Black currant |
When polar explorers go for the winter or sailors on a long voyage, they take with them preparations made from black currant. Black currant is an excellent remedy for scurvy. It is necessary and useful for both adults and children. Blackcurrant berries contain more vitamins than oranges and lemons. Jelly, jam, marmalades are cooked from black currants; they go into liqueurs and wines, they can be dried, you can prepare juice from them. Fresh currant leaves are placed in barrels when pickling cucumbers. Leaves and buds are used for making ice cream and tinctures. Black currant is also used in medicine, in particular, its leaves are a medicine for rheumatism. Currant culture is simple and accessible to everyone. Currants multiply easily; the easiest way is to reproduce by woody cuttings. Annual strong shoots 20-25 centimeters long are cut into cuttings from fruitful healthy bushes. Shoots can be cut in autumn after the leaves have fallen, in winter during a thaw and in early spring, while the buds have not yet started to grow. The cut shoots are stored in the basement, stuck with the lower ends into wet river sand, or buried in the snow somewhere on the north side, where the snow does not melt for a long time. The earlier the cuttings are planted in the spring, the more they will take root and the more the bushes will develop from them. For planting cuttings, they choose nutritious soil, loose, well fertilized with manure and dug up in autumn. Before planting, the earth is dug to the depth of a shovel and well cut with an iron rake. With a well-peeled and pointed peg, they make a hole and plant the cuttings at an angle of 45 °. The stalk is immersed in the soil for three-quarters of its length, so that no more than one or two buds remain on the surface. Having planted the stalk in the hole, insert a peg into the ground, stepping back 5-8 centimeters, and press the ground tightly against the stalk. A well-planted stalk does not pull out of the ground with light tugging. The distance between cuttings in a row and between rows is 20-25 centimeters. Rows are arranged three to four together to form a ribbon. After planting, the cuttings are well watered and the ground between them is shaded, covering it with a layer of humus of 2-3 centimeters to protect it from strong heat, prevent it from drying out and prevent crust formation. If there is no humus, then you can shade with peat, compost, straw, wood leaf, sawdust or sand. Cuttings have no roots, and they consume enough water; therefore, in the first time after planting, the main attention should be paid to maintaining moisture in the soil. So that the air necessary for the formation of roots penetrates into the soil, it is necessary to strictly monitor that the earth is loose, to prevent the formation of a crust. After the cuttings are rooted, the plant begins to receive nutrients from the soil. If the soil is not nutritious enough, then from the end of June, fertilizing with liquid manure is carried out. An old bucket or barrel is filled to one fifth with cow dung, without straw, top up with water and stir. So the manure is mixed daily, and in ten to twelve days the slurry will be ready. For watering, take one quarter of the slurry for three quarters of a bucket. After watering, the slurry is poured with water to wash off the slurry from the leaves and shoots. When watering with water, make sure that the soil is at least 10-15 centimeters wet. When the water is well absorbed, the soil is loosened. Several times in the summer we have to weed out the weeds that grow between the cuttings. For propagation, you should take only cuttings of good, cultivated varieties.The best varieties of black currant we have are: "boscopic giant", "black grapes", "fertile leah", "neapolitan", "goliath", "coronation", "kent" and "lakston". V. Velikanova |
Tillage for agricultural use | Barberry |
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