Content
The high-yielding thornless gooseberry variety Komandor (aka Vladil) was bred in 1995 at the South Ural Research Institute of Horticulture and Potato Growing by Professor Vladimir Ilyin.
The parent pair for this gooseberry were the African and Chelyabinsk green varieties. From the first, the Commander inherited the characteristic dark, almost black color of the fruits, from the second - high winter hardiness and resistance to a number of diseases.
Description of the bush and berries
The height of the Komandor gooseberry bush is average (up to 1.5 meters). The variety is slightly spreading, dense. Growing shoots of gooseberry are moderately thick (2 to 5 cm in diameter), pubescent, slightly curved at the base. The greenish-beige color of the Commander's bark in places that are exposed to the sun for a long time turns into a slightly pinkish color.
The leaves of the Komandor variety are large and medium in size, wide, dense, bright green with a slightly shiny glossy surface. They are located alternately on the branches. At the base of the five-lobed leaf blade with medium or deep cuts there is a small rounded notch characteristic of gooseberries. The leaf petioles of this variety are of medium length, slightly pubescent, slightly lighter in color than the leaf blades (they may have a slight yellowish tint).
The buds of the Komandor gooseberry are deviated from the shoot and resemble an oval in shape with a slightly pointed tip.
The flowers of this variety are small and medium-sized, cup-shaped. Inflorescences are grouped into 2-3 pieces. The petals are yellow-green, turning slightly pink when exposed to sunlight.
Commander berries are not very large (average weight from 5.6 to 7 g), burgundy-brown in color, with smooth and thin skin.
The dark crimson juicy pulp of the Commander contains a small amount of small black seeds.
Characteristics
Productivity
The Komandor gooseberry variety has a high yield (on average, you can collect about 3.7 kg of berries from a bush, with a maximum of up to 6.9 kg). However, with a large harvest, the size of the berries becomes smaller.
The taste of Commander berries is dessert (sweet and sour), the aroma is pleasant, and the astringency is moderate. The sugar content in their composition is up to 13.1%, ascorbic acid is about 54 mg per 100 g. The tasting rating of gooseberries of this variety is 4.6 out of 5 points.
Drought resistance and winter hardiness
Commander (Vladil) is a drought-resistant variety, and in case of short-term drought it is able to provide itself with moisture. At the same time, regular lack of water negatively affects fruiting and plant development.
High frost resistance sets Komandor apart from most other thornless gooseberry varieties. It is able to withstand a snowy winter with frosts down to -25...-30 degrees, without the need for artificial protective shelter. However, in modern winters with little snow and sharp, cold winds, gardeners often play it safe by wrapping gooseberry bushes of this variety with agrospan, or constantly covering them with snow, bending the branches to the ground.
Resistance to diseases and pests
It is believed that Commander is resistant to problems common to other gooseberry varieties, such as:
- sawfly;
- powdery mildew;
- viral diseases.
It is relatively invulnerable to:
- late blight;
- anthracnose;
- gooseberry moth.
At the same time, the danger for gooseberries of this variety is:
- aphid;
- moth;
- mites (spider mites, currant bud mites);
- currant glass;
- currant gall midge (shoot and leaf);
- drying of stems;
- rust (glass-shaped, columnar);
- white spotting;
- gray rot;
- mosaic disease.
Maturation period
Gooseberry Commander is a mid-early variety (the berries ripen from late May to late June). In mid-July (provided the summer is warm and sunny) it is usually ready to harvest.
If you plan to eat gooseberries immediately or process them for the winter, it is advisable to wait until the fruits are completely ripe. For more or less long-term storage, it is recommended to collect part of the Commander’s harvest in a slightly unripe form (a couple of weeks before the berries finally ripen).
Transportability
Transportation of berries of this variety is difficult, primarily because of their delicate thin skin.
It is recommended to collect Komandor gooseberry fruits on dry, sunny days, in the morning or evening, so that there is no dew on them.
Gooseberries removed from the bush should be carefully sorted, discarding damaged and spoiled ones. Then they need to be dried for 2-3 hours, spread in one layer on a soft cloth (newspaper) in a dry, cool place, isolated from direct sunlight. Only then can you carefully collect the berries in a container.
To store gooseberry fruits of this variety (at temperatures from 0 to +2 degrees) use:
- small cardboard or wooden boxes (shelf life 1.5 months);
- plastic bags (shelf life - maximum 3-4 months).
Containers with a volume of no more than 10 liters and with hard walls are suitable for transportation. But even if all the conditions for collection and transportation are met, the berries of the Komandor variety lose their marketability very quickly.
Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages | Flaws |
No thorns | Low transportability |
Pleasant taste | Short shelf life |
High yield | Fastidiousness in care |
The variety is resistant to powdery mildew and has strong immunity to viral diseases. | Instability to various types of leaf spots and a number of pests |
Quite a long fruiting period | Average berry sizes |
The berries do not crack or fall off |
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High frost resistance |
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Growing conditions
Characteristics of the site for Komandor gooseberries:
| Fine | Badly | How to solve a problem |
The soil | Light (sandy loam, loam, sod-podzolic, forest sierozem) | Acidic (pH less than 6) | Add dolomite flour (200 g) or lime (100 g) into the hole (per 1 m2 of soil) |
Conditions | Warmth and sunshine | Cold sharp wind, drafts | Fence young plants with a fence or plant Commander against a wall |
Priming | Loose, well permeable to moisture and air Groundwater level deeper than 1 meter | Lowlands, wetlands Water stagnating at the planting site | Build a small embankment, the bottom of the hole before planting a plant of this variety, reinforce it with drainage (pebbles, crushed stone, coarse sand, ceramic shards) |
in winter | Significant amount of snow | Little or no snow | Protect the Commander bushes with covering material |
Landing Features
It is possible to plant gooseberries of the Komandor variety, like other shrubs:
- in the spring – the plant will have time to adapt better and form a developed and strong root system before the frost period;
- in the fall - the gooseberry bush will receive good hardening, it will more readily produce new shoots, and it will be easier to tolerate the cold.
The soil for the Commander needs to be prepared in advance (if planting is in the spring, then this is done in the fall, if in the fall, then about a week before the expected planting date). For each gooseberry bush of this variety, you should dig a hole (about 30 cm deep and up to 60 cm wide). A nutrient mixture is placed at the bottom:
- rotted manure with straw or humus (about 8-10 kg);
- wood ash (300 g) or potassium salt (40-50 g);
- powdered lime (350 g);
- urea (25-30 g) if gooseberries are planted in spring (not required in autumn).
It is recommended to buy seedlings with a closed root system for planting. A standard seedling of the Komandor variety (about 10 cm long) has from 3 to 5 skeletal roots and well-developed lobe roots. One-year-old gooseberries, as a rule, have a single shoot, while two-year-old gooseberries have 2-3 of them.
Before planting, plant roots should be immersed in a weak solution of potassium permanganate or potassium humate for 1 day.
It is recommended to place the bush in a hole at an angle of 45 degrees in order to allow the gooseberries to form young shoots. The roots should be carefully spread out, sprinkled with the bottom and then the top layer of soil. Next, the Commander bush needs to be watered with water (about 5 liters), mulched with humus and watered again.
The distance between seedlings of this variety should be at least a meter. If there are buildings or tall trees on the site, then the gaps can be increased to 2-3 m so that the shadow from them does not block the sunlight. According to the rules, there must be at least 2 m between the rows of Komandor gooseberry seedlings.
How to properly plant gooseberries and care for them is illustrated in the video:
Rules of care
Watering
The intensity of watering the Komandor gooseberry depends on the weather:
- in hot summers, this variety should be watered every other day or even every day;
- in cloudy and cool periods - once a week.
On average, an adult plant of this variety needs about 5 liters of water at a time, while a young plant needs 3 liters.
In dry autumn at the end of September, moisture-charging irrigation is also possible.
Support
Despite the fact that gooseberry bushes of this variety are not very spreading, it is still recommended to install a support. Due to this, the branches (especially the lower ones) will not bend down or break under the weight of berries in case of a high harvest.
Typically, two supports are installed at the beginning and end of a row of seedlings of this variety. A strong nylon thread or wire is pulled between them, forming a trellis.
It is more advisable to strengthen single Komandor gooseberry bushes individually - with posts to which the branches are tied.
Top dressing
In the first year after planting gooseberries of this variety, it is appropriate to feed them with nitrogen-containing fertilizers (20 g per 1 m2 of tree trunk circle). They improve the growth of green mass of the bush.
Every year it is recommended to fertilize Komandor gooseberries with the following mixture:
- ammonium sulfate (25g);
- potassium sulfate (25 g);
- superphosphate (50 g);
- compost (half a bucket).
Immediately after flowering, and then again after two to three weeks, the plants are fed with mullein diluted in water (1 to 5). The norm for one gooseberry bush is from 5 to 10 liters of solution.
Bush pruning
The optimal time for pruning gooseberries of this variety is late autumn or early spring.
The first time the Commander seedling is pruned immediately after planting, shortening the branches to 20-25 cm above the ground.
In the second year and beyond, the number of new shoots formed is reduced, leaving 4-5 of the strongest. At the age of 5-6 years, 3-4 old and diseased shoots are removed from a gooseberry bush of this variety, leaving exactly the same number of young shoots. Mature Komandor bushes (over 6-7 years old) are formed in the spring, correcting fruit-bearing branches, and sanitary pruning is carried out in the fall.
An adult Komandor gooseberry bush normally has 10-16 shoots of different ages.
Reproduction
You can propagate gooseberries of the Komandor variety:
- by cuttings - in June cuttings are cut from young shoots, which are then planted in the ground;
- by division - young bushes are carefully separated from the mother plant and planted;
- layering - at the base of an adult plant, dig a hole 15 cm deep, place a young branch in it without cutting it from the bush, secure it and sprinkle it with earth to produce new shoots.
Preparing for winter
At the end of autumn, it is recommended to carefully dig up the tree trunk circle to destroy pest larvae and fungal spores.
If a snowy winter is expected, it is advisable to tie the branches of the Commander bush, carefully bending it to the ground - in this case they will not break under the weight of the snow caps.
If, on the contrary, the winter ahead is light and harsh, it would be useful to wrap the gooseberry bushes of this variety with a protective covering material - perhaps even peat or straw, covering them with a thick film. This will reduce the risk of the Commander freezing out.
Pest and disease control
The main diseases affecting gooseberries of the Vladil variety:
| Disease | Symptoms | Ways to fight | Prevention |
| Drying of stems | Cracks in the bark, fungal spores in wounds | Bordeaux mixture (wound treatment) | Pruning a gooseberry bush with a sterile instrument |
| Rust | Bulges of orange, brick, copper color on the underside of leaves, on fruits | Copper oxychloride (spray before flowering, then after harvest) | Destruction of diseased leaves; regular weeding weed |
| White spot (septoria) | Light gray spots on leaves | Bordeaux mixture, Nitrofen, copper sulfate (processing gooseberries before the leaves bloom, then after picking the berries) | |
| Gray rot | Berries on the lower branches rot and fall off, leaves and shoots rot | Destruction of berries, shoots, leaves affected by the disease | Regular pruning of gooseberry bushes |
| Mosaic disease | Stripes, circles and spots of pale green or yellow along the inner veins of the leaves. Leaves wither and fall | No | Careful selection of planting material, destruction of diseased bushes of this variety, processing with sterile instruments |
Harmful insects from which this gooseberry variety most often suffers:
Pest | Symptoms | Methods of control and prevention |
Aphid | Colonies of small green insects on the inside of leaves, sucking juice from them | Spraying gooseberry leaves with foam of laundry soap, infusion of hot pepper, crushed tobacco leaves, garlic arrows, dry peels of citrus fruits. Spraying with Aktara, Karbofos, Aktellik (according to instructions) |
Moth | Gray caterpillars feeding on leaves | Collecting caterpillars and egg clutches by hand. In the spring, water the soil with boiling water (moth butterflies overwinter under the bushes). Spraying the leaves of Commander with infusion of chamomile or tobacco leaves. Spraying with Actellik, Kinmis, Iskra according to the instructions. |
Currant bud mite | Settles in buds (flower, leaf), eating them from the inside | A thorough inspection of the Commander's bushes in the spring, destruction of deformed buds. Spraying with a solution of colloidal sulfur. Spraying ISO according to instructions |
Spider mite | Settles at the bottom of the leaf, drinking juice from it and entangling it with white threads resembling a cobweb | Spraying the leaves of the Commander with an infusion of wormwood, potato tops, garlic or onion.Use of acaricides (Bankol, Apollo, Sunmite) |
Currant glass | Caterpillars in cracks in the bark, eating away the wood from the inside | Wood ash, mustard powder, ground red pepper, tobacco dust scattered under the plants. Insecticides that help in the fight against moths |
Currant gall midge (shoot and leaf) | Small brown “gnats” that feed on leaf sap and wood. Leaves and shoots dry out, shoots break easily | Prevention – treatment of plants with infusion of wormwood, mustard powder, tomato tops. In case of damage - Fufanon, Karbofos (spraying before flowering, then after harvesting) |
Conclusion
The mid-early gooseberry variety Komandor has no thorns, is frost-resistant, is famous for its high yield, long period of berry picking and pleasant taste. At the same time, this variety is quite demanding in terms of planting location and care conditions; its fruits are small in size and are quite difficult to transport and store.
