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Today, berry crops are becoming increasingly popular, because their cultivation is quite simple and even beginners can do it. Blueberry Toro has great reviews from summer residents, because it has large berries with excellent taste. Blueberries are a versatile berry and can be used both raw and canned.
Description of the blueberry variety Toro
The garden blueberry Toro is described as a Canadian cultivar bred from Earlyblue x Ivanhoe. The authors of the variety are A. Deiper and J. Galetta. The variety was obtained over 30 years ago.
Blueberry Toro is a plant up to 2 m high, with powerful shoots. The bush is moderately sprawling, having a high growth rate.
Blueberry leaves are elliptical in shape, their length is 3-5 cm. The color of the leaves is bright green.
The fruits are bluish-blue in color and round in shape, quite large, their diameter is up to 20 mm. They are collected in large brushes, similar to grapes. The fruits do not crumble when ripe and do not crack.
Features of fruiting
The blueberry variety Toro is considered self-pollinating. Cross-pollination can degrade the quality of blueberries, so it is best to plant a monoculture. Well pollinated by insects. Blueberries are best pollinated by bumblebees.
The fruiting period of blueberries is from 30 to 40 days. The fruiting period lasts from early August to mid-September.
Toro blueberries are large, their diameter is 17-20 mm; up to 75 berries per 0,25 l. The maximum recorded size of Toro blueberries is 24 mm. Weight – about 2 g. The berries easily come off the brush, the place of separation is dry, its area is small. Toro blueberries do not crack when harvested.
The yield of Toro blueberries is from 6 to 10 kg per bush.
Taste characteristics of the variety are excellent. The blueberry variety Toro is a dessert variety.
The scope of Toro blueberry fruits is universal. They are used in raw and processed form. Processing includes the manufacture of various sweets, juices, jams, etc. Toro blueberries tolerate canning well in a wide variety of options.
Advantages and disadvantages
The advantages of the Toro blueberry variety include:
- excellent taste, due to which blueberries displace their closest competitor – the Bluecorp variety, which is one of the best dessert varieties;
- abundant fruiting (6-10 kg per bush);
- almost simultaneous ripening of all fruits;
- ease of collection and storage;
- one of the largest blueberries with a similar ripening period;
- good growth of blueberry Toro, in comparison with other varieties;
- high frost resistance – from – 28 ° С to – 30 ° С.
Disadvantages of the variety:
- relatively high whimsicality and exactingness to soils, especially to the level of acidity;
- low heat resistance;
- drought sensitivity;
- weak resistance to fungal diseases.
Features of reproduction
Toro blueberries are predominantly propagated by cuttings. They are prepared at the end of autumn, a cutting 10-15 cm long is separated from the parent plant and rooted in a mixture of peat and sand in a cool place.
The blueberry stalk should be regularly moistened and treated with a rooting agent several times a year. The formation of the root system and kidneys takes a long time – about two years.
A seedling ready for planting, obtained from a cutting, is capable of fruiting the very next year after planting.
Planting and care
Blueberry Toro has certain planting rules, since the soil requirements are, to put it mildly, non-standard, and mistakes at this stage are critical. Next, we will talk about planting and caring for Toro blueberries in more detail.
Recommended dates
Landing should be done either in early spring or late autumn. Blueberries should have time to adapt by the time the vegetative buds open.
Site selection and soil preparation
For Toro blueberries, choose well-lit areas with well-drained soil, as blueberries do not like stagnant water. The optimal acidity of the soil are pH values from 3,8 to 4,8. Despite the high levels of soil acidity, both soil and groundwater are recommended to have a high calcium content.
Landing algorithm
Plants are planted from containers in planting pits measuring 100 by 100 cm and about 60 cm deep. Substrate must first be placed in the pits. It consists of the following components:
- peat;
- sand;
- rotted pine litter.
The components are taken in equal proportions and thoroughly mixed.
Before laying the substrate on the bottom, it is necessary to lay drainage. It is best to use gravel for this purpose.
The distance when planting between plants should be at least 2,5 m by 1,5 m. If planting in rows is used, then the distance between bushes is from 80 to 100 cm, between rows – up to 4 m.
It is necessary to shake the blueberry roots before planting so that they are not collected in a lump. Seedlings are buried 4-6 cm below the level to which they were buried in containers. Next, you need to mulch Toro blueberries with litter or peat.
Saplings with a height of more than 40 cm are shortened by about a quarter.
Cultivation and care
Growing and caring for the plant is quite simple, but requires strict adherence to the agricultural technology of the plant. The main points in cultivation are timely watering, proper feeding and control of the acidity of the substrate. The latter is the most important, since the acidity of the soil is the most important parameter on which the health of the plant and its yield depend.
Watering Schedule
The watering schedule is individual and does not have any specific deadlines. The main requirement for irrigation is to maintain a constant level of substrate moisture, but without excessive flooding with water.
Top dressing schedule
Blueberries are fed three times per season:
- In the spring, half of the volume of nitrogen-mineral fertilizers should be applied.
- A week before flowering, half of the remaining volume is applied.
- During fruiting, the entire volume of nitrogenous fertilizers remaining after the first two dressings, as well as potash fertilizers, are applied.
The total amount of top dressing applied throughout the season depends on the age of the blueberries. Ammonium sulfate or carbamide are used as nitrogenous fertilizers. Their number is about 30 g per bush up to two years old. In plants older than 4 years, this number doubles. Nitrogen fertilizers are applied in a diluted form at a concentration of not more than 2 g per 1 liter of water.
Potassium sulfate is used as a potassium fertilizer in the amount of 30 g for two-year-old plants and 60 g for four-year-olds.
It is also recommended to apply humus or rotted manure under the plant for the winter under the snow.
A sign of insufficient soil acidity is the reddening of blueberry leaves. In general, in autumn it turns red anyway, but if this happened in the middle of summer, then the substrate needs to be acidified.
Acidification can be carried out using acetic, citric or malic acid. Use for this purpose and colloidal sulfur is allowed.
If citric acid is used, it is necessary to dilute 10 g of acid in the form of a powder in 5 liters of water and pour the resulting mixture over a plot of 1 sq. m.
For acetic acid, take 10 liters of water and 100 g of acid.
When using colloidal sulfur, it is necessary to add it in the amount of 40-60 g per plant.
Trimming
Pruning is done before bud break – in March or April. In the first 4 years of life, the plant needs only sanitary pruning, in the next – also shaping.
The main purpose of formative pruning is to prevent excessive thickening of the branches. If necessary, cut off excessive growth on the periphery of the bush.
It is important to completely cut the branches of the lower tiers over 2 years old, especially those that droop too much. The plant must maintain an elevated stem, and these branches will interfere with normal growth and berry formation.
In addition, it is necessary to cut the lowest branches so that they do not interfere with the processing of the plant. It is recommended to remove too old branches completely for 5-6 years of plant life.
Preparation for winter
For the winter, cover the shrub with a film to prevent it from freezing. Despite the relatively high frost resistance of blueberries, in the event of a little snowy winter, there is a possibility of plant death.
The main thing in wrapping is to provide thermal insulation for the lower and middle parts of the bush. It is recommended to wrap the entire bush with a film or agrofibre, and cover the bottom of the plant with sawdust or pine branches. The height of such a shelter is about 30-40 cm relative to the ground level.
Pests and diseases
The main problem in growing Toro blueberries is fungal infections. Most often, the symptomatology manifests itself in yellowing of the leaves and damage to the root system. For the treatment of fungal diseases, the standard use of copper-containing preparations, for example, Bordeaux mixture, is recommended.
Conclusion
Blueberry Toro is one of the best varieties of this crop in terms of the combination of positive and negative qualities. At the same time, its growing conditions cannot be called too complicated – in terms of labor intensity, garden activities for growing blueberries do not differ too much from similar activities for the same currant. The main thing in growing blueberries is to monitor the level of acidity and respond in time to its deviations from the norm.
Blueberry Reviews Toro
