Currant Raisin

Everyone's favorite black currant is a storehouse of vitamins and microelements, a berry that is always in great demand among gardeners and consumers. The berry is not only healthy, but also tasty in any form - fresh, in the filling of pies and cakes, in the form of a variety of preserves and jams, compotes and juices. Many consider it to be the Izyumnaya variety that is ideal for cultivation.

The authorship in the breeding of a unique variety belongs to A.I. VR Williams, and his team. To obtain the desired result, Form 37-5 and the Seedling Golubki variety were used as parent varieties. Izyumnaya was approved for use in 2007.

A compact, medium-sized (150 cm) bush consists of upright, rather compressed, geniculate shoots with closely spaced internodes. The dull brownish olive bark is covered with barely noticeable pubescence. Dark green three-lobed leaves, with a cut of medium depth, have a matte, slightly wrinkled, convex leathery surface. The bush blooms with large pale yellow flowers gathered in a medium-sized cluster, numbering from 6 to 12 berries.

The round, matte black berry has a large size (1.9 g), a large amount of vitamins and nutrients. The berry is tightly attached to the stalk, and practically does not crumble when ripe, which allows you to wait for the entire crop to ripen.

The raisin berry is characterized by increased sweetness - the sugar content reaches 9% of the total mass. In addition, the fruits contain ascorbic and other acids (1.8%), vitamin C (162% / mg). However, there is almost no acidity in the taste, the aroma is strong, but not sugary, rather refreshing.

The variety belongs to the early maturing category - the fruiting period begins from the first days of July.

In this regard, the indicators of raisin currants are also at a height - up to 2 kg are harvested from a bush, 30-70 centners from 1 hectare.

The variety was bred for cultivation in the Central and North-West regions, but its unpretentiousness allows cultivation in all regions, except for the northern ones.

Bushes can be planted in spring and autumn, but many gardeners prefer the autumn period, believing that there is enough time for rooting, but currants grow faster in spring. Compactness allows you to save space for planting, keeping a distance of 1-1.2 meters between plants. More often it is no longer possible, otherwise the thickening will prevent airing. High humidity is a source of fungal diseases.

Choose a sunny place for planting, you need to try to avoid even light shade, and then the berry will be honey-sweet. The soil should be fertile, with a neutral acidity level. If the pH level is too high, then the soil should be deacidified with chalk, lime, dolomite flour or gypsum. At the bottom of the planting pit with dimensions of 70x70 cm, it is necessary to arrange a drainage layer. The excavated soil is enriched with organic matter, using compost, humus, bird droppings, and also wood ash, superphosphate, potassium salt are added. Heavy loamy soils must be made loose. For this, you can use river sand. Sowing green manure also helps to loosen the soil.

It is best to add nutrients in the fall. During rains and melting snow, the soil is saturated with essential trace elements. Currants react negatively to high humidity, which must be taken into account when choosing a place. There should be no groundwaters nearby, and even more so, it should not be planted in swampy lowlands. If this is allowed, then the root system will quickly begin to rot.

Further care for the Raisin currant is simple, and requires compliance with elementary agrotechnical rules, for which it will thank you with an excellent harvest of tasty and healthy berries. Despite the fact that currants do not like stagnant water, they need regular watering 1-2 times a week, taking into account the weather - in a drought, the bushes are watered more often, during prolonged rains, watering is generally canceled.

The most favorable time for watering is in the evening, when the sun's rays lose their activity, and the coming night will not allow moisture to dry out quickly. This means that the plants will have more time to "get drunk". Everyone knows how dangerous it is to water in the heat during the day, but careful watering under the bush will not do any harm to the plant. If, nevertheless, the foliage has fallen under water, then there is a simple way to avoid burns - you just need to moisten the surrounding area. The fumes will protect the delicate leaves, and by the time the damp earth is dry, the leaves will be dry too.

The introduction of nutrients is carried out not only in the fall. Timely feeding during the spring-summer period is no less important. The first spring feeding is applied during the budding period and the formation of ovaries - for this, potassium-phosphorus compositions are used. After harvesting, the currants are fed with superphosphate, an extract from wood ash, and potassium sulfate. In addition to the introduction of mineral fertilizers and organic matter, you can feed the currants with fermented herbal infusion several times during the summer.

As for sanitary pruning, it is necessary for mature bushes. Old shoots are removed in the spring so that the bush does not waste its strength. When removing, you need to leave the so-called replacement shoots, that is, zero, while choosing strong and reliable ones that can give a good harvest for next year. In the middle of summer, experienced gardeners remove some of the new branches, shortening them by about 10 cm. This technique stimulates the emergence of new shoots.

In order to avoid freezing of the roots, the trunk circles are spud up for the winter, then covered with agrofibre, you can use spruce branches. Any shelter is removed in early spring, as soon as the melted snow allows. It is best to remove the soil with which the roots were covered, but so as not to rake the organic matter covered in autumn.

Black currant Raisin has a strong immune system, successfully resists traditional diseases and pests of this species - fungal diseases and soil mites. However, there is no 100% guarantee, so do not neglect preventive treatments with insecticides and fungicides.

Raisin has excellent drought tolerance, frost and light shade tolerance.