Rarely does any garden go without gooseberries. This berry has gained popularity with its consistently high yield, and the original taste of healthy berries, and especially with its famous gooseberry jam. One of the most common varieties of gooseberry Warsaw will be discussed.

Selection history

This old variety, also called Phenicia white, comes from Western European gooseberries, which breeders of Poland, one of the leaders in the cultivation of this berry culture not only in Europe but also in the world, have given frost resistance and high productivity.

Description

The Warsaw gooseberry variety has spreading shrubs of medium height, with thick gray-brown shoots, strong mainly single spikes, yellowish-green leaves with a shiny surface, which turn yellow-red in autumn. Medium-sized flowers are painted yellowish with light green sepals with pink fringing around the edges.

Large berries reach a mass of 18 g, have an oblong shape and dark red color on the sunny side. The pulp of pink shades has a pleasant sweet and sour taste. Ripe berries hold firmly on the bush, not crumbling and without losing gastronomic qualities. Did you know? The overseas kiwi fruit that has become relatively popular with us in fact is a gooseberry of Chinese origin, cultivated.

Advantages and disadvantages

• In addition to the above advantages, this variety, according to the description of experienced gardeners, has such positive aspects:
• universality of the use of fruits;
• high productivity;
• cold resistance;
• responsiveness to fertilizing;
• unripe berries are characterized by good transportability.

• The disadvantages of the variety include:
• strong spreading of the bush, which interferes with the processing of the soil under it;
• susceptibility to fungal disease in the spherical library;
• insufficient drought tolerance.

Drought resistance, frost resistance

Due to insufficient drought tolerance with moisture deficiency, berries noticeably decrease in size, and shoots are shortened. But gooseberries of the Warsaw variety are reputed to be frost-resistant, withstanding a drop in temperature to -30 ° C.

Productivity and fruiting

During the fruiting period, this plant enters 2 years after planting and retains the ability to bear fruit up to 10 (-) - 15 years, depending on the growing conditions. Warsaw gooseberries belong to varieties of late ripening, which usually occurs at the end of August. Large berries ripen together, which facilitates harvesting, reaching 12 kg from the bush.

Did you know? For some reason, gooseberries are usually awarded with strange names. In England, it is called the “goose berry”, in Azerbaijan this culture is called “Russian quince, ” the Germans call gooseberries “Christ's turn”, and the Italians in the time of Peter I called this culture a grape, though northern.

Landing

The planting process does not present any particular difficulties, however, it is very important to choose the right place for growing gooseberries, which can successfully bear fruit up to 15 years.

The timing

Gooseberries can be planted in spring and autumn. At the same time, experienced gardeners prefer the autumn season. In the spring, for a successful planting, it is necessary to keep within a short period between the final thawing of the soil and the beginning of sap flow and swelling of the kidneys. If you miss this short period, the planting is too late, which entails a reduced survival rate of seedlings. In autumn, it is much easier to choose the optimal planting period, which usually occurs a month and a half before the start of stable frosts and guarantees better rooting of plants.

You may find it interesting to read about how far apart you need to plant gooseberries.

Choosing the right place

Gooseberries love good sun exposure. In addition, it is better suited for sand or clay soil with an acid pH of 5-6. The site should be protected from strong winds, melt and groundwater, which is best suited to a small hill. Preferably, to gooseberries in a selected place grew:

• early potatoes;
• peas;
• beans;
• Beans
• beet;
• carrot.

It is undesirable to place gooseberry bushes next to currants or strawberries, as they are susceptible to the same diseases and can become a source of infection.

Selection and preparation of planting material

When purchasing seedlings, it must be borne in mind that the open root system involves plants without foliage, with the exception of the apical leaf. And with a closed root system, on the contrary, seedlings must retain all the leaves. For maximum survival, it is required that:

• seedlings were 2 years old;
• the root system had at least 3 skeletal roots up to 0.25 m long;
• in the aerial part there were 2-3 strong branches up to 0.30 m long;
• each shoot must have at least 5 buds.

Video: How to properly plant gooseberries

Landing pattern

Since the gooseberry variety Warsaw has sprawling bushes, the distance between seedlings when planting them must be made up to 2 m. In the process of planting, it is necessary:

1. Dig holes with a depth and diameter of 0.5 m.
2. At the bottom, add 7 kg of humus and compost, 100 g of wood ash, 40 g of potassium sulphide, 50 g of double superphosphate.
3. Lay the roots of the plant in a hole so that the root neck is deepened by 7 cm.
4. After filling the roots with soil, moderately tamp it.
5. Pour up to 5 liters of water under each bush.
6. After watering, moisten the moist ground with ground peat or dry humus.

Features of seasonal care

Gooseberry Warsaw variety requires careful care throughout the growing season.

Soil care

Spreading and low overhanging bushes protect the trunk area well from weeds, however, weeds must be fought irreconcilably outside it, as they not only take nutrients from the soil, but also are carriers of diseases and pests. Weeding is usually combined with loosening the soil.

It is also produced after every rain or watering, which prevents the formation of an earth crust, which prevents normal air exchange in the root system. Since the roots of gooseberries are located close to the soil surface, loosening the soil in the area of ​​the crown of the bush should be no more than 7 cm deep. Loosening can be done deeper outside the perimeter.

Not being drought tolerant, the Warsaw gooseberry does not tolerate a moisture deficit in the soil. This is especially true in spring and summer. For watering bushes, it is preferable to use subsoil or drip irrigation. With their help, the soil should be moistened, depending on the age of the bush and weather conditions, to a depth of 5 to 40 cm. During the growing season, in-depth irrigation must be carried out at least 5 times. It should be borne in mind that the excessive presence of moisture in the root system negatively affects the development of the plant. Read from what you can plant next to gooseberries.

Preventative treatment

Since the gooseberry variety under discussion is not resistant to fungal diseases, preventive measures must be taken in time to prevent them. For this:

1. Early in the spring before the snow melts, it is advisable to spray gooseberry bushes with boiling water.
2. Throughout the growing season, it is necessary to carefully observe the agrotechnical rules of cultivating the crop.
3. Excessive thickening of the bushes should be avoided.
4. It is necessary to immediately remove prematurely fallen leaves, followed by their burning.
5. Loosening the soil should be carried out regularly.
6. It is necessary to strengthen the immune system of the plant through its timely fertilizing.

Top dressing

Long growth of gooseberry bushes in the same place depletes the soil, which requires regular replenishment of nutrients. In spring, at the time of the bush gaining green mass, nitrogen is especially required. It is best to fill the deficit with organic fertilizers in the form of humus, bird droppings and compost.

You may find it helpful to read more about how to fertilize gooseberries in the fall and spring.

To improve flowering and fruit development, it is useful to enrich organics with 50 g of superphosphate and 25 g of potassium sulfate and ammonium sulfate for every half a bucket of humus. Top dressing immediately after flowering is applied along the perimeter of the crown and deepens into the soil by loosening it, and after half a month the bush is watered with mullein solution, 1 part of which is diluted in 5 parts of water. In autumn, for a better wintering, the plant is fed with potassium in the form of its sulfate salt.

Support

Since lower branches of the gooseberry bush go down to the ground, they need support in the form of a net or a stretch stretched at a small height (15–20 cm). Also, when growing gooseberries, trellises are often used, which are 3-level wire extensions, mounted on 2-meter posts located on both sides of the rows.

Thanks to trellis, the fruits are better illuminated by the sun and become more sweet. In addition, this arrangement of branches of bushes protects them from fungal infections.

Video: How to make a support for the bush

Pruning

Pruning bushes is an important part of plant care. It happens:

• formative ;
• anti-aging ;
• sanitary .

Forming pruning is designed to form a regular crown on the bushes. To do this, in the first year after planting, the branches are shortened by half their length, in the second year they are made shorter by a third, in the third they are limited to trimming the top and horizontal branches. In adulthood, the bush is freed from weak and twisted branches, as well as from excess young growth.

The formation of the bush continues until the age of 8, to which the plant must have up to 25 full shoots. 7 years after planting, anti-aging pruning is performed, during which old, diseased and out of shape shoots are eliminated, and only mature basal stems are left.

Gooseberries that have reached the age of 10 leave 5 powerful branches, and the rest are cut out at the very base. With sanitary pruning, bush thickening is eliminated, which is a good preventive measure that prevents infection by infections and pests. Pruning is carried out early in the spring before the start of sap flow or in the fall after the end of the growing season. At the same time, autumn pruning is more gentle for the plant, since it practically reduces to zero the risk of injury to the bush. Places of cuts must be covered with garden var. You may need information on how to properly transplant gooseberries.

Harvesting and storage

Since gooseberry berries do not fall from the bushes even when they reach biological maturity, this allows you to harvest at different stages of ripening, depending on the purpose of use of the fruit. For processing, they pick green and hard berries half a month before they reach consumer maturity, but on condition that their size has already reached the optimum.

And for eating fresh berries, they are collected in the phase of full ripeness, when they acquire a sweet taste and conditional color. Unripe berries can be stored in a cool place for almost a decade. Fully ripened fruits can be stored for no more than 5 days. Berries are picked from bushes in dry weather, since moisture on the berries reduces their shelf life. If you still had to collect the fruits in wet weather, the crop must be dried.

Winter preparations

Being a frost-resistant crop, the adult gooseberry Warsaw does not need additional shelter, since it has enough snow cover. But seedlings in regions with frosty winters require shelter, which is most often made of agrofiber, pine conifer or dry foliage.

Breeding methods

Gooseberries can be propagated:

• cuttings ;
  

• layering ;
  

• dividing the bush .
  

Typically, cuttings are harvested in October or November by cutting the tops up to 25 cm long on annual shoots. They are completely freed from foliage, and the sections are covered with paraffin. After that, the workpieces are stored in a refrigerator or buried in the snow until spring.

After complete thawing of the ground, the cuttings are buried in it by 15 cm, leaving a distance of 20 cm from each other. They are buried in the ground so that 4 buds are underground and 2 above the surface. The soil around the planted seedlings is compacted, watered and mulched. with chopped peat or dry humus.

Cuttings for summer propagation must be green, and for spring and autumn propagation, woody shoots are required.

Gooseberry propagation through layering is much easier. On the gooseberry bush, the branch most adjacent to the ground is selected, which is slightly cut. Under this place, a shallow hole is dug in the ground to which a branch with an incision is bent, securely fixing it in this position with a wire pin. An incised place is sprinkled with soil and watered. Throughout the growing season, the land above the notch must constantly be in a wet state.

You can read about methods for controlling gooseberry pests. In the autumn, roots appear in this place, and in the next season the seedling that has formed can already be separated from the mother bush. Reproduction by dividing the bush is carried out in the fall after leaf fall or early in the spring before the sap flow. This method is mainly used in cases where the gooseberry bush want to move to another place. For this, a young bush is dug up and divided into parts that must have a developed root system. The resulting seedlings are planted in a new place.

Video: Gooseberry propagation by layering

Diseases and Pests

The most dangerous for gooseberry varieties Warsaw are fungal diseases represented by:

1. Sferotekoy (American powdery mildew), which in spring covers leafy surfaces with white coating, and shoots make it bend and dry. They fight the disease by spraying the plants before flowering with a solution of 300 g of copper sulfate, 400 g of lime and a bucket of water. After harvesting, the concentration of the Bordeaux mixture is reduced by diluting 100 g of copper sulfate and 100 g of lime in a bucket of water. The use of "Karbofos" is also effective.
2. Anthracnosis, characterized by the formation of brown spots on the foliage and its early fall. To combat this fungal disease, the same means are used as in the fight against sphero-tec.
3. Septoria, which causes the appearance of brown spots on the leaf surfaces, which gradually whiten and are framed by a brown border, which ends with early fall of the foliage. They fight the disease with the help of Nitrafen and Bordeaux mixture.

Of the pests, the most often gooseberry bushes attack:

1. Currant glasshouse, whose caterpillars eat the core of the branches. They control pests by cutting the affected branches, as well as treating the bush with Kemifos, Iskra-M, Fufanon.
2. A fireworm whose caterpillars feed on flowers and berries. To control pests use "Lepidocide" and "Fufaron", the solution of which is sprayed with bushes.
3. Shoot aphid sucking nutrient juices from foliage. They struggle with it by treating bushes with a three-day infusion of onion feathers or onion husks. Rovikurt, Aktara, and Fovatoks are also used in early spring.
4. Gooseberry sawfly affecting foliage. They fight it by burning the affected leaves, often loosening the soil with a parallel application of a mixture of 1 tbsp. l dry mustard, the same amount of ground black pepper and 2 tbsp. l wood ash.

The old gooseberry variety, adapted to our growing conditions, still withstands competition with numerous new varieties. The high yield, good gastronomic qualities of the fruit and the excellent frost resistance of the Warsaw gooseberry allow it to continue to occupy its niche in many gardens.