberry Krasnoslavyanskiy is a frost-resistant variety, but still it is worth taking care of the winter protection of the plant. This is especially true of mid-latitudes. The variety is undemanding to the soil composition, but not very fond of wet and acidic lands.