Gooseberries - planting and care, timing, choice of place in the garden

The theme of our conversation is gooseberry. Planting and caring for the seedlings of this berry bushes on the one hand does not cause difficulties for gardeners, but on the other hand it has its own peculiarities, even its subtleties.

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It turns out that at the beginning of the 20th century in many European countries gooseberries took first place in the area of ​​planting! But... with the spread of such a disease as powdery mildew, the plantations of the berry began to decline catastrophically. It took more than half a century to bring out resistant varieties of gooseberries to annually receive high yields.

Now varieties that are resistant to many fungal diseases have been bred, so the popularity of gooseberry grows not only in the areas of amateur gardeners, but also in industrial plantations. Moreover, thanks to the efforts of breeders, absolutely no-nonsense varieties have already been obtained.

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Place of planting of gooseberries and preparation of the site

Gooseberries are a light-loving plant, so they choose well-lit areas for it. He transfers the half-shadow, but in full shadow it grows badly, practically does not bear fruit.

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Gooseberries prefer loams, sandy loam, chernozems. Does not like swampy, strongly podzolic soil, heavy loams, sand. Best of all, it grows on soils whose acidity is close to neutral, - pH 6. If you lay berries in an open area, you need to provide protection from summer dry winds, cold winter winds.

Choosing a place for planting gooseberries, first you need to get rid of perennial weeds. To do this, the site is sprayed twice with herbicides of continuous action (roundup, hurricane, etc.).

Very good results give pre-planting and sowing of ciderats (rye, mustard, etc.). This technique helps to make the soil more friable, fertile. In addition, before planting make a continuous digging 6-10 kg / m2 (depending on the soil composition) of organic fertilizers (humus, compost).

Another important technique is fumigation, that is, treating the soil with drugs that destroy diseases, pests. This procedure is not cheap, but it allows you to significantly increase yields, as well as reduce the use of protective equipment.

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The best dates for planting gooseberries

The best time is October, in the Kuban - from the middle of October to the end of November. Earlier, it was undesirable to plant gooseberry.

For successful wintering, plants must accumulate a sufficient amount of plastic substances, and this is possible only at low positive temperatures, which fall just in October. During this period, gooseberries will have time to take root before the onset of frost, and spring will thrive in growth.

If the optimal deadlines are missed - it does not matter, it can be done later. I planted gooseberries even in winter windows, on survival it did not affect. Plants planted in the spring may be inferior in development planted in autumn.

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Gooseberries - planting scheme

Everything depends on the area of ​​the berry, the scheme of processing the rows. On household plots, handled mainly manually, row spacing is made not more than 2 m wide.

The distance between the gooseberry plants in the row depends on the formation. If this is a powerful shrub consisting of 20 shoots, the distance between the plants is about -2 m (it depends on the growth force of the variety). With intensive technology, the distance in a row can be 60-70 cm, but then more frequent pruning and rationing shoots (2-3 shoots are left annually and cut out not after the 6th, but after the 3rd fruiting, the bush consists of 8-12 shoots).

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How to buy gooseberry saplings correctly

The quality of the planting material is very important. Saplings of gooseberries should be healthy, free from quarantine diseases, pests. Otherwise, to achieve generous fruiting will be impossible. That is why it is best to buy seedlings in specialized nurseries or from reliable vendors.

Since most varieties of gooseberries are poorly propagated by cuttings, they often offer a layering. A seedling is considered to be a brood with one or several shoots with a thickness of at least 5 mm and 2-3 skeletal roots not less than 15 cm long. When buying a seedling, you should make sure that it is alive. To do this, make a cross cut rootlet. If it is white or cream - the root is alive, and if gray, brown or black - it means that it has already died, it is not worth taking such a gooseberry seedling.

Then you need to check if the kidneys are still alive. For this, the kidney is separated, kneaded with fingers, it must be moist. It is also worth picking a bark, if under it a damp green layer is a good sign. You can buy a seedling only if you are convinced that it is viable.

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How to plant gooseberries in autumn

We prepare for the gooseberry landing pit size 40 × 40 × 40 cm, we add about, kg of complex mineral fertilizers, add 2-3 liters of wood ash. We mix everything thoroughly with the ground.

Organics (1 bucket of overgrown manure or compost) is added only if we plant gooseberries in the spring, so that attracted bears, larvae of the May beetle and other "evil spirits which during the winter can eat the entire root system. If there is a need, in the autumn we add organic substances for digging.

For better survival, a seedling with an open root system is soaked in water for 12-48 hours, so that the plant is saturated with moisture. If you add water to stimulators of growth and rooting, the survival rate of gooseberries will grow many times. Before planting, remove the leaves from the seedling.

In the prepared landing pit pour 3-5 liters of water. When it is absorbed, we pour in as much as we do, we set the seedling in the pit obliquely and fall asleep soil, deepening the root neck by 5-15 cm, to form additional roots and grow better shoots. With this method, the possibility of rupture of small roots is excluded: the soil has a consistency of thick sour cream, it does not form voids, respectively, when the roots are not injured during shrinkage. We pour the earth so that there is a hole 5-15 cm deep. This will make it easier to water and feed. In a day we loosen the soil around the gooseberry, mulch the hole, so that the soil does not begin to crack, ripping the roots.

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For the winter, the seedling is better to bite. In the spring it is unsettled, that is rake the ground off the bush, cut off, leaving 2-3 soil above the soil level. Uncut saplings are better winter, and in the spring they grow more intensively.

So, we planted gooseberries. Planting and leaving are not complex - now you know all the subtleties.

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Good luck to you!