Golden currant: photo and description, planting and care, reviews

Golden currant is very interesting for gardeners and an unusual garden culture. The rules for caring for currants largely repeat the rules for red and black varieties, but you need to know some of the nuances.

Golden currant – what is it

Golden currant is a fruit shrub from the Gooseberry family, found naturally in Canada and North America. In cultivated plantings, the plant is grown all over the world, and in Our Country it appeared at the end of the XNUMXth century thanks to the efforts of the famous breeder Michurin, who also bred one of the first varieties called the Krandal Seedling.

Golden currant is a low shrub up to 2,5 m in height with red shoot bark. The leaves of the plant resemble gooseberry leaves, the flowering of the shrub is very plentiful, occurs at the end of May and lasts almost 3 weeks. The flowers have a rich yellow tint, it is due to this that the plant got its name.

The shrub bears orange, black or burgundy berries, depending on the variety. A distinctive feature of the species is its high yield, on average, from 5 to 15 kg of fruits are harvested from an adult bush.

Pros and cons of golden currant

Before planting a shrub on their site, gardeners are interested in the advantages and disadvantages of culture. The advantages of the plant include:

• high productivity;
• late flowering, due to which the plant does not suffer from recurrent frosts;
• undemanding to conditions – the shrub easily tolerates drought, heat, temperature extremes and stony soils;
• frost resistance, even in the northern regions the shrub can be grown effortlessly, it tolerates cold snaps down to -30 ° C.

However, the culture also has certain disadvantages:

• with a strong deficiency of moisture or nutrients, the shrub can drop the ovaries;
• at a high level of humidity, the fruits may crack;
• ripe currant berries often come off the stem when harvested, due to which their presentation is lost and the shelf life is reduced;
• new shoots of golden currant may freeze in the fall, because they do not always have time to finish the growing season.

Varieties of golden currant

Golden currant is represented by many varieties, among themselves they differ in frost resistance, yield, color and taste of fruits. Before planting golden currants on the site, you should familiarize yourself with the most popular varieties.

Currant golden Shafak

Among the varieties of golden currant for the Moscow region, Shafak is popular. The main characteristic of the variety is good resistance to winter frosts and summer heat. Pests also infect the plant very rarely; from mid-summer to autumn, up to 8 kg of berries can be collected from a bush. The fruits have a rich maroon color, and taste sweet with a slight sourness.

Currant golden Venus

The plant tolerates drought and high temperatures well, and also survives calmly in winter frosts down to -40 ° C. The shoots of the plant are not very long, on each branch a bunch of several black rounded berries with a thin skin ripens. Description of the golden currant Venus claims that up to 8 kg of fruits can be collected from a bush, and their taste is very pleasant – sweet, with a slight sour tint.

Currant golden Laysan

Frost-resistant and hardy to hot conditions, the variety is suitable for growing in most regions. On the brushes of the Laysan variety, no more than 6 separate oval-shaped fruits ripen. The shade of the berries is golden, and in general, the fruits slightly resemble gooseberries. The yield of the plant is very high, up to 9 kg. At the same time, the shrub can be bred, including for the sale of berries, the fruits are stored for a long time and are suitable for transportation.

Golden currant Siberian sun

It tolerates severe winter frosts well and is characterized by increased resistance to fungal diseases and harmful insects. The plant bears fruit normally in the middle of summer, the shade of the berries is golden or rich amber, the fruits are large and tasty, with a slight refreshing sourness.

Golden currant Gift to Ariadne

This variety is characterized, first of all, by good tolerance of frost and summer drought. The plant is rarely affected by pests and fungus, can bring up to 8 kg of delicious berries from one shrub. The berries of the golden currant of this variety are sweet and sour with a slight pleasant aroma.

Currant golden Kishmishnaya

In this variety of golden blackcurrant, small berries ripen, slightly resembling a heart in shape. The plant bears fruit very abundantly – you can collect up to 10 kg of berries from it annually. The currant is sweet, has a dessert taste, a slight sourness is felt in it, but does not impair the taste. The variety tolerates harsh growing conditions in both southern and northern regions.

Currant golden Isabella

The berries of this variety are very small, have a dark, almost black tint. Despite their small size, the fruits of the currant bush are distinguished by good taste. During the warm season, from the beginning of fruiting until autumn, about 6 kg of berries can be removed from Isabella.

Currant golden Ida

The variety belongs to the universal, in other words, it is well suited for eating fresh berries and for harvesting. The fruits of the plant are round, black in color, each bush is capable of producing up to 5 kg of crop. The Ida shrub tolerates severe frosts and extreme heat well and rarely suffers from diseases and harmful insects.

Currant golden black pearl

Low growth and frost-resistant variety with average yields. The currant of this species is capable of producing up to 4,5 kg of fruit from one bush, the berries of the variety are black, sweet and sour, slightly reminiscent of blueberries.

The benefits of golden currant

Golden currant not only has high dessert properties, but also benefits health. First of all, it contains a lot of vitamins C, B and A – berries are useful as a prevention of colds, they can be used to strengthen blood vessels and the heart, to take care of the health of the skin and eyes.

The fruits of the cultivated plant have a slight sourness, but basically they have a sweet taste. Therefore, people with a tendency to flatulence, gastritis and other gastric diseases can use the fruits without fear. Berries improve digestion and do not provoke exacerbations of chronic ailments.

Golden currant hedge

Decorative golden currant is often used in landscape design, the shrub is easy to form and blooms very beautifully. The leaves of golden currant are also decorative, in autumn they are colored with yellow-orange and crimson tones.

Golden currant is often used to create hedges. The shrub grows quite quickly, which allows you to form the desired landscape in a few years. And caring for the golden currant is easy, it tolerates pruning well and quickly restores the green mass, while maintaining the desired shape.

Features of growing golden currant

In general, care for fruit bushes should be carried out quite standard. But there are also some features.

• Golden currant is a shrub that requires cross-pollination by insects. Therefore, to obtain a crop, it is necessary to plant 2 or 3 varieties of plants next to each other at once, otherwise the ovary will crumble.
• Golden currant is sensitive to light. Shrubs cannot be grown in the shade; the plant needs a sunny, warm place.

Also, golden currants need to be protected from the wind during flowering – drafts can lead to premature shedding of flowers.

Planting and caring for golden currant

Photos, descriptions and reviews of golden currants confirm that caring for a shrub is quite simple. It is enough to follow the basic rules, and the plant will delight you with abundant flowering and good harvests.

Selection and preparation of the landing site

It is recommended to plant golden currants in open ground in the spring – immediately after the soil thaws a little. Autumn planting is also allowed, but in this case it must be carried out no later than a month before the arrival of frost, in September-October.

• Almost any soil is suitable for growing golden currants, alkaline and acidic, dry and moist, loamy and sandy.
• The main thing is that groundwater does not pass close to the surface of the earth, otherwise the site will be too swampy.
• Also, the plant is very demanding on lighting, it is best to plant it on a southwestern or western flat area or a small slope, protected from the wind.

Before planting golden currants, it is recommended to prepare the soil. It is necessary to loosen and weed the soil, and a week before planting the shrub, add potash fertilizers and about 6 kg of compost per 1 sq. m of soil. You can also sprinkle the area with wood ash.

The soil mixture for golden currant is prepared as follows:

• dig a hole in the area about 50 cm deep and wide;
• soil prepared from humus and fertile soil is poured into it in a ratio of 1: 1;
• add 200 g of superphosphate and a little nitroammofoska.

Rules of landing

Before planting golden currants, it is necessary to put the seedling together with an earthen clod in a bioactive solution for 2 hours or place it in a container with water for 2 days.

• A seedling of golden currant is lowered into a prepared pit, filled up to the middle with soil mixture.
• The roots of the plant are sprinkled with the remnants of the earth so that the root neck of the plant remains buried by about 5 cm.
• The seedling is set at a slight angle – this facilitates the growth of new roots.

After planting, the ground around the plant should be lightly tamped and properly watered with 3-4 buckets of water. Also, the seedlings must be cut, leaving only 5-6 buds, this will facilitate the engraftment of the shrub in a new place.

Watering and feeding

For healthy development, fruit shrubs need competent watering. The frequency of watering depends on the age of the plant and on weather conditions.

• Young plants are recommended to be watered at least once a week – they need moisture for rapid growth.
• Adult bushes of a fruit bush can be watered only about 5 times during the entire growing season, the main thing is that the soil remains moist during the formation of ovaries.
• In drought, it is necessary to focus on the condition of the soil, if the ground under the bushes of the plant dries quickly, the frequency of watering can be temporarily increased.

For each adult bush of a fruit plant, 3 buckets of water are required, 2 buckets are enough for young plants. You need to water the shrub carefully, making sure that less water gets on the leaves.

As for dressings, golden currant does not make excessive demands on the nutritional value of the soil. After planting, it will need to be fed for the first time only after 2 years, while it is recommended to lay complex mineral fertilizers and manure in the grooves made in the soil at the roots.

For better growth and fruiting, the plant can be supplied annually with nitrogenous fertilizers in spring and organic top dressing in autumn.

Trimming

From time to time, the plant needs to be trimmed, you can prune the golden currant in the fall after leaf fall or in the spring before the buds appear. The first pruning for a shrub is carried out only a year after planting, and it is carried out according to the following principles:

• remove dry and broken branches;
• completely cut off the weak root growth, which prevents the growth of the rest of the shrub;
• if necessary, cut the shoots that violate the geometry of the shrub, it is important to do this if the golden currant is used to decorate the landscape.

After about 12 years of life, golden currants begin to age and slow down their growth, during this period anti-aging pruning can be carried out. In the process, the young one-year-old growth is completely removed, leaving only about 5 strong developed shoots, and a year later, the tops of the root shoots are pinched to form branching. The same procedure is repeated in subsequent years, the formation of a rejuvenated bush ends after 4-5 years.

Preparation for winter

Most varieties of golden currant are characterized by increased frost resistance, the plant tolerates temperatures well up to -25-30 ° C. However, it is still recommended to cover the shrub for the winter, in which case frosts will definitely not affect future yields.

• For the winter, branches of golden currant are recommended to be bent down and pressed to the ground. You can fix the shoots with staples or simply press down individual branches with heavy stones or bricks.
• The branches are wrapped with covering material – this will protect the shoots from freezing. For each branch, it is necessary to build a personal shelter, if you cover the entire bush, there will be little benefit from this.
• Also, a bush of a fruit plant can simply be covered with a mound of earth. If the winter is snowy, a snow cushion about 10 cm thick can be built over the bush.

A properly sheltered garden shrub can withstand frosts down to -40 ° C.

golden currant harvest

The fruiting of the golden currant begins in July and takes a long time and unevenly – the berries ripen at different times. But at the same time, it is very convenient to harvest from a shrub, even ripe fruits do not crumble, but remain hanging on the branches until frost arrives.

Thus, you can harvest a tasty and juicy crop several times from mid-summer, or wait for full ripening and harvest in 1 run.

Pests and diseases of golden currant

A striking feature of the golden currant is the high resistance of the shrub to diseases and pests. With good care, the plant rarely gets sick, but sometimes pests and fungal diseases affect the fruit shrub.

• Among the pests, spider mites and aphids cause the greatest harm to the shrub, insects eat the leaves of the plant and prevent the healthy development of the kidneys. You can fight pests with colloidal sulfur during the flowering period, as well as insecticides Karbofos and Aktellik.

  

• Of the fungi for shrubs, powdery mildew, septoria and anthracnose are especially dangerous. In the first case, the leaves and fruits are covered with a recognizable whitish bloom, and with anthracnose and septoria, light or brown spots appear on the foliage of the shrub, the foliage is twisted and deformed. Golden currant diseases are fought with Nitrafen, Bordeaux liquid and copper sulfate.

  

Spraying of a fruit plant for the purpose of treatment and prevention is carried out from early spring to late autumn. But during the period of flowering and fruiting, it is impossible to treat the plant with chemical means, this can negatively affect pollination and yield.

How to propagate golden currant

Basically, 4 methods of vegetative propagation are used to increase the plant population on the site.

• Cuttings. In early spring, cuttings with 2-3 buds are cut on an adult bush of a fruit plant and placed in water with a root-forming solution for a day. Then the cuttings are deepened into a soil mixture of humus, fertile soil and sand, watered and covered with a film. It is necessary to keep the cuttings in a bright room at a temperature not lower than 23 degrees, and after the appearance of roots and young leaves, the plant can be transplanted into open ground.
• Division of the bush. The method is well suited for rejuvenating old shrubs. An adult plant must be cut in half in early spring, carefully dug out of the ground and divide the rhizome into several parts with a sharpened shovel. Then each of the parts is planted in pre-prepared holes according to the standard algorithm. It is important that the divisions retain several strong developed shoots and healthy intact roots.
• Overgrowth reproduction. Currant bushes often give basal shoots that prevent the development of the main plant. Basal shoots can be dug out of the ground and transplanted to a new place in the usual way, the shoots take root well and grow into a new bush.
• Layering. A reliable and very simple way to propagate currants is to use layering. The low-lying branches of the shrub are bent to the ground, slightly buried in the ground and secured with a wire or staple. For several weeks, layering should be watered abundantly. When carrying out the procedure at the end of spring, in the fall, the layers will give strong roots, and next year they can be planted from the mother bush.

Reproduction of golden currant by cuttings and other vegetative methods allow not only spreading golden currant around the site, but also completely preserving its varietal characteristics.

Conclusion

Golden currant is a very beautiful and useful fruit shrub. There are many varieties of golden currant on sale, it is easy to care for the plant in any climatic conditions.

Reviews of golden currant