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In early spring, the gardener's work begins with inspecting trees and shrubs. Pest larvae and spores of various infections can withstand even the most severe frosts, so they can easily be found on currant bushes. You shouldn’t wait for the snow to completely melt or the ground to thaw – you need to act as soon as possible! Experienced gardeners have their own list of the most effective means and methods of treatment: from watering the shoots with boiling water, to folk remedies and strong chemicals. In any case, you need to understand that preventive measures are most effective, and you need to start acting in early spring.
Everything about how to combine care and fight against currant diseases will be discussed in this article. Here you can find information about when and what to spray currants in the spring, from what diseases and pests you need to save black and red berry bushes.
The importance of care
Black and red currant berries are very tasty and healthy.Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to grow these crops: the bushes do not take root well after planting, and subsequently become a bait for various insects and infections. If you do not organize proper care for currants, you may not expect a harvest from them.
Spring treatment for pests may not be necessary if currant bushes are properly cared for. This shrub requires care almost all year round, and activities have to begin in early spring:
- At the very beginning of spring, before the buds wake up, you need to carry out sanitary pruning of the bushes. To do this, use sharp pruning shears to cut out all dry, frozen and diseased shoots, and form a bush in accordance with garden rules. During the pruning process, no stumps should remain, as they can become a “gateway” for infections to penetrate further along the shoot.
- The shoots of the bush should not come into contact with the ground. Therefore, in the spring you should take care of the supports that will support the currants. Thanks to the supports, the shoots, which have become heavier under the ripening berries, will not break off or become sick.
- Most often, spores and larvae overwinter in the circle around the trunk, so experienced gardeners always remove the top layer of soil under the currant bush. In spring, you need to remove all the debris around the bush, rake out dry leaves and branches. It is advisable to burn this garbage, and do it away from the currants. It is better to replace the surface layer of soil by adding dry and clean soil.
- When the snow melts and the soil dries out, you need to loosen the soil around the currants. This will allow air to circulate normally and penetrate to the roots of the plant.
- At the beginning of summer It is recommended to feed currants nitrogen fertilizers so that the growing season is more active and young shoots grow faster on the bushes.
Protection of currants from diseases and pests
As practice shows, even the most careful care is sometimes not enough - currant bushes begin to hurt or are affected by insect pests. In this case the most important thing is to identify the cause of plant damage and select an effective drug for a specific situation.
The most popular and dangerous diseases and pests that affect black and red currants in the middle zone will be listed below.
Kidney mite
One of the most dangerous pests of currants is the bud mite. It is easy to find out about the presence of this insect - the buds on the shoots will be unnaturally large and very swollen. When April comes, the buds will not bloom, but will begin to loosen.
The bud mite can greatly reduce yields and even completely destroy a currant bush, so methods of combating this pest must be radical:
- at the beginning of spring, the bushes are inspected and infected branches are cut out - they must be burned;
- the remaining shoots are sprayed with a solution of colloidal sulfur - 10 grams of the substance are dissolved in a bucket of water.
If you miss the moment, the mite will destroy the buds, and the currants will no longer produce a harvest this season.
currant aphid
Aphids on currant bushes can be recognized already when the leaves bloom - at the tops of the shoots the leaves become wrinkled and curled. Spring spraying of currant bushes with boiling water is very effective in preventing aphids, because this pest overwinters directly on the shoots (more details about the method will be discussed below).
When the bush is already affected by aphids, only special chemicals for treating currants can help. Gardeners talk about the effectiveness of this composition:
- 20 grams of chlorophos per 10 liters of water;
- trichlorometaphos;
- karbofos.
The resulting solution should be generously sprayed onto the currant bushes and lightly watered the ground around the plant.
Currant goldenrod
Currant borer larvae eat the tender tops of young shoots, which can cause the branch to dry out completely. Due to the impact of this pest, currant berries become smaller and the overall yield of the bush suffers.
The fight against the borer and its larvae should be radical - completely cut off the damaged shoots and immediately burn them.
Spider mite
This pest is dangerous because in a short period of time it damages most of the green mass of the bush - it eats the leaves. As a result, currant vegetation suffers, and photosynthesis is disrupted in the plant.
You need to fight spider mites by tearing off all damaged leaves and burning them. Additionally, currants should be treated with a 50% solution of karbofos. This treatment can be carried out both in spring and summer.
Blackcurrant sawfly
It is not so easy to detect this pest, since it hides and its habitat is considered hidden. Gardeners usually realize that currants are affected by sawflies only when the ovaries form and the berries are ripe - the larvae of this insect are inside the fruits.
At a certain point, the larvae begin to crawl out, damaging the fruits, which leads to the falling of the berries. Together with the currant berries, the sawfly pupae end up in the ground, where they live until the next season.
To prevent the currants from being damaged by the sawfly again next year, in late autumn or early spring it is necessary to dig up the soil in the circle around the trunk. The bush itself can be sprayed with a 0.2% chlorophos solution.
Willow scale
Scale insect eggs are found on currant shoots, and they are colored red-violet. However, it is difficult to notice the clutches of this pest, since it hides them under the scutes of dead adults. During the flowering period, scale insect eggs hatch into larvae.
Insects feed on the juice from currant shoots, which can lead to complete drying out of the bush. Cleaning currant branches with a metal brush is effective.
Currant terry
Prevention of diseases sometimes does not help, and the plants still get sick. One of the most common diseases of black and red currants is blight. Terry is dangerous because it is difficult to identify it in the early stages, and then it is too late - the bush completely stops bearing fruit.
Curled, deformed leaves on currants indicate the presence of terry. Such leaves must be torn off and burned as soon as possible. It is better to remove infected shoots completely.
Powdery mildew
It is necessary to treat powdery mildew in a timely manner, as the disease often causes the death of entire orchards. At the stage of ovary formation, when the bush has completely faded, you can additionally spray the bushes with a solution of benlat or karatal (20%).
Anthracnose (fly beetle)
This is a fungal infection that poses a danger to currant leaves. The greatest risk of shrubs being affected by this infection occurs in mid-summer. However, preventive treatments of plants should begin in early spring.
To combat anthracnose, shoots are treated with a solution of colloidal sulfur before flowering, and the procedure is repeated after a couple of weeks.
Preventive measures
Proper care may not be enough, and it is extremely difficult to combat an already spreading infection or multiplying pests. As described above, the lesion can be completely eliminated only by radical methods - cutting off shoots, picking off leaves and fruits. To prevent the situation from getting worse, it is necessary to use preventative measures.
Boiling water
Folk remedies rarely act on the active stage of the disease, but they are often effective as a preventive measure. One of the most effective and safe methods is considered raspberry processing and currants with boiling water.
How process the currants in the spring from pests using boiling water so as not to harm the plant? In fact, there is nothing difficult here: the most important thing is not to waste time. At the time of processing, the currant buds should be in a dormant state, so it is better to do this at the very beginning of spring.
The whole process consists of several simple steps:
- The shoots of the bush are tied together so that they are arranged more closely.
- Bring enough water to a boil (it’s better to take a bucket).
- Pour boiling water over the currants using a watering can with a divider.
Chemicals
You should not wait for the first signs of disease or damage to currants by pests; in the spring you can carry out preventive treatment of the bush with special chemicals. Many of these drugs do not cause harm to the plant or crop, provided they are used correctly and in a timely manner.
The most popular among gardeners and summer residents are the following preventative medications.
Urea
This product not only fights diseases, fungi and pests, urea (the second name for urea) contains a high percentage of nitrogen and is a natural fertilizer.
It is necessary to spray currants with urea in early spring, before the beginning of the growing season.The buds on the bushes should still be asleep, since urea can burn young leaves. At the time of treatment, the air temperature must rise to +5-+6 degrees, otherwise the product will not be effective.
To prepare a solution, you need to dissolve from 500 to 700 grams of urea in 10 liters of water (depending on the degree of currant damage last season).
Copper sulfate
Copper sulfate is also a microfertilizer and an active fungicidal agent. In the case of currants, copper sulfate can prevent diseases such as anthracnose.
It is allowed to treat shrubs with a solution of copper sulfate both in autumn and spring. This must be done while the plant is “sleeping”. Autumn processing occurs in November; in the spring you need to act as soon as the temperature reaches above-zero levels.
The solution is prepared from 10 liters of water and 50-100 grams of copper sulfate. About 1.5 liters of the finished product are used for a currant bush.
Karbofos
A product based on malathion has an insecticidal and acaricidal effect and is suitable for spring treatment of currant bushes. A special feature of the drug is its rapid action (insects die almost instantly), but it is worth considering that karbofos kills only those individuals on whose bodies it is sprayed (hidden pests will remain alive).
If the currants were not sick last season, one treatment with karbofos will be enough.Otherwise, spraying will have to be repeated several times with an interval of 7-10 days.
Conclusion
Currants must be processed, because not only people are interested in this delicious berry - it attracts many insects and often gets sick. As practice shows, it is much easier to cope with problems at the initial stage and prevent them than to deal with the consequences.
More information about the prevention of pests and diseases of currants is described in this video:
