Golden Currant - Culture Features

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Golden currant is a rare berry and ornamental shrub that gives a steady harvest of delicious berries

This shrub is so unusual that it is often mistaken for a hybrid of currants with gooseberries. And in fact, what would you think if you saw gooseberry leaves on branches without thorns about two meters high and strewn with clusters of black berries 1 cm in diameter, but not quite round, but a little oval? And they would be completely puzzled, having tasted the berries: it is not gooseberry at all, but rather blueberry than currant. In fact, this is really a currant, but not a black currant, which is common in almost every area, but completely unusual.

The homeland of the golden currant (Ribes aureum) - this is the name of this rare type of currant - is the western part of North America. It got its name from golden-yellow flowers with a pleasant strong aroma (synonym for fragrant currant - Ribes Odoratum), collected in 5-7 pieces in a brush. Unlike black currant, golden blooms later (in late May - early June), and most importantly - longer - up to 15-20 days. This allows the flowers to evade frost and reliably pollinate with bumblebees. The result is a guaranteed annual harvest. And it is not small - up to 6 liters per bush. What is interesting: after pollination of the flowers, as the ovary grows, the corolla disappears, but the pistil remains, and the berries are obtained with a "tail" at the end.

The berries of this currant are not sour, therefore, they can be included in the diet of patients with gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer, who are not recommended to use black currant berries, due to its high acidity. They make an excellent jam (the ratio of berries and sugar is 1: 1). Having treated them to guests, you will be puzzled by the order. Its aroma is currant jam, and the taste is blueberry.

Golden currant is grown not only as a fruit shrub, but also as an ornamental one. Its bushes are beautiful from spring to autumn. Tall (human-sized) arched branches are decorated in spring for three weeks with golden flowers, the aroma of which spreads throughout the garden, and in summer - with black shiny berries, in autumn - with crimson foliage.

In culture, this currant has been grown since the beginning of the 19th century. Due to its resistance to gas pollution, it is widely used in urban greening. In Russia, the golden currant is an exotic culture compared to the prevalence of its black sister. However, due to its exceptional unpretentiousness - winter hardiness, low soil requirements, drought resistance (remember the moisture-loving black currant), shade tolerance, disease resistance - golden currant can grow everywhere in Russia - from Kuban to Karelia. By the way, in the USA, the cultivation of black currant is prohibited due to the fact that it is a carrier of powdery mildew (spheroteka) spores that infect cereal crops, and golden currant is widely cultivated, since it is not susceptible to this disease.

Growing golden currants is not difficult at all. Perhaps the only thing that needs to be taken care of is to provide a spacious (50x50x50 cm) planting pit with fertile soil, since this is a very durable shrub and can grow in one place for more than two decades. The golden currant is well bred with woody cuttings. It also propagates by sowing seeds in early spring or before winter. In spring sowing, seed stratification (aging in wet sand under snow or in a refrigerator) accelerates germination for 2-4 months.

The branching ability of golden currants is much less than that of black currants. Thanks to this, the hassle of forming a bush is much less. This feature is often used by gardeners to grow golden currants in standard form. If you constantly remove a few shoots, and leave only one branch, then a trunk will form from it and you will get a completely unusual "currant tree" up to 3 meters high. And if a stalk of a gooseberry, black, red or white currant is grafted onto a branch of a golden currant at a height of 50-60 cm, then these shrubs can also be grown in the standard form. Such plants are more durable, healthier, and their berries are larger than those of shrubs.

Unfortunately, golden currant seedlings are very rarely on sale, and seeds are generally not found in stores. Those who wish to breed this rare berry and ornamental shrub can send golden currant seeds. They, as well as seeds of gumi, Kuril tea, maral root, strawberry grass, snowberry and more than 200 other rare plants, can be ordered from the catalog. Send an envelope with your address - in it you will receive the catalog for free. Email me at: 634024, Tomsk, st. 5th Army, 29, apt. 33. Mob. tel. 8-913-851-81-03 03 - Gennady Pavlovich Anisimov. The catalog can also be obtained by e-mail. Send a request to E-mail: [email protected]