Since ancient times, currant has been the most widespread berry crop in Russia. Currant Exotic is good, but not perfect. We will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the variety below.
Black currant "Exotic"
variety "Exotic" suitable for industrial cultivation
black currant "Exotic" with good taste characteristics, universal use
Breeding history of the variety
Blackcurrant Exotic is an innovation in the field of berry crop breeding. About 20 years ago, a group of breeders developed an early maturing type of culture.
For its creation, pollen of 2 varieties was used: domestic and Scandinavian origin. By crossing them, Exotic was born - a unique and peculiar berry.
Description of black currant Exotic
The plant is strong - with straight, not too massive shoots. Young stems are clean, light green color, rather dense, with plant pigments.
Adult shoots are straight, gray in color. The buds are ovate, asymmetrically located on a short stem, slightly deviated from the main stem, rather large, the shade is pink.
The leaves are very large, consist of 5 lobes, green, corrugated. The flowers are pale, large, the sepals are small in size.
The cluster is small, a bit like a bunch of grapes, with large shiny black berries, equally round with a thin skin. Sweet and sour, aromatic.
This variety is winter hardy, capable of early fruiting after planting, does not require cross-pollination.
Advantages and disadvantages
Blackcurrant Exotic has many advantages that attract gardeners. However, flaws are also present. Consider the pros and cons of the variety.
Positive points:
- large berries;
- high resistance to pests and diseases typical of currants;
- high vitality in severe frost conditions;
- early maturity and abundant yield;
- excellent transportability of berries;
- long shelf life of the crop.
The negative sides include:
- return frosts can harm early flowering;
- intolerance to lack of moisture;
- poor resistance to some diseases.
Preparing for landing
Having listened to the advice of specialists, the planting process will become easy and pleasant for you.
To purchase seedlings, contact specialized nurseries, garden stores, or trusted gardeners. So you will avoid buying a low-quality product.
The best solution is to find a nursery in the same area as your garden plot, or slightly to the north. The plants purchased from these nurseries are adapted to the climate of your region.
Purchase of seedlings
When choosing additives, pay special attention to the root system. The roots must be strong and healthy, with at least 3 main root tines 20 cm long. Short roots are unlikely to take root well.
Examine the seedlings carefully for damage or rotten areas. The root system must be powerful.
Choose a seedling with firm and healthy shoots that are dense and uniform in color. Buy two-year-old seedlings - these take root better.
Choose seedlings in containers. They are planted with the available land, which will allow the plant to quickly and better get used to new conditions.
Seat selection
Blackcurrant Exotic, despite its northern origin, loves warmth and light. Set aside the sunniest and warmest area in the garden for this variety.
Make sure the air does not stagnate. Protecting the seedlings from the harsh and severe north wind is important.
The distance to the groundwater at the planting site of the bushes should be 2 m and deeper. This condition will allow the root system to develop successfully.
Date picker
Exotic seedlings are planted in spring and autumn. If you purchase a pet with an open root system, start planting in mid-autumn to early October.
Young roots must adapt before the onset of severe cold weather. The bushes get used to the new soil, with the onset of spring they quickly grow.
The situation is different with a seedling in a container. No adaptation of the root system to new conditions is needed. Therefore, such young growth can be planted both in autumn and spring.
Site preparation
Before planting a plant, gardeners choose and prepare the territory.
Give preference to an open, draft-free place. If the seedlings are planted in the shade, the bushes will stretch out and the size of the berries will greatly decrease. Clean the place for planting currants from weeds, carefully level, removing irregularities.
Blackcurrant Exotic prefers not too acidic soil.
Algorithm for planting currants Exotic
Maintain the correct distance between the seedlings, or bushes, and any fence. It should be 1 m, you can increase the gap, but not too much (1.3 m). Otherwise, Exotic currants will not please with a bountiful harvest.
Features of planting and caring for black currants can be found in this article.
Move on to the step-by-step planting process:
- On a leveled and cleaned plot, dig holes with dimensions: diameter 40-50 cm, depth up to 30 cm.
- Fill the pits with nutrients: use a mixture of a bucket of compost, superphosphate (200 g), wood ash (300 g) and a little earth
- In the fertilized soil under a slight slope, bury the seedling from 8 cm to 10 cm above the root collar, the angle of inclination is within 45 degrees.
- Be sure to spread the roots along the bottom of the hole, do not allow them to stand up.
- Pay attention to the buds at the bottom of the stem, they should remain underground.
- Cut off the remaining branches of the bush with pruning shears.
- Pour a bucket of water into the prepared hole with the seedling.
- To retain moisture, cover the hole with soil mixed with peat.
- The final step is to lightly compact the soil.
Landing is over. Now, high yields depend only on the proper attitude to the plants.
Caring for currant bushes
Exotic care is traditional, it includes: watering, loosening the soil, mulching it, pruning, weed control, feeding, preventive measures to destroy pests, treatment of shrubs. More about caring for currants in autumn is written here.
Observing all the conditions of care, you will achieve a high, high-quality and tasty harvest. Let us dwell in stages at the points of care for the bush.
On the vastness of our site, you can find information on how to properly care for currants in the spring.
Watering
A feature of the procedure is scrupulous regularity. Control the irrigation process in dry spring and early summer. At least 1-2 buckets of water are added under each bush once a week.
Be sure to keep an impressive layer of mulch under the seedlings to prevent moisture evaporation. Stop watering as soon as the clusters form and the berries begin to ripen. The harvest will be juicy.
Experienced gardeners advise: sprinkling irrigation is suitable for this variety, since Exotics is resistant to powdery mildew disease.
Pruning
You will achieve high yields if you take the trouble to form the bushes correctly. In the 2nd year, the young bush will give many zero shoots from the center of the plant.
With the onset of autumn, cut 1/3 of the formed shoots on the branches, and remove the new shoots. But not all - leave 3-4 of the strongest and most viable branches. 1: 1 repeat this procedure after 3 years, again in the fall.
The correct pruning of currants in the fall is written here.
Throughout the entire fruiting, keep the bush in a non-thickened state, leave no more than 12 shoots. Prune annually and cut out branches that are older than 4 years old.
Read our article on how to prune currants in the spring.
Loosening and mulching
Cultivation of the soil protects it from rapid drying out, and also generously enriches the soil with oxygen and destroys weed shoots. If the mulching layer under the bush consists of humus, try to loosen the soil to a depth of no more than 9 cm, but not less than 6 cm.
If the shelter is from other components, proceed as follows: move the mulch away from the bush, loosen it to a depth of 5 cm, then cover the ground again under the bush.
Perform this procedure monthly (once is quite enough) from the moment of swelling of the kidneys. In the event that it rains frequently, loosen the soil more often to prevent compaction of the earth ball.
Fertilizer
After planting Exotic black currant seedlings, for a couple of years, care comes down to watering, mulching, and extermination of all kinds of weeds. As it gets older, the plant needs feeding. In each period of fertilization, different fertilizing and their mode of use are required. Read this article for helpful tips on spring top dressing.
As soon as the snow melts, scatter bone meal and urea under the Exotic bushes (2 tablespoons for each seedling). Then carefully cover with humus, the layer of which should be up to 10 cm. Finally, pour abundantly.
Also feed your pets with fermented herb infusion. Add 1 liter of the composition to a bucket of water - feed each bush with this amount. Cover the near-stem soil with compost, use grass after infusion.
After a week, make a groove around the perimeter of the bush, fill with 2 glasses of wood ash and grind. Perform this procedure in June, as soon as ovaries form on the bushes.
After harvesting, feed the plants with ash again. In late fall, add a bucket of humus or compost under each bush.
Read about how and what to fertilize currants in the autumn period here.
Preparing for winter
Before the onset of frost (no later than October), prepare Exotics for wintering. Be sure to inspect the bushes for branches that need to be removed.
Feed the plants, dig up, but shallow, the soil, mulch the trunk circle. Various materials, even snowdrifts, can serve as options for shelter.
Reproduction Exotics
The simplest and most commonly used method of propagation is cuttings. From one-year-old shoots, cut the cuttings from 15 cm to 20 cm in length, use only healthy shoots.
Make a solution of humic acid salt and place the cuttings in it for 12 hours. Then plant in prepared soil.
To speed up the formation of a new blackcurrant bush, plant 2 or 3 cuttings in one hole. An important point is that the cuttings must be of the same variety and must be laid crosswise.
Do not forget about the distance - 15 cm between the petioles and half a meter between the rows. Tilt the base to the south, and the tip of the cut branch to the north.
The second breeding option is to bend the lower branch of the bush to the ground, followed by burying it (the top of the branch should be above the soil surface). After a while, the shoot will take root.
Collection, storage and use of berries
Exotic berries ripen at the beginning of July. Do not delay harvesting, otherwise it will crumble.
Pick black currants by hand (this is a gentle method), but if there are acceptable mechanisms, use them calmly. Hand harvesting keeps berries in the refrigerator for much longer.
Time for harvesting in dry weather. For storage, pluck whole clusters of berries, choose a small container. If desired, you can store Exotic from 10 days to 1.5 months (the period depends on the selected temperature).
The berries are best consumed fresh. If you want to stock up on them - cook jam or compote, grind currants with sugar, make juice, puree, freeze berries. This will help you replenish your vitamin supply during the winter.
Susceptibility to disease and parasites
Compliance with the rules of care, careful attention to plants and prevention is the guarantee that the currants will not get sick. Exotics has an innate immunity to diseases such as columnar rust and powdery mildew.
But not with all the misfortunes Exotics have enough strength to fight on their own. Your help in this is absolutely necessary. How best to do this:
- Anthracnose - disease of leaves, petioles, young shoots. For 2-3 years leads to the death of the bush.
For prevention purposes, do not make the shrub too thick. In the fall, after shedding the foliage, spray the bushes and the ground under them with a 7% urea solution. In the spring, walk over the young leaves with Fitosporin solution, add 2-3 drops of Zircon and Epin-extra to it.
In case of illness, spray the plant with the same preparation (carefully read the instructions). In the fall, collect the fallen leaves and burn them, treat the bushes and soil with a solution of copper sulfate. In the spring, spray with 1% Bordeaux liquid. - Terry - a viral disease. Does not respond to treatment. Infected bushes are destroyed, in no case do not throw them into the compost pit. Prevention is the fight against sucking insects, which are the spread of the disease.
- Septoriasis - leaf disease. Leads to the loss of winter hardiness. Preventive methods and methods of treatment are identical to those for anthracnose.
- Kidney mite - affects the kidneys, spreads the terry virus. If the bush is highly infected, it dies.
Examine the plants carefully. Swollen buds are a sign of mite infestation. If detected, delete immediately. Before the buds open (in early spring) and with the onset of late autumn, treat the bushes with boiling water. - Aphid (second name - aphid shoots) - multiplies at the tips of young shoots. The leaves are deformed, stick together firmly. For prophylaxis, spray Exotic bushes every decade with Fitoverm. In case of a large accumulation of aphids, add green soap to this preparation and rinse the infected ends of the branches. Find out more about aphid control products here.
- Glass-maker - butterfly caterpillar. It is able to completely destroy the core of the bush, which causes the branches to dry out. Spraying is similar to anthracnose treatment. Do not plant Exotica near the bird cherry, it is on it that the glassware lives and reproduces.
- Gooseberry fire - caterpillar. Strongly entangles fruits, eats seeds, lays eggs in buds. The result is damaged berries, spoiled crops.
Remove the caterpillars along with the berries, treat them with the same preparation every 10 days during the budding process and until the very beginning of flowering. Cover the soil under the bushes with a thick layer of mulch from old newspapers - they will reliably protect the ground from the wintering butterfly coming out of it. - Currant gall midge - harmful to the development of leaves. The larvae feed exclusively on leafy pulp. Fruiting on damaged bushes may not occur.
As a preventive measure, after harvesting, remove and burn infected branches. Water and feed Exotics, mulch the soil over a large radius.
If the larvae have already damaged the leaves, spray the black currant with karbofos solution. Perform this procedure before flowering, at its completion, after picking berries.
Reviews of gardeners about currant Exotic
Tatiana, 54 years old, gardener. I highly appreciate the taste of Exotics, the rich aroma of berries. I draw the attention of novice amateur gardeners to the fact that it is necessary to take into account the specific conditions for high-quality growth and fruiting of this type of culture. Of all the varieties that I planted earlier, I left only Exotic.
Stepan Ilyich, 62, amateur gardener. I bought some seedlings, but they froze. But that was my mistake. So when buying seedlings, be guided by the area in which you are going to plant Exotics.
Eugene, 35 years old, summer resident. I, faced with a rainy season during the Exotic harvest, now focus the attention of amateur gardeners on the weather conditions. Harvesting should not be delayed, especially if hot weather is established during this period. Be careful when choosing this black currant variety.
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Ideal plants do not exist in nature, each species has a lot of advantages and a certain number of disadvantages. The same can be said about the Exotic black currant variety.