Black currant pygmy

Blackcurrants are highly regarded for the health benefits of the fruit, despite being overly acidic. Fruits of hybrids, such as the Pygmy currant variety, possessing uniqueness, acquired sweet sweet taste and large size during selection. Blackcurrant Pygmy was bred by V. S. Ilyin on the basis of the South Ural Research Institute, he crossed the "Dove Seedling" with "Bradthorpe", the culture was included in the state register in 1999. The currant of the Pygmy variety was zoned in the Siberian and Far Eastern regions, however, due to its resistance to winter, endurance and yield indicator, it became widespread in European Russian regions and in other states bordering with us.

Black currant Pygmy: variety description

Black currant Pygmy: photo of the variety

The ripening period of the Pygmy currant variety is average, the beginning of ripening is observed in the last June-first July days. The opening of the flowers takes place in turn, the fruits are harvested for up to 3 weeks or more. From one shrub, if you follow agrotechnical rules, you can remove 5.5-5.7 kg of fruits with excellent taste and aroma, or up to twenty-two tons per hectare. The average yield for the cultivation of currants on an industrial scale is six and a half tons per hectare. A high yield rate is inherent in the variety, since it is self-fertile. Black currant Pygmy is a rather undemanding culture, easily adaptable. Fruiting of currants occurs every year.

The currant shrub of the Pygmy variety can withstand frost temperatures down to minus thirty-five degrees and summer heat up to thirty degrees. The bushes are unpretentious to the soil, but respond well when they are watered and fed in a timely manner. Pygmy currant has immunity to popular diseases, it must be sprayed for prophylaxis. The variety is susceptible to septoria and kidney mite attacks.

The sweet taste and pleasant aromatic properties of the fruits allow you to enjoy them fresh. Smorod is allowed for homemade preparations, for freezing, and also for drying.

If you plant several bushes of this variety next to each other, then the ovaries will be of higher quality, and the fruits will be larger.

Features of currant varieties Pygmy

Black currant shrub Pygmy is tall, grows up to one and a half to two meters, is compact, branches often grow not on the sides, but vertically. Young shoots of green color, with a slight anthocyanin, no pubescence. The buds grow singly, are presented in the form of an oval, are painted in brown color, depart from the branches at an angle of thirty degrees. Experienced gardeners say that this variety, even early in the spring, differs from other currants in its special bronze color of the buds. The leaves are large, have five lobes, wrinkled, glossy, slightly concave in the center, have small teeth. The inflorescences are medium in length, contain six to ten flowers of a pale pink color.

Fruits on an elongated fruit stem of green color are round, large, weigh up to five to seven and a half grams, have a thin black rind. The inner content is sweet, with currant taste and a small number of seeds. In fruits, there is a balance of sugars, acids, trace elements and vitamins.Berries contain: sugar - 9.4% per hundred grams, ascorbic acid - one hundred and fifty mg. The tasting score is beyond praise - five points.

Blackcurrant Pygmy: Pros and Cons

Black currant Pygmy: photo of the variety

Advantages.

• Regular yield.
• Large fruits and their high tasting score and marketability.
• The variety bears fruit for a long time.
• Resistant to frost.
• Immunity to powdery mildew and anthracnose.

Flaws.

• Sensitivity to septoria and kidney mites.

Black currant Pygmy: planting varieties

As gardeners say, the black currant variety Pygmy is planted from the first days of September. Before the frost sets in, the bush takes 2 weeks to root. In the spring season, planting is done very early, in March or early April days before bud break.

The choice of planting material.

The purchase of a seedling must be treated with great care.

• The best planting age is one or two years.
• The root system should be up to twenty cm in volume.
• The plant should be forty cm high.
• The roots and trunk are flexible, fresh and intact.

When planting weak one-year-old seedlings, it is required to place them 2 in one hole, tilting the trunks in different directions.

How to prepare a place.

The Pygmy currant bush requires a sunlit area from the south or southwest of buildings, fences or large garden areas. In a semi-shaded place, the fruits will be small. Groundwater should pass below one and a half meters from the soil surface at the site. Avoid areas where long stagnant melt water occurs in the spring. The best soil for the variety is loose, with low acidity, not swampy or dry sandy. The pits are prepared in advance.

• During summer digging of soil, ten liters of compost or humus fertilizer, potassium sulfate (thirty grams), superphosphate (two hundred grams) are applied per square meter.
• Wood ash (one liter), a good potash supplement, is often used in place of minerals.
• When digging, wheatgrass roots are carefully removed from the soil.
• The spacing between the bushes is one and a half meters.
• The hole reaches forty to fifty cm deep, its diameter is sixty cm.
• The surface soil layer is mixed with humus in a one to one ratio, wood ash (three hundred grams), potassium sulfate (thirty grams), superphosphate (one hundred twenty grams) are added.
• Drainage is laid at the bottom and covered with a nutritious substrate. The pit is closed with film material, parts of slate or other materials at hand to avoid erosion of the fertile soil.
• The acidic soil is alkalized, and dolomite flour (five hundred grams) is added to it both during digging and to the soil mixture.

How to plant Pygmy currants.

• Before planting, the planting material is placed for thirty minutes in a talker (composition: mullein solution and clay).
• Before planting, water (bucket) is poured into the pit, dry soil is sprinkled on top of it, then a seedling is placed, the roots are neatly aligned.
• The seedling is set straight or at a forty-five degree slope.
• The root collar is sprinkled five to seven cm with soil for good shoot growth.
• A board is formed along the edges of the pit, five to eight liters of water are poured out. The next watering is done after three days.
• The surface layer is mulched with sawdust, hay, straw; the thickness of the mulch layer should reach seven to ten cm in order to maintain moisture.

Some gardeners recommend pruning the stems to two or three buds to stimulate the growth of shoots in the spring. The second part of gardeners claims the opposite: a healthy shoot should remain intact for the winter. Before frosty temperatures, the seedling is sprinkled with soil and mulching. In the spring season, the plant is freed from the filled earth, the sides for watering are preserved.

Blackcurrant Pygmy: variety care

Pygmy currant: photo

Fruiting of the bush occurs from the age of 3, it must be constantly watered and fed. You need to loosen the soil shallowly, up to eight cm.

Watering.

• The soil near the bushes must be watered in such a way that it is moistened up to forty cm deep.
• In a drought, regular watering is carried out after two to three days, thirty to forty liters per plant.
• After the bushes are watered, a fresh layer of mulch is laid.

It is important to water the pygmy currants when the ovaries are forming, in the last days of May, and when the fruits are ripe, in the July days.

• Moisture-charging irrigation is carried out in the second autumn month.
• Watering stops when the fruits acquire a characteristic black color so that they do not crack.

Fertilization.

• The next season after planting, top dressing is not applied if the soil in the pit and on the territory has been fertilized.
• The first time the bush is fed with organic matter and nitrogen (thirty grams of urea) in the spring season, a year after planting.
• After harvesting the fruits, potassium sulfate (twelve grams), superphosphate (fifty grams) are added per square meter of soil during digging.
• Adult plants in the spring season are fed with thirty grams of the drug "Nitrofoska", then abundant watering is done.
• Before the fruits begin to form, the shrub is treated with copper sulfate (thirty grams), potassium permanganate (five grams), boric acid (five grams), diluted in ten liters of water.
• If you regularly add trace elements as part of the complex: boron, zinc, manganese, copper, the variety's immunity to fungal infections will increase.

Pigmy currant pruning.

• In the spring season, shrubs are examined and damaged branches are removed. Work is carried out with sharp and clean equipment.
• In the autumn season, shoots are cut out that grow inside the shrub, which thicken it.
• A large number of berries will form on the shoots for two to three years, they remain.
• Five year old branches are removed.
• A full-fledged shrub contains fifteen to twenty shoots of different ages.
• Shoots that bent downwards are trimmed to a straight branch.
• An eight-year-old plant is thinned out, leaving only two-year-old shoots.

Measures against diseases and harmful insects

Black currant Pygmy: photo of the variety

Black currant Pygmy is affected by white spot. First, brown spots up to three cm wide appear on the leaves. Further, the central part of the spot becomes white. The disease leads to the fact that the foliage can completely fall off. For the purpose of prevention, in the autumn season, all the foliage from under the bush is removed, the soil is dug up in the autumn and spring seasons. Before budding, the shrub is sprayed with copper sulfate. If the disease appears in the summer, then after harvesting, the plant is treated with a solution of Bordeaux liquid.

To combat the tick, modern acaricides are used.

Black currant Pygmy: reviews of gardeners

Blackcurrant Pygmy: video about the variety

Vyacheslav, 46 years old, Krasnoyarsk Territory: “The variety of black currant Pigmey has been growing in my family for 7 years already. Good currant, spread by himself with the help of layering, planted a lot of bushes. A wonderful berry of Siberia: big, tasty, sweet. Previously, the whole harvest was eaten fresh, at the moment we are still harvesting and selling. "

Alena Vladimirovna, 57 years old, Chelyabinsk: “The fruits of the Pygmy currant variety are very sweet for a delicious dessert dish in summer. A large number of berries go to freeze, we remove a lot of fruits from 2 bushes. The palatability changes, but the invigorating freshness of the Pygmy currant remains. "

Arina, 40 years old, Ulyanovsk: “We bought 2 seedlings of black currant Pigmey 2 years ago. The first harvest was already that summer. Bushes are healthy, diseases do not prevail.The site was being renewed, as the old bushes were struck by powdery mildew. In this regard, we decided to buy a resistant variety. "