Honeysuckle variety Gourmet
Gourmand is an early ripe honeysuckle bred at the Nizhny Novgorod State Agricultural Academy. Acts as a seedling from free pollination of Turchaninov's honeysuckle. The authorship is assigned to the breeder V.A. Fefelov, who also bred the Nizhegorodskaya early variety. Gourmet is included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements of the Russian Federation in 1998, and is also zoned in Belarus.
The bushes are medium-sized (1.3-1.4 m in height at the age of 10 years), compact, in most cases, semi-spreading, with an oval crown. As a rule, in the first 3 - 4 years, the bushes of this honeysuckle grow at a slow pace, reaching a height of no more than 70 - 80 cm. But in subsequent years, growth is activated not only in height, but also in crown density. Shoots are straight, thin, green, with an anthocyanin tint. Leaves are oblong-oval, light green in color, densely sit on the shoot.
Gourmet honeysuckle berries are medium in size (weighing 0.7 - 0.9 g, sometimes reaching 1.3 g, in length - 2 - 3 cm), elongated-oval, with a flattened surface. The skin is blue, with an intense bluish waxy bloom. The pulp of dessert sweet-sour taste (sourness is pronounced), completely without bitterness, with a pleasant light aroma. The fruits contain: vitamin C (38 mg%), vitamin P (533 mg%), acids (2.6%), sugar (5.4%). A variety of universal use: fresh, processing.
The fruits ripen in mid-June (from about the 17th to the 22nd). Due to the early flowering, the ripening period of the berries is extended. When ripe, the fruits crumble quite strongly (medium degree of crumbling). In order to minimize losses from shedding, it is recommended to harvest the crop 2-3 times in 1 season.
The variety is fast-growing and high-yielding. Fruiting begins from the 3rd - 4th year. The average yield is 2.5 - 3 kg / bush. According to the data of the breeder V.A. Fefelova, 10-year-old bushes give 3.5 - 5.5 kg of berries. The variety is frost-hardy and resistant to diseases and pests.
Honeysuckle Gourmet is self-infertile, therefore it needs cross-pollination. For these purposes, it is preferable to plant in the vicinity of 3 to 5 other varieties. The following varieties can be used as pollinators of this honeysuckle: Blue Spindle, Nymph, Moraine, Kamchadalka, Nizhny Novgorod early, Malvina, Blue bird, In memory of Kuminov, Start.
This variety of honeysuckle is light and moisture-loving. Light loamy and sandy loam soils are preferred for it. It is also desirable to have groundwater at a depth of 1 - 1.5 m. Before planting seedlings in the soil, it is recommended to apply fertilizers with a high content of potassium, phosphorus and organic matter.
This variety is suitable for creating hedges.
Among the main advantages of honeysuckle Gourmet are distinguished: dessert taste of fruits, high rates of productivity and early maturity, early ripening.
Significant disadvantages are: insufficiently large size of berries, average crumbling.
I have such a variety on the site. The berries are fleshy, sweet and sour. Indeed, honeysuckle needs cross-pollination. I planted three different plants, and two bushes were frozen in winter. The gourmet stayed, but immediately reacted: she stopped tying the berries, bloomed and crumbled until she planted two other varieties next to each other. Now they bloom together, the berries turn blue by the beginning of June. It is better to cut this honeysuckle and shape it in the fall; with spring pruning, the shrub takes a long time to recover.