Currant is a relatively young culture.
A man “tamed” it only about five hundred years ago, while he cultivated an apple tree and a pear for four thousand years, and plum about two millennia.
It is interesting that currants were first cultivated in Russia.
This is probably why our country occupies a prominent place in the selection of currants. The work is successfully carried out in VNIISPK (Oryol), VNIIS them. I.V. Michurin (Michurinsk), All-Russian Research Institute of Lupine (Bryansk), NIISS im. M.A. Lisavenko (Barnaul) and VSTISP (Moscow), part of which is the Kokinsky stronghold of gardening (Bryansk region).
Many modern currant varieties are created with the desired properties (taste, shape, size, color of the fruit, resistance to pests and diseases, various natural anomalies).
The best varieties of currants are listed in the State Register of Breeding Achievements of Russia, approved for use in production (2009):
• black currants - 162;
• red currants - 44;
• golden currants - 14;
• American currants - 1;
• low-flowered currant - 1.
What qualities should an “ideal” variety have?
• Adaptability (adaptability) to environmental conditions;
• Immunity to diseases;
• The combination of parameters of the plant itself: self-fertility, the shape of the bush, the mass of berries, the length of the brush.
• Taste qualities;
• Biochemical composition.
The best varieties of black currant
Domestic varieties created in our country in all respects (productivity, winter hardiness, disease resistance) are superior to foreign
Varieties of black currant ripening
Early: Epic (Fidelity), Curiosity, Nick, Gift of the Arctic, Heiress, Exotica, Vigorous, Selechenskaya 2, Raisin, Tear of Isis, Treasure, Pygmy.
Variety of black currant Selechenskaya
Medium: Belorussian sweet, Daughter, Seedling, Dove, Charm,
Birch, Elevest, Lazy dog, Vologda, Bagheera, Oryol serenade, Green haze, Crane, Sadko, Mermaid, Dobrynya.
Mid-late: Barricade, Emerald Necklace, Vologda.
Late: Katyusha, Mila, Late Altai, Lazy, Arcadia.
Varieties of black currants with large berries
The largest berries of blackcurrant Yadrenaya (3-7 g). Their diameter even in a dry summer reaches 2.5 cm. A significant drawback is the thick skin.
A promising variety is Lucia with the same great magnificent berries (3-5.5 g) and the same dense skin, sweet and sour taste, dry separation.
Large-fruited include Arkady, Dachnitsa, Lazy, Pygmy, Mermaid, Exotic.
However, without good care, abundant watering, these varieties are unlikely to show their best qualities.
Self-fertile varieties
An important sign of the variety to obtain a good harvest is self-fertility, that is, the ability of a plant to be pollinated by its own pollen.
High self-fertility (50%) is distinguished by the varieties Nara, Pygmy, Summer resident, Sevchanka, Openwork, Grace, Litvinovskaya, Mriya, Rita.
Varieties of Binar, Bredthorp, Gamayun, Gamma, Golubichka possess good autonomy (31-50%). Gift of Smolyaninova, Debryansk, Ladushka, Temptation, Ursa Major, Monisto, Oryol Waltz. Poetry, Sensei, Selechenskaya 2, Sagittarius, Sudarushka, Tamerlan, Trilena, Triton, Chelyabinsk, Jubilee Kopanya, Vigorous.
Sibylla blackcurrant variety
"Colored" blackcurrant varieties
Blackcurrant got its name by the color of berries. However, their color does not always correspond to the name. It turns out that black currants have berries of almost all colors of the rainbow: pink, red, yellow, blue, brown, green.
In order to give the varieties valuable qualities, scientists use interspecific crosses in currant breeding and use wild-growing species.
If in the “parents” of the variety is wild currant, it often has bluish berries due to a waxy coating. Currant mohovka and its descendants are brown. The offspring of the Siberian subspecies (Pilot, Sayana, Chocolate) often have berries from brownish-reddish to green (Pilot, Sayana, Chocolate). The Western European variety Beloplodnaya has medium-sized berries of a light greenish-brown color.
Still green fruit varieties:
• Inca gold;
• Tears of Isis;
• Vennie;
• Verti;
• Emerald necklace.
The best varieties of red and white currants
In nature, there are about twenty species of colored currants (red and white). They became the basis for the creation of cultivars.
Selection of redcurrant in our country began with the Shchedraya variety, created at the VIR Pavlovskaya experimental station in 1932. Now, many beautiful new varieties have been created.
Varieties of red currant ripening
Early: Vika (superearly), Firstborn, Early sweet, Serpentine.
Medium: Versailles White, Yonker van Tets (mid-early), Krasnaya Andreichenko, Natalie, Niva.
Late: Bayan (beautiful large creamy berries), Valentinovka, Marmalade, Dutch red.
All of them are frost-resistant, quite resistant to disease.
Description of some varieties
Yonker (Jonker) van Tets
A fast-growing, highly winter-resistant Dutch variety, the best for our conditions from all foreign varieties. The bush is tall. Ripening period is medium early. The variety is very productive. He gives up to two buckets of berries from an adult bush. The berries of Jonker-Joncker are large, bright red, dense skin of a very pleasant taste.
Another advantage of the variety is disease resistance.
Dutch red
Late grade. It is distinguished by powerful growth, high winter hardiness. It has complex resistance to fungal diseases, but is severely damaged by the gall aphid and is not very resistant to the kidney tick. Late begins to bear fruit, but it is highly yielded and durable, undemanding to growing conditions. The brush is short, medium thick. The berries are small, weighing 0.5-0.9 g, red, translucent. The peel is tender, the taste is sour-sweet, few seeds. It does not need pollinators.
Darling
The variety is medium, early fruiting, winter-hardy, quite resistant to fungal diseases, medium affected by a kidney tick. It is characterized by consistently high productivity (about 9 kg per bush). The flesh of the berries is sweet and sour. The weight of berries is up to one gram.
In recent years, the assortment of red currants has been replenished with wonderful varieties of breeder L. Bayanova: Valentinovka, Vika, Marmeladnitsa, Niva, Osipovskaya, and Bayan (the last white-fruited with beautiful light cream-colored berries). All of them with fruits of the highest quality, winter-hardy and fruitful.
Whitecurrant Bayan
Noteworthy are the varieties: Krasnaya Andreichenko, Radiant, Dream, Beloved, Ob sunset, Ural beauty.
Until recently, the assortment of white currants was very limited and consisted mainly of old varieties of European origin.
Versailles white is an old proven variety; a proven variety; no other whitecurrant variety can surpass it in yield.
Promising varieties
white currant - Diamond, Smolyaninovskaya, Ural white;
Pink - Pink Muscat, Pink Pearls.
Varieties of white and pink currants with large fruits - Dutch pink, Primus, Smolyaninovskaya, Uterborg, Blanca, Rossoshanskaya.
It is impossible not to mention the Dutch variety of red currant Rovada, which in many respects surpasses other varieties. This is a late variety. Bushes are powerful. Berries, even, equal in size, are arranged in long, downed (up to twenty centimeters) brushes. The weight of one berry is about one gram. There are no empty flowers in the brush, all flowers are tied. Rovada leaves no one indifferent.
Rovada redcurrant variety
The best varieties of golden currants
There are quite a few varieties and forms of this type of currant, of which the most famous are:
• Venus and Laysan with black berries;
• Shafak with dark red berries.
Significant results in the selection of golden currants have been achieved by Siberian scientists. They developed a series of varieties with valuable economic qualities and large fruits.
New varieties of the Siberian Institute of Horticulture named after M. A. Lisavenko:
• Ida;
• Gift of Altai;
• Valentine;
• Gift to Ariadne;
• Levushka;
• Siberian sun;
• Barnaul.
Varieties of currants for Moscow region
For cultivation in the suburbs suitable varieties of currants, zoned in the Central region.
Overhead:
• Gift of Smolyaninova;
• Dear.
Early:
• Gulliver;
• Exotic;
• Moscow;
• Fragrant;
• Raisin;
Medium Early:
• Sybil;
• Sensei.
Medium:
• Perun;
• Openwork;
• The riddle;
• Dark-skinned girl;
• Veloy;
• Gamayun;
• Serenade.
Mid-late:
• Kupalinka;
• Izmailovskaya.
Late:
• Oryol waltz;
• Lazy person.
For the Moscow Region, the best varieties of colored (red and white) currants are: Squirrel, Varshevich, Viksne, Dutch Red, Konstantinovskaya, Red Cross, Memorable, Svetlana, Generous.
