Detailed description of black currant varieties Pygmy

Description of the variety of currant Pygmy

Grade Pygmy was put out, as it was, was taken out of a row of black currant

.during his work in the South Ural Scientific Research Institute of Fruit and Vegetable Crops. To do this, the varieties Seedling Dove and Bredthorp were crossed. Since 1999, the variety has been included in the State Register and allowed to grow in the Volga-Vyatka, Ural, Far Eastern regions, as well as the regions of Eastern and Western Siberia.

The plant itself is a medium-sized slightly shrubby shrub. Shoots of medium thickness, straight, green in color. Single buds, brown, oval-shaped. The leaves are large, five-lobed, wrinkled, with teeth along the edges. The flowers are small, pale pink color.

Pygmy is considered a variety of medium ripening, fruits begin to gather from the end of June or the beginning of July.

Berries are large, round shape and bright black. The length of the brushes is average, they range from 5 to 10 berries.

A variety of currant Pygmy on the bush

. The advantages of this variety:

1. High yield. Up to 6 kg of berries are harvested from one bush. When grown on an industrial scale, the yield can reach 22.8 tons per hectare.
2. Very large and sweet fruit. The weight of one berry reaches 8g. The variety is considered to be dessert, and has a score of 5 points for the sweetness of the fruit.
3. Long fruiting. The berries ripen unevenly, so the crop is harvested from 3 weeks to 1.5 months.
4. Self-propelled variety, consistently yielding annual yield.
5. Winter hardiness. Suitable for growing in regions with frosty winters, can withstand temperatures as low as 35 degrees.
6. Resistant to currant diseases such as powdery mildew and anthracnose.

Among the shortcomings, only the susceptibility of the variety to septoria and kidney tick attacks can be distinguished.

Grade Pygmy is quite unpretentious in the care, to put a lot of effort for its cultivation is not required. But, like all fruit crops, the beginning of fruiting and the yield of a plant directly depends on the proper planting of the seedling.

Choosing a seedling and planting rules

When buying a black currant seedling, pay attention to the following details:

• Age. Suitable for planting annual and biennial seedlings.
• Root system. The roots should not be dried and damaged.
• Branched. The better the branched bush, the faster it will take root.

If you plant annual seedlings, and they seem to be too weak, plant two bushes in one hole at once, tilting them in different directions. This method of planting will allow to form a powerful bush in the future.

You can plant currants in spring and autumn. Spring planting is best to start as early as possible after the thaw, in late March or early April, depending on the climate. The main thing is to have time to do this before budding starts, otherwise the plant will be hard to take root. But still, the autumn planting is more preferable, from the end of September to the beginning of October. If you have time to plant currants two weeks before the onset of cold weather, she will have time to settle down and get strong enough for the winter.

Sizes of ripe currant berries Pygmy

A shrub planting place should be well lit and protected from strong winds. Currant roots can easily withstand temporary overwetting from melting snow or heavy rains, but it will not grow on swampy soil and with a high location of groundwater. And if the soil is acidic, then it must be lime.

Planting a currant sapling includes such activities:

1. 2 weeks before the estimated date of planting, dig for the currant pits up to 40 cm in depth and up to 60 cm in width. Instead of several holes, you can make one long trench. Since the variety of currant Pygmy is compact, the plants can be placed at a distance of 1-1.5 m from each other.
2. When, after a couple of weeks, the earth has settled, fill the hole for 2/3 with fertile soil mixed with fertilizer. You can use humus( 8 kg), superforfate( 200g) and potassium sulphate( 40g).
3. Place the seedling in the hole at an inclination of 45 degrees, and the root neck goes 5-8 cm into the ground. Thanks to the inclined planting, conditions will be created for the growth of roots and shoots from the buds in the buried stems.
4. Spread out the roots and cover them with earth. In the process of falling asleep ground, shake the seedling so that no voids form between the roots.
5. After planting is completed, water the bush with 10 liters of water and mulch the soil under it with peat or humus. After 3 days, repeat and watering, and mulching.
6. For the rapid growth of the bush, its shoots can be cut to third.

The final completed autumn planting can be considered only after a month when you prepare the currants for winter. To do this, it is necessary to pile up the bush on 10 cm of soil and to well mulch the near-stem section. In the spring currants razokuchivayut, freeing excess mulch and earth. Only then can we evaluate the success of planting.

The Pygmy variety does not require a lot of care, but this does not mean that you can forget about the plant before harvesting. The most basic care measures are still necessary for him.

Fresh crop of currant Pygmy

Rules for the care of black currant

Shrub care is as follows:

1. Application of fertilizer .The plant consumes most of the nutrients in spring and early summer. Fertilizers should be applied to the soil in the fall and during digging in the spring, at a site of 1.5-2 m around the trunk. Soils of medium fertility require such doses of fertilizers per 1 sq. M.:

• For plants up to 3 years old - organic( 5-6 kg), urea( 15 g), potassium sulfate( 12 g), superphosphate( 50 g);
• For plants from 4 years: organic( 5-6 kg), urea( 22 g), sulfuric acid potassium( 15 g), superphosphate( 50 g).

1. Soil care. Implies keeping it loose and weed free. In order not to harm the roots, it is possible to loosen the ground by 8 cm near the bushes and by 12 cm between the rows. To reduce the number of treatments allows soil mulching with peat, humus or manure. Land under the mulch longer retains moisture and friability.
2. Watering. It is necessary, especially if the dry period fell during the formation of the ovary. In the case of a dry autumn, before the onset of frost, it is also necessary to water the shrub( up to 5 liters per 1 square meter), because overdried soil can cause freezing of the bushes in winter.

An important point to preserve the harvest is the treatment of plants from pests and diseases.

Diseases and pests of black currant

The Pygmy variety is resistant to most currant diseases. The only disease that needs to be protected is septoria, another name is white spot. This is a fungal disease, the symptoms of which will be the appearance of specks on currant leaves up to 3 mm in diameter.

Ripe Currant Pygmy, ready to harvest

At first they are completely brown in color, then turn white in the center, and brown remains only at the edges. The fruits of the plant can be covered with small spots. With a strong defeat, the whole foliage can fall completely on a currant.

To combat the disease, the bushes and the ground beneath them should be copiously sprayed with a solution of copper sulfate or nitrafen. It is important to do this before budding begins in spring. Well in such cases, Bordeaux liquid also helps, which is diluted in the amount of 100 g per 10 l of water. She needs to process currants immediately when the first symptoms appear, and a second time 10 days after harvesting.

Remove fallen leaves from under currant bushes, it is in them that mushroom spores overwinter. For prevention, you can still dig the ground in pristvolnom circle in late autumn and early spring.

Of insect pests, the Pygmy variety is most susceptible to kidney mites. This is a small insect 0.15-0.3 mm in length, hibernating in the currant buds. In the spring, after awakening, the females lay larvae in the kidneys, which, as they grow, spread to the whole plant. Damaged buds cannot develop, and the sprout, if it grows from them, will be mutated. In addition to reducing the number of shoots and lower yields, the pest is also dangerous with the ability to tolerate viral diseases.

Pest Control Measures:

1. Boiling Water. The safest and most effective way. All larvae die from boiling water, and the plant itself is not harmed. Just do not need to pour 100-degree boiling water over the bush, the water should cool down a little while you bring it into the garden and pour it into the watering can. For efficiency, tie the branches to make the plant more compact. The method can be used only until the kidneys awaken, otherwise they may be harmed.
2. Manual removal of affected kidneys. The method is painstaking, but safe. Kidneys with mites will be swollen and more round. It is better to carry out such sorting in the autumn, because in spring it is easy to confuse an infected kidney with a bud with a budding shoot.
3. Colloidal sulfur. It is dissolved in water in an amount of 10 g per 1 l of water. Shrubs are processed at the beginning of the flowering period and immediately after its completion. This method is suitable for critical situations when there is a question about saving the life of a plant. Such processing may spoil the harvest, but it will recover next year.
4. Trimming. The most cardinal way. If the insect cannot cope with other methods, then it remains only to cut the bush under the root in autumn and wait patiently for the plant to grow again.

To avoid having to use such extreme measures, you need to take care of your currant. Plants that are regularly fed, pruned and prophylactically treated will be highly immune to diseases and pests.

The benefits and taste of Pygmy black currant are worth making a little effort to care for it. When properly planted, the plant will stably bear fruit for at least 10 years, and with regular care for growing conditions and protection from pests, the fruiting period can be extended even to 20-25 years.