Late Harvest - Gardener's Notes On The Results Of The Past Season

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

Gardener's notes on the results of the past season

Having been gardening for over 40 years, I cannot remember a cloudy, cold and wet summer like last year. Due to unusual weather conditions, the behavior of some crops, the quality of their fruits, the results of using agricultural practices differed from those that occur in ordinary years.

My site is located in Old Peterhof, my son's site is in Ropsha. Both places are quite favorable for a wide variety of cultures, although, despite the close distance - about 12 kilometers in a straight line between them, - the difference is quite significant: when in Peterhof I already started planting in open ground, it was still impossible to stick in Ropsha scrap into the ground.

Most of the traditional cultures behaved as you would expect - the ripening dates were pushed back to later, the fruits were less sweet. This was especially true for early varieties and early crops.

Of the strawberry varieties I have, the only one that produced sweet berries was the Polka variety. All other varieties were much sour than in normal years.

Black currant of the Sokrovische variety had a good taste. The lack of heat and sun did not affect the taste of Krasnoslavyansky gooseberries at all; it only ripened two weeks later than usual.

I was surprised by the Russian plum (hybrids of cherry plum and Ussuri plum, hybrid cherry plum). The Krymskaya early variety, as in all previous years, pleased with the first fruits on August 5, the Tsarskaya variety - on August 10. The variety "Gift to St. Petersburg" ripened in the second half of September. The taste of the fruits of all the listed varieties turned out to be no worse than in previous years. Plum varieties Apricot, July rose, Vitba, which bore abundantly in Ropsha on the site of the well-known gardener M. V. Solovyov, also performed well. And this is against the background of home plum, all varieties of which, grown in our gardens for more than 50 years, ripened almost a month later than usual, and did not acquire the desired taste.

Pears were producing well today - there was only a slight delay in ripening; the varieties Lada and Chizhevskaya turned out to be slightly sour than usual, but the varieties Russkaya Malgorzhatka and Pushkinskaya were as sweet as always. Ripened late, but during storage the pear variety Large-fruited Suslova acquired a great taste. The pear Pamyat Zhegalov ripened late, but had an excellent taste.

Grapes of varieties Korinka Russian and Violet Augustus ripened two weeks later than usual, and did not collect sugar. True, the bunches of the Violet Augustovsky variety, which remained on the vine before pruning in mid-October, were very sweet and fragrant.

At the end of August, the fruits of the Zagadka Sharova grape variety ripened and had a wonderful taste, a variety bred by R. F. Sharov more than 30 years ago in the city of Biysk, in the Altai Territory. In general, I can only talk about this variety in enthusiastic tones - it is tasty, hibernates without shelter, wakes up late in spring, and therefore is almost never damaged by recurrent (early June) frosts. And if it is damaged, then it gives an almost full harvest from the side (spare) buds 2-3 weeks later. It blooms in mid-June, ripens in late August. And all this in the open field. Isn't it a miracle?

For the first time this year, a very early hybrid F-14-75 gave me several bunches of a pleasant taste with a nutmeg aroma. A distinctive feature of this grape is the very late awakening of the buds and late flowering with very early ripening of the berries. And these properties are very useful in our climate - after all, our grapes usually suffer not from frost, but from late recurrent frosts.

The vaccinations made last spring, because of the cold and wet summer, did not want to stop growing for a long time, they had to be artificially slowed down with a double dose of "Biostim". Cuttings with flower buds, grafted in early spring into the crown of young trees, as usual, gave the first fruits and finished their growth in time. But late inoculations at the end of June, made out of necessity by semi-lignified cuttings brought from Rybinsk, did not give growth at all, but they left in the winter with well-ripened buds.

At the end, I would like to make a small digression. It is good that in our city an inexpensive and publicly available magazine "Flora Price" is published, on the pages of which we can exchange experience, talk about our new products. It is remarkable that the AgroRus exhibition is held at Lenexpo, and the Eurasia Exhibition Center hosts five more garden exhibitions and fairs every year. The good news is that at the end of June this Center has been holding an exhibition "The Luxury of the Northern Garden" for two years now - the only exhibition where you can see and purchase (or order) perennials of summer flowering. And it is a pity that at all these exhibitions there are no seminars or classes where gardeners, flower growers, gardeners could exchange experience, listen to lectures by specialists, and take part in practical exercises.

True, it seems that changes are outlined here as well. The organizers of the Technosad - Creation of a Smart Garden exhibition, which will be held in March at the Eurasia Center, promise to include lectures and practical gardening classes in its program, in a word, something that many of us have lacked until now. I hope they will keep their word, and this tradition will take root and spread in our beloved city.