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video Breeders offer many varieties of cherries popular in Russia. Among noteworthy are Chocolate Chocolate cherries, a description of the variety, its strengths and peculiarities will help the gardener to get an idea of the crop and to make the right choice of a plant for growing in the garden.
The variety of domestic breeding was obtained by specialists of the All-Russian Research Institute of Crop-based Fruit Plant Breeding Consumables Black and Lyubskaya. When creating the Shokoladnitsa cherry depicted in the photo, the authors' team of scientists saw the goal of obtaining a productive frost-resistant variety with compact trees of medium and small sizes. At the same time, the fruits ripening on them should be attractive and have a wonderful dessert taste.
Problem Orel breeders A.F.Kolesnikova, M.V.Mikheeva and T.A.Trofimov was fulfilled, and in 1996 a new variety was successfully entered into the State Register, and also recommended for cultivation in the Central region of Russia.
Appearance and characteristics of Chocolate variety Chocolate.
. Adult trees of Chocolate variety cherries have a height of not more than 2.5 meters. The crown, resembling a pyramid turned upside down, has an average thickness and size. Due to these characteristics, even the branches, which are leaning under a bountiful harvest, do not descend to the level of the soil, which:
- reduces the risk of the spread of fungal and bacterial diseases;
- reduces the availability of fruits and foliage for cherry pests;
- facilitates harvesting of ripe berries.
The trunk and skeletal branches of the tree are covered with brown, sometimes grayish bark. Young, not yet lignified shoots have a greenish tint. Leaves appear from cone-shaped, tightly pressed to the branches of the buds up to 4 mm long. The plate plate of the Chocolate Chocolate variety has a shape close to an oval, sharpened at the base and at the end. The edges are jagged. The leaves are clearly visible central vein, turning into a strong cutting 1.5–2 cm long with a reddish color visible at the base. The bottom of the sheet is lighter than its front surface.
According to the description of the Chocolate Chocolate variety, the trees bloom amicably between May 15 and 18.Flower buds are larger than normal. In one inflorescence, as a rule, there are three flowers on elongated reddish-green pedicels up to 35–40 mm long. The diameter of the corolla is 15-18 mm. Petals are white, freely settling around the future ovary.
Flowers are readily visited by insect pollinators.
Gardeners wishing to achieve high yields need to consider that the Chocolate Chocolate variety is self-pollinated, that is, the ovary develops even if there is only one fruit tree of this variety on the plot.
This is a significant advantage, but experienced gardeners prefer to hedge themselves and do not limit their choices only to Chocolate. As an additional pollinator for a plant, cherries of Vladimirskaya, Lyubskaya, Studencheskaya, Turgenevskaya are planted next to the plant. These varieties themselves are worthy of the attention of the owners of personal plots, and will provide a bountiful harvest on Chocolate.
With favorable weather conditions, harvest in the middle lane begins in the second week of July. Four-year-old trees enter fruiting season, the age limit for steadily bearing plants is 15–20 years.
Ripe Chocolate Chocolate cherries, as in the photo, have a harmonious almost round shape and a distinctive maroon, almost black color. In the middle berry, the height is 16.5–17 mm, the width reaches 19 mm, and the thickness is 17 mm. Weight ranges from 3.5 to 4 grams. The pulp is dense, dark red, juicy. The share of the roundish bone of a yellowish color, which is easily lagging behind the flesh, accounts for only 8–10% of the weight of the fetus.
When describing Chocolate Chocolate varieties, it is indicated that mature fruits accumulate up to 12.4% sugar and contain only 1.6% acids. This provides the berries with a good, closer to sweet taste, rated by professional tasters by 3.8–4 points. In the conditions of industrial gardening, cherries of the Chocolate Chocolate variety per hectare yield 77–97 centners of berries.
A gardener can get about 15 kg of vitamin products from a single tree with proper care and a properly selected planting place.
Planting and caring for Chocolate Chocolate
Cherries and other stone fruit crops do not favor sour, excessively dense, much soil moisture. The variety of Chocolate Chocolate cherries according to the description and the experience of cultivation already accumulated is no exception. Therefore, elevated areas are selected for planting:
- with light aerated soil, in which mineral and organic fertilizers are applied before planting crops, and deoxidized as needed;
- with protection from the cold wind, but completely open to the sun;
- with groundwater, located no closer than five feet from the surface.
In order to facilitate the acclimatization and care of Chocoladnitsa cherries, planting is carried out in April, before budding, or in September, when it is still warm and the tree has time to get used to the new habitat. Suitable for planting are one-year-old saplings from 1 to 1.5 meters in height, with developed roots up to 20–30 cm long and a lignified stem with a thickness of at least 10–15 mm.
Planting is carried out as standard. For young trees, pits are prepared with a diameter and a depth of about 70 cm. The soil is mixed with potash, phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers. If organic is used, it is better to take well-rotted fertilizers that cannot burn the delicate root system of cherries.
When immersing in a pit, it is important not to bury the root neck. For each seedling provide reliable support. After backfilling, the soil is compacted, watered and sprinkled with organic mulch.
In order to avoid overgrowth and thickening of the crown of the Chocolate Chocolate variety, as in the photo, they must be cut. It is more convenient to do this in spring, before the first leaves appear. Pruning should be old, weak, with signs of disease and pest damage shoots.
Particular attention is paid to the symptoms of infection with moniliosis and coccomycosis, to which this variety of cherry has no immunity.
For the same purpose, pruning is combined with planting treatment with systemic fungicides or Bordeaux liquids. Repeated spraying chemicals perform in the second half of flowering.
In the care of Chocolate Chocolate cherries include watering trees and feeding them. Although plants are classified as drought tolerant, during the flowering and ripening of berries, moisture for cherries is essential. When watering, one tree should have at least 3-5 buckets of settled warm water.
Since the fall, potash and phosphorus additives are added under the canopy of fruit trees, in the spring cherries need “food” for rapid active growth, therefore they are fed with nitrogen-containing compounds. If the planting and care of Chocolate Shokoladnitsa cherries is carried out correctly, already the first year of life the plants give a stable growth, and in the fourth year they start to bear fruit.
