Gooseberry is a small shrub reaching a height of one meter. It can be found in the wild in the forests and as a cultivated plant in garden areas. A characteristic feature is a large number of thin sharp spikes on the branches. The leaves are rounded or heart-shaped, up to 6 cm long, covered with a small fluff. It blooms in greenish or reddish color in May.
Fruits - oval or round berries up to 12-15 mm long, sometimes reach 30 mm. Covered with bristles or bare, veins are visible on transparent skin. The color when ripening is first green, yellow, and then with a reddish tint. Ripening time is July-August.
The plant is transplanted in spring or autumn, more often they choose the last season, September-October. The reasons are that the leaves fall off, growth slows down and sap flow stops, the root has grown stronger over the summer, the stems have ripened. The preparation of the plant for wintering has already begun, and, being in the dormant phase, it will more easily transfer the move to a new place. The best time to work is cloudy weather.
Gooseberries can be transplanted in the spring, but this is undesirable. The fact is that he is the very first to wake up in the garden. If the kidneys appeared on it, then the sap flow began, and the root system came to life. Starting a transplant at this time, the roots can be damaged, reducing survival. Spring weather is variable, the temperature is unstable, and therefore you can skip the awakening.
A summer transplant is carried out only if you urgently need to free the area on which the gooseberry grows.
Why do I need a transplant?
Gooseberry transplant may require in the following cases:
- The plant grows for a long time in one place, the yield is weak or absent.
- At this place, changes to the site, other plantings, flower beds, and construction are planned.
- There was a need to plant a plant.
- Shrub shaded by other trees.
- Gooseberries grow in the shade, there is a lot of dampness around it, it is often sick.
- The land around the plant is depleted.
Transplant dates by region
The culture is grown throughout Russia, in the southern regions of Ukraine, Crimea. Transplant season depends on the place:
- Northern regions of the Urals and Siberia: if the weather is good - early September, bad - August.
- Crimea, southern Ukraine - from mid-October to mid-November.
- Moscow Region - from mid-September to October.
- Non-Black Earth - October.
Instruments
Before doing work, you need to prepare tools and protective equipment:
- shovel, pitchfork;
- secateurs or scissors with long handles;
- ax (to remove thick roots);
- bucket;
- thick gloves.
Choosing a place and preparing it
The choice of place for planting is of great importance, the growth and yield of gooseberries depends on this. This is a solar plant and most comfortable it feels in areas well warmed by the sun, protected from wind and drafts, you can plant along the wall or fence.
Despite the fact that the plant loves moisture, it must be watered so that the water does not stagnate in the recesses around the trunk. Otherwise, there is a high risk of fungal infections due to excessive moisture.
It grows well on light loamy soil, if loose earth is diluted with clay, heavy soil is added with sand. The plant gives a rich crop on black soil. With acidified soil, lime, dolomite flour is added. Before transplanting, the site is well dug up, weeds are removed.
Gooseberries are not planted in the place where currants and raspberries grew before. The land there is exhausted, barren and infected with fungal diseases.
Step-by-step transplant instructions
Place for transplantation is prepared in advance. A week or more before the transfer of the bush, a hole is dug. This is necessary so that the seedling could not go deep into the ground over time. The width should be equal to the scope of the roots, the depth - up to 50 cm.
Step-by-step transplant instructions:
- Before digging a bush, old branches are cut, young and long are shortened, by one third.
- Use secateurs with long handles for pruning trees. If there are a lot of branches on the bush, it is thinned out, the strongest and ripened are left.
- They dig up the earth approximately, a diameter of 40 cm, this is necessary so that it is more convenient to get a bush.
- Dig a bush with a shovel.
- Thick roots are cut off with an ax; small ones are left untouched.
- The entire lump of land is raised with a pitchfork, carefully transferred to the film without damaging the root system.
- The first layer of the pit is drainage, maybe gravel, broken brick.
- Add fertile soil mixed with humus, compost, all this should be of uniform mass, so that the roots are less injured.
- Water is poured into the pit, 3-4 buckets, they are waiting until it is absorbed, the seedling is placed in the middle of the pit, carefully covered with soil.
- The root neck is slightly underestimated, about 6-8 cm below the surface of the soil. Water is rammed and poured again, filled up with earth, compacted until the pit is filled with soil.
- It is covered with mulch above, the layer should be 5-10 cm above ground level. Over the winter, he will sit down and level out.
Good care before the onset of frost will help the plant take root in a new place. Once a week it is watered, before this the mulch is removed, and then again they fall asleep in place. Sawdust is also used, in winter they will protect the root system from freezing, and subsequently serve as fertilizer. If the bush survived the winter, then next season there will be a good harvest.
Safety precautions
Gooseberries are prickly, so you need to observe not only the transplant technology, but also safety precautions so as not to get hurt. Be sure to work in thick work gloves.
Possible errors and their consequences
Sometimes gardeners, considering the gooseberry as an unpretentious plant, do not quite adhere to the rules of transplantation, regardless it is carried out in the fall or in the spring:
- An adult bush does not take root well without an earthen coma, its roots must be dug with a sufficient piece of soil.
- Plant survivors increase plant roots. Special preparations have been developed that are used when planting or transplanting. The most common Kornevin, it is used as a biostimulator to accelerate the survival of a weakened root system.
- Having transplanted gooseberries to a new place, it is often watered with cold water. At the same time they complain that the bush was planted in compliance with the deadlines, it was provided with normal care, timely watering, but the plant still dies. Favorable temperature for the plant is from +18 to +25 degrees, water should be settled or from the tap, it is strictly forbidden to use from wells.
If the transplantation of gooseberries is carried out correctly, while observing the terms of transplantation, as well as further care, the plant will take root well and will soon yield a rich harvest of berries.
