Features of seasonal development of black currant (<i> Ribes nigrum</i> L.) in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation

Abstract

Black currant is the most valuable berry crop of the Murmansk Province in terms of both biological properties and adaptive qualities necessary for growing in difficult agroclimatic conditions of the North. Every year, a search is carried out for varieties and forms with the best indicators of winter hardiness, yield, disease resistance and environmental friendliness, in order to identify accessions with the most valuable biological and economic traits. The objects of the present study were 24 cultivars of black currant of different ecological and geographical origin obtained in 2015 from the collection of the N. I. Vavilov All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR). Studies of the black currant collection were carried out in 2017-2021 at the Polar Experiment Station, a branch of VIR. The care of plants was provided according to the agricultural practices developed for growing berry crops in the Polar Region. The results of five-year phenological observations and assessment of winter hardiness in the studied cultivars showed that the onset of vegetation in all accessions occurred annually in the second decade of May, the onset of flowering in the second decade of June, the onset of maturation in the third decade of July, and the growth of shoots ended in the first decade of September. The studied cultivars were combined into groups according to winter hardiness (highly winter-hardy and winter-hardy), as well as the onset of phenophases (early, medium, late), and of ripening dates (early, mid, and late-ripening). Early vegetation was noted in cultivars ‘Pigmei’, ‘Izyumnaya’, ‘Rita’, ‘Volshebnica’, ‘Vasilisa’, ‘Almiai’, ‘Kriviai’, ‘Mila’, ‘Poklon Borisovoi’. Early ripening of the crop was observed in the cultivars ‘Severnoe Siyanie’ (C), ‘Mila’, ‘Izyumnaya’, ‘Rita’, ‘Kriviai’. The late maturing cultivars are ‘Slavyanka’, ‘Kipiana’, ‘Gratsiya’, ‘Chudnoe Mgnovenie’. The most numerous group is that of mid-ripening cultivars (64 %), followed by the group of early maturing (20 %), and late maturing ones (16 %). All the studied cultivars showed high adaptability to the conditions of the Murmansk Province. They had time enough to form the yield, complete the fruiting and growth of shoots before the onset of frosts. Due to the results of five years of research, they can be recommended for cultivation in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation.