Honeysuckle Gerd

Honeysuckle Gerd
The main characteristics of the variety:
  • Authors: Z.P. Zholobova, I.P. Kalinin, P.S. Kurochka (NIISS named after M.A.Lisavenko)
  • Appeared when crossing: Bluebird x Pollen Mix
  • Name synonyms: Gerda
  • Year of approval: 1994
  • Growth type: medium-sized
  • Description of the bush: sprawling, compact
  • Bush height, m: up to 1.5
  • Escapes: straight, matte, light green, non-pubescent
  • Leaves: large, dark green, oblong-oval, without stipules
  • Crown: spherical
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Gerda's honeysuckle is a worthy representative of a mass consumer variety, included in the State Register, due to its positive qualities - the ability to endure late frosts, bear fruit early, and give an excellent berry harvest in the early to mid-first summer month. The prevalence of this berry in Russia is caused by unpretentious care, unique taste characteristics, the presence of a huge amount of valuable components and the decorativeness of a shrub from which hedges can be easily formed.

Breeding history

Gerda's honeysuckle belongs to the Kamchatka group of honeysuckles, because it was obtained from the Blue Bird variety, which also belongs to it, but the source was pollinated with pollen from similar berries growing in different Russian regions. The creation of Gerda was carried out by researchers from the Research Institute of Horticulture of Siberia. Lisavenko in the last years of the Soviet Union. Already in independent Russia, it was appreciated by gardeners and scientists, which led to the inclusion of honeysuckle in the register of the Federal Research Center of Agrobiology. Barnaul breeders made it an early ripening variety, but in some sources it is still positioned as a medium early berry.

Description of the variety

Perfect for fruit growing, landscaping and garden plots of any size. It grows no higher than one and a half meters, has a spreading rounded crown, which is easy to form. Decorative in any period - with dark green large leaves, strewn with berries of the original form, in the autumn. By planting Gerd's honeysuckle, the gardener receives many benefits:

  • variety with excellent taste, frost-resistant, early ripening;

  • does not shower ripe berries, they hang on the branches for a long time due to the strong and durable stalk;

  • in folk medicine, not only berries are used for treatment, but also leaves and branches;

  • the crop is harvested by hand, or shaken off the bush on a pre-spread plastic wrap;

  • does not grow above 1.5 m, but is decorative and can be planted with a double purpose - to decorate any territory and get a harvest of tasty and healthy berries.

In the scientific literature, it is invariably mentioned that Michurin was also interested in honeysuckle and its cultivation. Now statistics show that Russia is the leader in the prevalence of berries in the world. This is easily explained - since Soviet times, domestic breeders have been working on obtaining consumer varieties with excellent taste. Gerd's honeysuckle is invariably present in the rating of demand, compiled according to gardeners' reviews.

Fruit characteristics

Berries with a thin skin. They do not tolerate transportation well, but they can be transported in one layer, frozen and dried when diluted for their own needs. Fruiting is extended in time, but there are no crop losses due to the strong stalk. The weight does not reach a gram, therefore it is considered average. The fruits are elongated-oval in shape (sometimes they are compared to barrels), of a blue-black hue, when ripe they are covered with a bluish-bluish bloom.

Taste qualities

The berries are tender, sweet and sour, of excellent taste, with a high content of acids and sugars of plant origin, vitamins and minerals.In folk medicine, they are used to eliminate circulatory problems, optimize the state of blood vessels, strengthen immunity and treat anemia. Help with cerebrovascular accident. But due to the fact that keeping quality is poor even in the refrigerator, only part of the harvest obtained is consumed fresh.

Gerd's honeysuckle is perfectly frozen, dried, it can be used to make juice, compotes, preserves and jams, baked goods, used as an ingredient in winter prefabricated preparations. The aroma and useful components are preserved with any method of harvesting for the winter.

Ripening and fruiting

The ripening period is indicated in the middle - end of June, a cold summer or a region with a problematic climate may shift the dates, but not for long. Starting from the second year of cultivation, it is already possible to pick berries, but the real harvest begins from 3-4 years.

Yield

The variety has a high yield. With proper care, an average of more than 1.6 kg is obtained from the bush, but even without it, you can count on 1.2 kg.

Honeysuckle pleases the owners of the site not only with a beautiful color, but also with fruits with an unusual taste. When planning to plant it on your site, it is important to learn everything about the fruiting of the bush.

Self-fertility and the need for pollinators

Gerd's honeysuckle is registered as a self-infertile variety, but its own pollination is weak, therefore it is recommended to combine the shrub with other varieties of this plant, medium early, with similar flowering periods. Inedible honeysuckle is not suitable for this purpose, such bushes can make Gerda berries unusable.

Growing and care

Providing the plant with partial shade, sandy loam or loamy soil, timely watering, you can get an excellent return for the effort spent. The variety tolerates frosts, frosts in late spring, dry and cool summers with equal resistance. Sowing material is best purchased from a good nursery, but should be planted from mid-August to mid-autumn. After the end of fruiting, the growing season gradually slows down, at the end of summer it is an excellent time for planting, with a long adaptation period, which will help to easily endure the winter cold.

Some gardeners are sure that a shrub placed in a well-lit place gives the most sugary berries and a large yield. The need to adhere to the planting scheme, change of location after 2 decades, drainage equipment and limited watering (no more than 10 liters per bush) are mentioned as important conditions for good growth and yield. Young bushes need to be mulched with spruce branches or needles mixed with horse humus in the zone of the trunk circle.

You can plant honeysuckle in open ground in spring, summer and autumn. Best of all, honeysuckle grows in an illuminated low-lying swampy place, while the site must be reliably protected from the wind. It is desirable that the soil is loamy or sandy loam. If the soil is poor, then it will first need to be fertilized.
In order for honeysuckle to bloom and bear fruit well, it needs to be properly cared for. One of the main procedures that affects the appearance and yield of this plant is shoot pruning. Without timely care, bushes prone to thickening rapidly turn into wild thickets with diseased and stunted plants, the number of young shoots decreases, the quantity and quality of berries decreases.
Timely control of diseases and pests of honeysuckle allows you to grow a healthy crop, used both for decorative purposes and for harvesting fragrant berries. When growing honeysuckle, it is necessary to know the main diseases of the crop, common pests, as well as effective measures to combat them.
In order to increase the amount of honeysuckle in your area, it is not necessary to purchase planting material, it is quite possible to multiply the varieties you like yourself.There are several ways to breed honeysuckle: cuttings, layering, root shoots, dividing the bush, and also sowing seeds.
Main characteristics
Authors
Z.P. Zholobova, I.P. Kalinin, P.S. Kurochka (NIISS named after M.A.Lisavenko)
Appeared when crossing
Bluebird x Pollen Mix
Name synonyms
Gerda
Year of approval
1994
Average yield
38.6 kg / ha (1.7 kg per bush)
Maximum yield
76.7 c / ha
Appointment
universal
Bush
Growth type
medium-sized
Description of the bush
sprawling, compact
Crown
spherical
Bush height, m
up to 1.5
Escapes
straight, matte, light green, non-pubescent
Leaves
large, dark green, oblong-oval, without stipules
Fruit
Fruit size
average
Fruit weight, g
0,8-0,9
Fruit shape
oval
Fruit color
navy blue with blue patina
Skin
thin, with a slight waxy coating
Pulp (consistency)
tender
Taste
sweet and sour
Scent
weak
Crumbling
weak
Fruit composition
sugars - up to 7.0%, vitamin C - up to 23.2 mg%, vitamin P - up to 1470.0 mg%, pectin substances - up to 0.95%
Tasting assessment
4.8 points
Growing
Self-fertility
self-infertile
Pollinator varieties
any varieties of Kamchatka honeysuckle
Winter hardiness
high
Growing regions
North, North-West, Central, Volgo-Vyatka, TsChO, North Caucasian, Middle Volga, Nizhnevolzhsky, Ural, West Siberian, East Siberian, Far East
Disease and pest resistance
steady
Maturation
Early maturity
begins bearing fruit in the second year of the seedling's life
Ripening terms
early
Fruiting period
mid June
Frequency of fruiting
annually
Reviews
There are no reviews.
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