Cherry Raditsa

Moving the cherries north is an adventure. The descendants of pioneer varieties have long appeared, even more persistent, productive and tasty. One of them is the Raditsa cherry.

The creator of the variety is M. V. Kanshina, the author of 14 varieties of sweet cherry, who worked in Bryansk. The ancestors of the variety are Leningradskaya Black and Kommunarka. Both are tasty and winter hardy. The Raditsa variety was included in the State Register of Varieties in 2001.

A tree of medium height, up to 4 m, active, with a wide, rounded, not too dense crown. Shoots are long, drooping down, with light brown bark. The foliage is medium in size, slightly elongated, green in color, quite abundant.

The flowers are pure white, flat, not too large, but not too small, collected in three pieces, bloom in early May. The stalks are long and thin. Fruits are formed mainly on bouquet branches. The separation from the peduncle is dry.

Berries are medium in size - 4.6-5.7 grams, oval in shape, with a gorgeous shiny dark red skin. Ripe berries are almost black, so dense in color. The pulp is dark red, dense enough, juicy. The fruits tolerate transportation well. Resistant to cracking in the rainy season. The stone is 0.24 grams, it separates well from the pulp.

The taste is sweet, harmonious. The tasting score is quite high - 4.5 points, according to some sources - 4.7 points. The variety is universal. Equally well suited for fresh consumption and harvesting. This cherry is added to desserts, mousses, cakes, fruit salads. Jams, confitures, preserves, marmalade, juices, compotes, nectars, berry assorted are prepared from it. The berry is suitable for making wines and liqueurs, for drying and drying. The juice of this variety has a rich ruby ​​color.

The variety belongs to the early varieties in terms of ripening. The harvest begins in the second half of June. The return of berries is friendly. Early maturity - 4 or 5 years after planting.

The yield is quite high - up to 60 kg / ha.

The variety is winter-hardy, capable of withstanding a drop in temperatures down to -29 ° C, so it can be grown in the middle lane.

The variety is self-fertile. For the formation of the crop, a number of pollinating varieties are needed: Tyutchevka, Iput, Revna. Revna is a medium late variety, Tyutchevka and Iput are early varieties. All three varieties were bred by M.V. Kanshina.

Sweet cherry is a plant that is still poorly adapted to the conditions of the Russian Federation. All varieties grow impeccably well only in the North Caucasus or in the Krasnodar Territory, where the fruits are grown by industrial methods for sale. In other regions, the plant will need careful agricultural technology, even if the variety is declared winter-hardy.

Agricultural technology begins with a competent choice of place. Sweet cherry loves warmth and sun, even weather. She needs to take the most heated, bright area, without stagnation of moisture in the spring or snow delays. Low-lying areas, especially with stagnant water, will not work. It is also important that the place is well protected from cold northerly winds, which in springtime can increase the contrast of the weather, even if in fact it is not very cold.

The soil for planting should be light, perfectly permeable to moisture and air, with neutral acidity, nutritious. A young plant should have enough nutrients for the next 2-3 years. Cherries are planted in spring; during autumn planting, they do not have time to prepare for wintering. And the landing pits are harvested just in the fall.

If the soil needs a strong transformation, it is better to dig a larger hole right away, from 1 meter in diameter. A layer of humus is poured onto the bottom, well mixed with 1.5-2 cups of sifted ash and 2-3 tbsp. l. superphosphate, sprinkle with ordinary earth. Fertile soil is poured into the pit in half with humus.

Young trees are sheltered for the winter using a thick layer of mulch made from fresh shavings or needles, spruce branches, burlap, breathable non-woven covering materials. The most important danger is spring damping, so you need to take care that the tree does not get wet in the water and does not steam under the shelter when the sun begins to warm up.

In the future, the plant will need formative pruning, watering and feeding.

Watering is needed abundant, but as needed. If the summer is rainy, the cherries do not need to be watered. In dry summers, young plants are watered once every 1 or 2 weeks, adults - 3-4 times per season. In any case, make sure that the soil gets wet well, not less than 40 cm in depth, and at the same time has time to dry out - cherries do not tolerate stagnant moisture. After watering, it is useful to mulch the tree trunk circle, for example, with a mixture of dry manure and sawdust (50 to 50).

The Raditsa variety has good immunity, it is a healthy and strong tree. However, in the middle lane in cold and rainy summers, cherries can suffer from fungal diseases. To prevent problems, preventive measures are required:

1. spraying with Bordeaux liquid in the spring before the buds dissolve;
2. treatment with "Fitosporin" during the growing season;
3. thorough whitewashing of trunks in the fall, large branches are also whitewashed;
4. sanitary pruning 1-2 times a year;
5. cleaning the site, all the fallen leaves are raked and burned.

If signs of disease have been noticed on the trees, cherries are treated with fungicides, for example, Topaz or Horus.

On a semi-dwarf rootstock, the Raditsa cherry will be even more compact, and the fruits can be removed from the 3rd year of life.

Cherry Raditsa is included in the list of the most delicious cherries, it has a sweet taste, like the varieties Ariadna, Bryanochka, Lezginka, Lyubimitsa Korvatsky. The reviews are positive, but they are few. Cherry Raditsa did not manage to become popular, because it was bred not so long ago, but it has every chance of becoming a favorite of gardeners in the Central region of the Russian Federation. The tree has good health, excellent yield and tasty, very beautiful berries that ripen surprisingly early for the Moscow region.