All gooseberries come from the Ribes genus of the Grossulariaceae family. These are perennial shrubs, from 0.6 to 2 meters high, with branches covered with sharp needles-thorns at the base of small rounded leaves. Fruits are valuable - berries of various colors and sizes (depending on the variety). They are rich in vitamins (A, C, B1, B2, B3, B6, B9, E) and minerals (calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, etc.). The fruits are used in cooking, making desserts and wines. Gooseberry juice and leaves are in demand in medicine for the preparation of diuretics, pain relievers and laxatives.

Genus description

Gooseberry (Grossularia) is a wild shrub native to North-East Europe. In a wild and feral state, the thorny berry plant is distributed throughout the European and North American continents. The life span of a gooseberry bush in one place reaches 30 years, the plant's ability to bear fruit lasts up to 15-20 years. Among the wild varieties that grow in our country, there are: Far Eastern (Bureinsky), Needle (Altai) and European (Rejected or Ordinary).

Common gooseberry (Ríbes úva-críspa) is the ancestor of most varieties cultivated by summer residents on their backyards. The selection followed the path of increasing the mass of berries from 2-3 to 50 grams. Some inexperienced gardeners at the sight of a large-fruited shrub seriously think: "Is a gooseberry a berry or a fruit?"

It is noteworthy that for their excellent taste and shape of berries, gooseberry fruits in Russia were called northern grapes.

Gooseberry

Wild or cultured

The taste of the fruit and the size of the shrub depend on whether the gooseberry is a wild or cultivated plant. Wild gooseberries can grow to the size of a small tree, and cultivated varieties are barely close to 0.8-1.2 meters. River valleys, the outskirts of meadows, forest edges, mountain slopes - an incomplete list of places where gooseberries grow. Natural mutations of the plant are distinguished by high winter hardiness and unpretentiousness, but are more strongly affected by powdery mildew.

Gooseberry Commander

Crossbreeding of European and American varieties of gooseberry plants allowed achieving high yields, cold resistance and resistance to common diseases. The gardener faces one problem - the choice of a variety.

Important! To achieve the best result, you need to use varieties that are zoned for a specific climatic zone.

Popular varieties

Gooseberry Beryl

It is preferable to cultivate gooseberries with different productivity, ripening times and susceptibility to diseases in gardens. Here are some of the varieties that have won the title of the best:

  • Gingerbread man is a mid-season variety, burgundy berries (8-9 grams) ripen in the second half of July. Resistant to powdery mildew, high-yielding (up to 6 kg per plant);
  • Malachite is one of the oldest gooseberry varieties (bred in 1959), mid-season, frost-resistant. Emerald fruits with white veins (up to 7 grams) are distinguished by their amazing taste and good transportability;
  • Russian yellow is a high-yielding frost and drought-resistant gooseberry. Ripe fruits of this variety (up to 6 grams) are colored amber;
  • Hinnonmaki Green is a tall (up to 1.3 meters), but slightly branchy gooseberry variety from Finland, from where it successfully moved to Northern Europe.Green fruits (4.5-5.0 grams each) on a plant ripen in early August. Frost-resistant, unpretentious, needs pruning;
  • Commander - the plant has no thorns. Medium early high-yielding (up to 7 kg per bush), disease-resistant gooseberry variety (registered in 1995). Purple-red berries (4-5 grams) have a high taste;
  • Ural emerald is an early ripe variety, registered in 2000, the color of the berries (6.5-7.5 grams) corresponds to the name. Taste - a solid five. The shoots of the shrub grow strongly, it needs frequent pruning. Winter-hardy, high-yielding, disease resistant.

Good advice on which gooseberries to plant in your garden, but it is more effective to rewrite the names of varieties with high and stable annual yields of berries from neighbors.

Plant life cycle

Gooseberry Date

In the description of the gooseberry, a perennial always appears. But how many years gooseberries live in the country depends on many factors:

  • Region, planting site and soil preparation;
  • Care (pruning, feeding, watering);
  • Timely measures to improve the planting.

It is noteworthy that all gooseberries are characterized by early maturity. The first crop is harvested at 3-4 years of plant life. The best results are seen on 3-5 year old branches.

Good yield for 3-4 years

The shrub consists of perennial underground (root system) and aboveground (shoots of different years) parts. The roots on heavy and poor soils go down to 1.5 meters, and under favorable conditions they branch out in breadth at a depth of 0.5-0.8 meters.

In April-May, gardeners watch the gooseberry bloom. This is one of the earliest honey plants in the garden.

Important! Although the small bell-shaped flowers are bisexual, cross-pollination increases the plant's yield.

A week later, fruit ovaries form in place of the flowers, and a rapid growth of shoots begins. From the buds of zero (root) branches, shoots of the first order grow, fruit and growth buds are formed on them.

The berries ripen by the end of June - July. During this period, the vegetation of the plant slows down. The setting and formation of growth and fruit buds of the next harvest occurs after the berries are picked and the bulk of the leaves fall off. Winter is a time of rest.

Planting and leaving

Saplings are planted in early spring, before bud break, or in autumn, 5-6 weeks before the first frost. The preferred soil is weak or neutral acidity. Choose a well-lit and wind-sheltered place in your garden, taking into account how the gooseberries will look after the growth of skeletal branches.

Gooseberry sapling

Gooseberry sapling

The planting hole is filled with a mixture of humus and soil (1/1). On dense clay soils, drainage from sand is arranged, more organic matter and special fertilizers are introduced into poor loams, according to the instructions: urea, superphosphate, potassium.

Obligatory annual events should be:

  • Pruning. Agronomists advise to cut dry, damaged and diseased shoots of shrubs before sap flow in the spring or before wintering in the autumn, leaving 6-8 productive skeletal branches;
  • Top dressing. The benefits of top dressing are obvious, since perennial plantations deplete the soil. In the spring, fertilizers with a high content of nutrients are applied: nitrogen, urea, potassium and phosphorus preparations. Before wintering, it is recommended to feed the gooseberries with organic matter and wood ash;
  • Fungicide treatment. Diseases and pests are inevitable. Gooseberry plantings are affected by: powdery mildew, rust, various spots, spider mites, shoot aphids, goldfish. When examining the bush, you can understand what exactly this attacked the gooseberry, and decide on the drug. Folk remedies (soap, garlic, ash), biological preparations (fitoverm, phytosporin) are preferred, and only as an exception - chemistry (topaz, foundationol, karbofos, etc.).

After the snow melts, it is enough to douse the topsoil under the bushes, with spores of pathogenic fungi and larvae wintering in it, with hot water (80-90 ° C), and additional processing of the bush will be minimized.

Features and methods of reproduction

Gooseberries have no breeding problems. For several years, a couple of bushes of a thorny plant in the country can be turned into a whole plantation using one or several methods of propagation of a shrub:

  • Division of the bush. It is carried out before the start of active dissolution of the kidneys or a month before frost. Well suited for the planned transfer of the berry to a new place. Old branches are cut out. The rhizome is cut into 3-4 parts with young shoots. Cuts must be disinfected or sprinkled with wood ash. Plant in a prepared place;
  • Layers. The most affordable and efficient way. Low-cut gooseberry branches grow to the soil without the help of a gardener. For reproduction by horizontal layers, it is required to provide branches with constant contact with damp ground. Bend the branches to the soil and cover 2/3 with moist soil with humus. With good rooting next year, cut off from the parent bush, plant;

On a note. If it is not possible to lay a branch on the ground, it is buried closer to the crown, bending the shoot into an arc.

  • Planting rejuvenation (vertical layering). The bush is covered with earth 2/3 of the height. After root formation, they are chopped off from the old root system and planted again;
  • Cuttings. Young green shoots (10-20 cm) are cut in mid to late June. Placed for 10-15 hours in a growth stimulant and stuck into moist soil. Temperature and humidity are major factors. In the open field, the cutting is covered with a transparent bottle (microclimate) until rooting. Autumn cuttings are obtained by pruning woody branches for the winter. They are stored in a moist sandy substrate at a temperature close to 0. In spring, they are added dropwise (at an angle of 45 degrees) into the planting holes, leaving 2-3 growth buds above the ground;
  • Seeds. Seeds obtained from ripe berries require stratification. The seeds are mixed with wet sand immediately after receiving and sent to the cellar for the winter. In the spring they are sown under a film, sprinkling with a thin layer of soil.

Thorny berries are easily propagated by layering, cuttings and dividing the bush. Growing from seeds is used exclusively for breeding (breeding new varieties) and does not guarantee a complete repetition of the characteristics of the donor gooseberry.

Harvesting

Gooseberry cultivars without thorns or with weakly spiked shoots are not yet found very often in household plots. Gardeners have to deal with hundreds of sharp thorns when harvesting fruits. You should always remember this precaution:

  • Hide the skin under clothes;
  • Protect hands with gloves;
  • Do not make sudden rash movements in the thick of the bush.

A variety of devices come to the aid of summer residents: trays, combs, combines, various types of fruit pickers.

The collection time corresponds to the tasks set. The berries for culinary processing and freezing are harvested a week before ripening. It must be elastic (keep its shape). Harvested in dry weather, the fruits are stored without damage to the skin in a dark, cool place for up to a week without damage.

Harvest

If summer is rainy, then excess moisture can cause premature cracking of fruits and loss of crops. Under these conditions, gooseberries are harvested at the stage of technical maturity.

Berries have the highest taste characteristics at the stage of full consumer maturity. These fruits contain more vitamins and sugars, but are not stored, they lose their presentation during transportation. These berries are consumed fresh.

Gooseberry is an invaluable (in terms of the amount of nutrients) self-fertile, high-yielding, early-growing garden crop, which should be in every garden.

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