Currant Exotic

Black currant - a classic of gardens and personal plots, is considered one of the most common crops in our country. All types have their own characteristics, pros and cons. The above fully applies to the Exotic variety, whose fruits are suitable for fresh use, for making preserves and jams. The variety is grown both on private plots and on an industrial scale, since it is suitable for mechanized harvesting.

The originators of the variety are the breeders of the All-Russian Research Institute of Breeding of Fruit Crops and the Scientific Research Institute of Horticulture of Siberia named after V.I. M. A. Lisavenko - T. P. Ogoltsova, Z. S. Zotova, S. D. Knyazev, L. V. Bayanova, who worked on crossing the currant Seedling Golubki and Bradthorpe. The variety was approved for use in 2001.

Medium-sized bushes have medium thickening. Shoots are gray and thick, erect, not pubescent, with long internodes; they change color to a gray-yellow color closer to the tops. Young light green shoots of the current year are covered with a shiny skin and are stained with anthocyanin.

Advantages of the variety:

• winter hardiness;
• self-fertility;
• early maturity;
• high yield and strong immunity.

Large green five-lobed foliage has a shiny wrinkled surface, a cut of a standard depth and denticles along the edges. The flowers are white and rather large in size, collected in drooping clusters of medium length with 8-10 berries. Wide sepals are of medium size.

Rounded black berries have an impressive weight - from 1.8 to 2.5 grams.

Juicy refreshing sweet and sour pulp is covered with a thin skin. The chemical composition contains: sugars - 8.9%, ascorbic acid - 197.1 mg / 100 g, soluble solids - 12.8%, as well as titratable acids - 2.8%, anthocyanins - 101.1 mg / 100 g , leukoanthocyanins - 151.7 mg / 100 g, catechins - 431.7 mg / 100 g and the amount of P-active substances - 684.5 mg / 100 g. Tasting score - 4.3 points out of 5 possible.

The early-fruiting (3-4 years old) variety belongs to the early-ripening category - they start harvesting in late June - early July.

The minimum yield, subject to the rules of agricultural technology, is 1 kg per bush and 6.9 t / ha.

The variety is adapted for cultivation in the Central regions of the country.

Exotics refers to self-fertile (54% pollination) varieties, but yields increase significantly when pollinating varieties with the same flowering time settle nearby.

The optimal timing for planting currant seedlings is autumn, from September to the end of October.They are planted in the spring, which is also not bad, because there is a long season ahead for adaptation and growth of the root system. However, the fall planting has very serious advantages:

• there will be enough time for the rooting of young and thin roots, and all care for the plant is shifted to the "shoulders" of nature - the seedlings do not need to be watered, protected from the sun and hail;
• in the spring, you will not have to waste precious time preparing pits and planting plants, and they will begin their life together with all crops and already this year will go through a full-fledged growing cycle, while spring plantings are carried out much later, and the entire season is spent on adaptation.

The plot is chosen sunny, with protection from cold winds and drafts. The distance between the bushes is at least 1 meter, in the aisles - up to 1.5 m.

A pit 70x70x70 cm is equipped with a drainage layer, on top of which an organic "pillow" is laid in the form of a thick layer of compost, rotted manure, humus. Together with the drainage, the pillow should take up ⅔ space. The removed soil is enriched with organic matter (humus, compost, bird droppings), mineral fertilizers, superphosphate, wood ash.

If the soil is highly acidic, it must be deoxidized with lime, chalk, gypsum, dolomite flour. When organizing a planting pit, it should be remembered that currants do not like heavy soil, they will need light, loose, breathable soil.

The roots of the seedling are carefully straightened inside the pit along the surface of the earth, set obliquely, sinking the root collar into the ground to a depth of 10 cm - this technique promotes greater root formation and the number of shoots. As a result, the bush will be healthy and strong. The near-trunk circle is watered with three buckets of warm water, the next day they are loosened or mulched.

Further care consists in timely and regular watering. In the first year, they are carried out weekly, for adult bushes, the frequency of irrigation is reduced, but the Exotics may not withstand droughts. Weeding is imperative, since weeds take away a significant part of the nutrients. If mulching is not used, then it is necessary to loosen the soil in the near-stem circle after each watering so that the earth does not become crusty and oxygen saturates the root system.

Feeding is no less important. With the correct filling of the planting pit, they will not be needed in the next 2-3 years, but then the currants will deplete internal reserves. Every autumn, the trunk circle is covered with a thick layer of humus or manure. In the spring, when the snow melts, the nutrients will go down. If it was not possible to do this in the fall, then in the spring the bushes will need nitrogen to build up a powerful green mass. In the second half of summer, currants are fed with phosphorus-potassium preparations.

Sanitary pruning is carried out in the fall and spring, removing affected, old, deformed shoots. It is necessary to remember about anti-aging procedures, when 4-year-old branches are replaced with young replacement shoots - the most complete yields give 2-3-year-old shoots. You should also avoid thickening the bush.

Preventive treatments with insecticides and fungicides will protect plantations from pests and diseases.

Currants are highly resistant to powdery mildew, anthracnose and columnar rust. Medium resistance to septoria and kidney mites.

The Exotica variety has high winter hardiness.