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The high-yielding thornless gooseberry variety Komandor (otherwise – Vladil) was bred in 1995 at the South Ural Research Institute of Horticulture and Potato Growing by Professor Vladimir Ilyin.
The parent pair for this gooseberry was Afrikaner and Chelyabinsk green. From the first, the Commander inherited the characteristic dark, almost black color of the fruit, from the second – high winter hardiness and resistance to a number of diseases.
Description of the bush and berries
The height of the gooseberry bush Komandor is average (up to 1,5 meters). The variety is slightly sprawling, dense. Growing gooseberry shoots of moderate thickness (2 to 5 cm in diameter), hairless, slightly curved at the base. The greenish-beige color of the bark of the Commander in places that are under the sun for a long time will turn into a slightly pinkish.
The leaves of the Commander variety are large and medium in size, wide, dense, bright green with a slightly shiny glossy surface. On the branches they are arranged alternately. At the base of a five-lobed leaf plate with medium or deep cuts, there is a small rounded notch characteristic of gooseberries. The leaf petioles of this variety are of medium length, slightly pubescent, slightly lighter in color than leaf blades (may have a slight yellowish tint).
The buds of the gooseberry Commander are rejected from the shoot, they resemble an oval in shape with a slightly pointed top.
The flowers of this variety are small and medium, in the shape of a bowl. Inflorescences are grouped in 2-3 pieces. The petals are yellow-green in color, turning a little pink from exposure to sunlight.
The berries of the Commander are not very large (average weight is from 5,6 to 7 g), burgundy-brown in color, with a smooth and thin skin.
The dark raspberry juicy flesh of the Commander contains a small amount of small black seeds.
Features
Productivity
The gooseberry variety Komandor has a high yield (on average, you can collect about 3,7 kg of berries from a bush, up to a maximum of 6,9 kg). However, with a large harvest, the size of the berries becomes smaller.
The taste of the Commander’s berries is dessert (sweet and sour), the aroma is pleasant, and the astringency is moderate. The sugar content in their composition is up to 13,1%, ascorbic acid is about 54 mg per 100 g. The tasting score of this variety of gooseberries is 4,6 out of 5 points.
Drought and winter hardiness
Komandor (Vladil) is a drought-resistant variety, and in the event of a short-term drought, it is able to provide itself with moisture. At the same time, a regular lack of water adversely affects the fruiting and development of the plant.
High frost resistance favorably distinguishes Commander from most other thornless gooseberry varieties. It is able to withstand a snowy winter with frosts down to -25 … -30 degrees, without the need for artificial protective shelter. However, in the conditions of modern winters with little snow and harsh, cold winds, gardeners often insure themselves by wrapping gooseberry bushes of this variety with agrospan, or constantly spudding them with snow, bending the branches to the ground.
Disease and pest resistance
It is believed that the Commander is resistant to such common problems for other gooseberry varieties as:
- sawfly;
- powdery mildew;
- viral diseases.
It is relatively vulnerable to:
- late blight;
- anthracnose;
- gooseberry moth.
At the same time, the danger for the gooseberry of this variety is:
- aphid;
- moth;
- mites (spider, currant bud);
- currant glass;
- currant gall midge (shoot and leaf);
- drying of the stems;
- rust (glass, columnar);
- white spotting;
- gray rot;
- mosaic disease.
Ripening period
Gooseberry Komandor belongs to mid-early varieties (berries ripen from late May to late June). In mid-July (subject to a warm and sunny summer), it is usually already possible to harvest.
If the gooseberries are planned to be eaten immediately or processed for the winter, it is advisable to wait until the fruits are fully ripe. Part of the Commander’s crop for more or less long-term storage is recommended to be harvested in a slightly unripe form (a couple of weeks before the berries ripen completely).
Transportability
Transportation of berries of this variety is difficult, primarily because of their delicate thin skin.
The Commander is recommended to collect gooseberry fruits on dry, sunny days, in the morning or in the evening, so that there is no dew on them.
Gooseberries taken from the bush should be carefully sorted out, discarding damaged and spoiled ones. Then they need to be dried for 2-3 hours, scattered in one layer on a soft cloth (newspapers) in a dry, cool place, isolated from direct sunlight. Only then can you carefully collect the berries in a container.
For storage of gooseberry fruits of this variety (at a temperature of 0 to +2 degrees) use:
- small cardboard or wooden boxes (shelf life 1,5 months);
- plastic bags (shelf life – a maximum of 3-4 months).
Containers with a volume of no more than 10 liters and with rigid walls are suitable for transportation. But even if all the conditions for the collection and transportation of the berries of the Commander variety are met, they lose their presentation very quickly.
Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Lack of thorns | Low transportability |
Pleasant taste | Short shelf life |
High yield | Capriciousness in care |
Powdery mildew resistance and strong immunity to viral diseases | Instability to various types of leaf spots and a number of pests |
Sufficiently long fruiting period | Average berry sizes |
Berries do not crack and do not crumble |
|
High frost resistance |
|
Growing conditions
Characteristics of the plot for the gooseberry Komandor:
| Well | Poorly | How to solve a problem |
soil | Light (sandy loam, loam, sod-podzolic, forest gray soil) | Acidic (pH less than 6) | Add dolomite flour (1 g) or lime (2 g) to the hole (per 200 m100 of soil) |
Terms | Heat and sunshine | Cold sharp wind, drafts | Enclose young plants with a fence or plant the Commander near the wall |
Ground | Loose, well-permeable to moisture and air Groundwater level deeper than 1 meter | Lowlands, wetlands Water stagnating at the landing site | Build a small embankment, the bottom of the pit before planting a plant of this variety, strengthen it with drainage (pebbles, crushed stone, coarse sand, ceramic shards) |
in winter | Significant amount of snow | Little or no snow | Protect the bushes of the Commander with covering material |
Features of landing
Planting gooseberries of the Commander variety, like other shrubs, is possible:
- in spring – the plant will have time to adapt better, to form a developed and strong root system before the frost period;
- in autumn – the gooseberry bush will get a good hardening, it will more readily give new shoots, it will be easier to endure the cold.
The soil for the Commander must be prepared in advance (if landing in the spring, then this is done in the fall, if in the fall, then about a week before the expected planting date). For each gooseberry bush of this variety, a hole should be dug (about 30 cm deep and up to 60 cm wide). A nutrient mixture is laid at the bottom of it:
- rotted manure with straw or humus (about 8-10 kg);
- wood ash (300 g) or potassium salt (40-50 g);
- powdered lime (350 g);
- urea (25-30 g) if gooseberries are planted in spring (not required in autumn).
Seedlings with a closed type of root system are recommended to buy for planting. A standard seedling of the Komandor variety (about 10 cm long) has 3 to 5 skeletal roots and well-developed renal roots. A one-year-old gooseberry, as a rule, has a single shoot, while a two-year-old gooseberry has 2-3 of them.
Before planting, the roots of plants should be immersed for 1 day in a weak solution of potassium permanganate or potassium humate.
The bush is recommended to be placed in a hole at an angle of 45 degrees in order to enable the gooseberry to form young shoots. The roots should be carefully straightened, sprinkled with the bottom, and then with the top layer of soil. Next, the Commander bush needs to be watered with water (about 5 liters), mulched with humus and watered again.
The distance between seedlings of this variety should be left at least a meter. If there are buildings or tall trees on the site, then the gaps can be increased to 2-3 m so that the shadow from them does not cover the sunlight. Between the rows of gooseberry seedlings Komandor, according to the rules, there should be at least 2 m.
How to plant gooseberries and care for them, the video illustrates:
Care instructions
Watering
The intensity of watering the gooseberry Komandor depends on the weather:
- in hot summers, this variety should be watered every other day or even every day;
- in cloudy and cool periods – 1 time per week.
On average, an adult plant of this variety needs about 5 liters of water at a time, 3 liters is enough for a young one.
In dry autumn at the end of September, water-charging irrigation is also possible.
Support
Despite the fact that the gooseberry bushes of this variety are not very spreading, they are still advised to install a support. Due to this, the branches (especially the lower ones) will not bend down or break under the weight of berries in case of a high yield.
Usually, two supports are installed at the beginning and at the end of a row of seedlings of this variety. A strong nylon thread or wire is stretched between them, forming trellises.
It is more expedient to strengthen single gooseberry bushes Commander individually – with columns to which branches are tied.
Additional fertilizing
In the first year after planting this variety of gooseberries, it is appropriate to feed them with nitrogen-containing fertilizers (20 g per 1 m2 of the trunk circle). They improve the growth of the green mass of the bush.
Annually it is recommended to fertilize the Commander gooseberry with the following mixture:
- ammonium sulfate (25g);
- potassium sulfate (25 g);
- superphosphate (50 g);
- compost (half bucket).
Immediately after flowering, and then again after two to three weeks, the plants are fed with mullein diluted in water (1 to 5). The norm for one gooseberry bush is from 5 to 10 liters of solution.
Pruning of bushes
The optimal time for pruning gooseberries of this variety is the end of autumn or the beginning of spring.
The first time the seedling of the Commander is cut off immediately after planting, shortening the branches to 20-25 cm above the ground.
In the second year and beyond, the number of new shoots formed is reduced, leaving 4-5 of the strongest. At the age of 5-6, 3-4 old and diseased shoots are removed from the gooseberry bush of this variety, leaving exactly the same number of young shoots. Adult bushes of the Commander (over 6-7 years old) are formed in the spring, adjusting the fruit-bearing branches, and sanitary pruning is carried out in the fall.
An adult gooseberry bush Komandor normally has 10-16 shoots of different ages.
Reproduction
You can propagate gooseberries of the Commander variety:
- cuttings – in June, cuttings are cut from young shoots, which are then planted in the ground;
- division – young bushes are carefully separated from the mother plant and planted;
- layering – at the base of an adult plant, they dig a hole 15 cm deep, place a young branch in it, without cutting it off from the bush, fix it and sprinkle it with earth to obtain new shoots.
Preparation for winter
At the end of autumn, it is recommended to carefully dig up the near-trunk circle in order to destroy pest larvae and fungal spores.
If a snowy winter is expected, it is advisable to tie the branches of the Commander’s bush, carefully bending to the ground – in this case, they will not break under the weight of the snow “caps”.
If, on the contrary, the winter is going to be snowy and harsh, it would be useful to wrap gooseberry bushes of this variety with protective covering material – perhaps even peat or straw, covering them with a dense film. This will reduce the risk of freezing the Commander.
Pest and disease control
The main diseases that affect the gooseberry variety Vladil:
| Disease | Symptoms | Methods of struggle | Prevention |
| Shrinking stems | Cracks in the bark, fungal spores in the wounds | Bordeaux liquid (treatment of wounds) | Pruning a gooseberry bush with a sterile tool |
| Rust | Bulges of orange, brick, copper color from the wrong side of the leaves, on the fruits | Copper oxychloride (spraying before flowering, then after harvest) | Destruction of diseased leaves; regular weeding |
| White spotting (septoria) | Light gray spots on leaves | Bordeaux liquid, Nitrofen, copper sulphate (gooseberry processing before the leaves bloom, then after picking the berries) | |
| Gray mold | Berries on the lower branches rot and fall, leaves and shoots rot | Destruction of berries, shoots, leaves affected by the disease | Regular pruning of the gooseberry bush |
| mosaic disease | Stripes, circles and spots of pale green or yellow along the inner veins of the leaves. Leaves wither and fall | No | Careful selection of planting material, destruction of diseased bushes of this variety, processing with a sterile instrument |
Harmful insects from which this gooseberry variety most often suffers:
Pest | Symptoms | Ways to fight and prevent |
aphid | Colonies of small green insects on the inside of the leaves, sucking the juice out of them | Spraying gooseberry leaves with laundry soap foam, infusion of bitter pepper, crushed tobacco leaves, garlic arrows, dry peels of citrus fruits. Spraying with Aktara, Karbofos, Aktellik (according to instructions) |
Pheidenitsa | Gray caterpillars feeding on leaves | Collection of caterpillars and clutches of eggs by hand. In the spring, water the soil with boiling water (moth butterflies hibernate under the bushes). Spraying the leaves of the Commander with infusion of chamomile or tobacco leaves. Spraying with Aktellik, Kinmis, Spark according to the instructions. |
Currant bud mite | Settles in buds (flower, leaf), eating them from the inside | Thorough inspection of the Commander’s bushes in the spring, destruction of deformed buds. Spraying with a solution of colloidal sulfur. Spraying according to ISO instructions |
spider mite | Settles at the bottom of the leaf, drinking juice from it and entangling it with white threads resembling a cobweb | Spraying the leaves of the Commander with an infusion of wormwood, potato tops, garlic or onions. Use of acaricides (Bancol, Apollo, Sunmite) |
Currant glasscane | Caterpillars in the cracks of the bark, eating away the wood from the inside | Wood ash scattered under plants, mustard powder, ground red pepper, tobacco dust. Insecticides to help control moths |
Currant gall midge (shoot and leaf) | Small brown mosquitoes that feed on leaf sap and wood. Leaves and shoots dry, shoots break easily | Prevention – treatment of plants with infusion of wormwood, mustard powder, tomato tops. In case of damage – Fufanon, Karbofos (spraying before flowering, then – after harvesting) |
Conclusion
The gooseberry of the medium-early variety Komandor has no thorns, is frost-resistant, is famous for its high yield, long period of berry picking and pleasant taste. At the same time, this variety is quite demanding on the place of planting and care conditions, its fruits are small in size, it is quite difficult to transport and store them.