Gooseberry Malachite: variety description and cultivation features
Content
Description and characteristics of the variety
The gooseberry variety "Malachite" was created by the staff of the Institute of Horticulture. IV Michurina by crossing the varieties "Black Negus" and "Date". The result turned out to be very successful, since for more than half a century, most gardeners-gardeners have been planting this particular variety.
A sprawling shrub with light green leaves grows up to 130 cm in height, is characterized by a medium spiny and needs traditional care. It perfectly tolerates severe winter frosts, sudden changes in temperature and short periods of drought.
The main advantage of this variety is noted in all descriptions - it is practically not affected by American powdery mildew. Other common diseases for gooseberries can complicate caring for it, but preventive and sanitary measures taken in time will save the plant.
The bush bears the first fruits 2 years after planting, and can last more than 30 years with good care. The largest number of fruits, and this is 4-6 kg of large green berries, falls on the years from the 4th to the 20th. The variety is self-pollinating, it does not require the obligatory planting of representatives of other varieties nearby to increase the yield. But if there are several bushes, you need to leave a distance of at least 1 meter between them. The thorns are most often single, there are not very many of them, making it much easier to care for the bush.
Video "Malachite gooseberry"
This video demonstrates what a two-year-old gooseberry of the Malachite variety looks like at a summer cottage.
About gooseberries
Large green berries with light streaks, not pubescent, with a slight waxy bloom, as follows from the description of the Malachite variety, ripen in the second half of July. If they are not collected, they do not crumble, they remain hanging on the branches, acquiring softness, amber color and increasing the sweetness. The average weight of one berry varies from 4 to 6 grams.
Fleshy, with a large number of seeds under a thin skin, they contain 8.6% sugars, up to 40.8 mg of ascorbic acid per 100 g of weight, vitamins, pectins, micro- and macroelements.
The composition, unique in its usefulness, makes the berries surprisingly valuable - they rid the body of excess cholesterol, remove toxins, radionuclides, salts, and are used as a laxative, diuretic, choleretic agent. Traditional medicine recommends them for the treatment of many skin diseases, gum diseases.
The fruits plucked from the bush can be stored in a cool room (cellar) for 4 to 7 days, depending on the degree of ripeness. The refrigerator will help keep the slightly unripe hard berries longer. For the winter, they are often frozen, which allows you to preserve a maximum of nutrients. To do this, first keep clean, dry berries on the top shelf for several hours, and then put them in the freezer. Before using them, it is also recommended to first keep them in the refrigerator for 5 hours, and then only use them at room temperature.
All descriptions point out the versatility of the berries. They are eaten fresh, fruit drinks, compotes and berry puree for cereals or milk jelly are made from them. Wonderful royal (or emerald) jam is made from slightly unripe Malachite berries, and from ripe or even slightly overripe, soft and yellowish, confit, jelly, and pastille are made. Delicious vitamin desserts retain many useful substances after heat treatment and canning.
Planting and leaving
Young bushes can be planted in autumn or spring. In the spring, you need to have time to do this, while the plant has not yet come out of dormancy, that is, until the buds swell, but when the ground has already thawed out enough for the roots to take root. Such a time is difficult to guess, so most often young bushes are planted in the fall. The main thing here is to settle a young bush 3, or better even 5 weeks before the onset of frost. Then it will definitely take root, and in the spring it will already grow.
For the gooseberry, dig a hole with a diameter of 50 cm and a depth of 50 cm. The removed soil is mixed with compost or humus (up to 10 kg), wood ash, superphosphate and potassium sulfide are added. It is better to do this in advance so that the soil with fertilizers will lie down for a couple of weeks. A third of the hole is filled with this prepared soil, then a bush is placed, usually at an angle, the roots are straightened, covered with the remaining earth so that the roots do not break, but voids are not allowed. After planting, the ground around the bush is tamped and watered abundantly.
When buying a seedling, be sure to investigate the development of the root and the condition of the shoots. Shoots should be thick, not dry or damaged. If the root turns out to be dry or underdeveloped, then no care can be taken to correct this, therefore it is better to carefully examine it in advance. Before planting the plant, the dried edges of the roots are slightly shortened (to a living place), and after planting a bush, the shoots are cut to 5-6 buds.
The gooseberry loves moisture, so a new bush is watered weekly to help it take root. In the future, caring for gooseberries includes mandatory regular watering.
"Malachite" is a very viable variety, it can survive a period of drought, but to get a rich harvest it needs to be watered, especially in the absence of rain. Watering is carried out at the root.
The ground under the bush and around it must be kept clean, weeds must be removed, the top layer must be loosened, in no case leave plant residues.
Every year, the bush is pruned, removing old (over 5 years old), damaged or inside the bush shoots. An adult bush should consist of shoots of different ages so that 4-5 old ones can be removed annually, and the same number of new ones will begin to bear fruit. A healthy adult bush should have no more than 15 skeletal branches, otherwise in the middle of the bush the berries will not be able to ripen due to lack of sun. This formative pruning should be done when the bush is dormant. Slices of thick stems must be processed with garden var. Usually, pruning is done after leaf fall in the fall or before the juices begin to move in early spring.
To obtain a bountiful harvest, starting from the second year of life, gooseberries are fed with organic and mineral fertilizers. This is usually done in the spring when ovaries form and after harvest. In autumn, compost (or humus), ammonium nitrate, superphosphate and potassium chloride are introduced. In the spring, some gardeners recommend making 80 g of ammonium nitrate, while others prefer to water it with a tenfold solution of slurry.
Aphids, moths, sawflies are pests that gooseberries can take a fancy to. Proper care and observance of sanitary standards should reduce the likelihood of the resettlement of parasites, but if this does happen, then biological products, ash tincture, soap-tobacco solution will help get rid of them.Some gardeners cultivate the land under the bush with this composition: add 1 tablespoon of mustard, chopped hot pepper, 200 g of tobacco dust to the ash (300 g). This repels most of the pests. If, nevertheless, the pests have settled on the gooseberry, then before and after flowering, the bushes are treated with a solution of "Karbofos" or "Rovikurta" according to the instructions.
Malachite has resistance to the most common gooseberry disease, powdery mildew, but anthracnose and other diseases may well happen, so proper care should include preventive measures. Before bud break, the bush is treated with Bordeaux liquid. In summer, plants are sprayed with soapy water with the addition of soda ash or tobacco dust.
"Malachite" is not afraid of cold weather, which means that it does not need to be insulated before the arrival of winter. The only activity that needs to be done in the fall (other than feeding) to help the plant survive the winter is watering.
Video "Gooseberry varieties"
This video tells about the varieties of gooseberries: thorny, slightly thorny and thornless. You will find out which of these varieties are not affected by powdery mildew.