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When growing berry bushes in their gardens, gardeners are faced with serious problems - damage to plants as a result of attack by pests and the spread of various diseases. Many experts recommend a rather extreme method - pour boiling water over currants and gooseberries in early spring.
The method is considered very effective, but in order to ensure that the plants are not damaged, it is necessary to know exactly the timing, technique and subtleties of the procedure.
It is possible to grow gooseberries without using boiling water, but the harvest of berries will be much more abundant and of better quality if pests and sources of diseases are destroyed in time.
Although this method is unusual, it is environmentally friendly and effective.
Are gooseberries treated with boiling water?
Pests that winter in large numbers in any garden on gooseberries and currants are extremely dangerous for the future harvest. The best way to deal with them is destruction.This can be done with the help of insecticides, which are considered an effective remedy. But it is not harmless to the human body, since it can accumulate in fruits and berries.
Pouring currant and gooseberry bushes with boiling water in early spring was used back in the days when there was no such variety of chemicals, and diseases and pests already existed. Thanks to the method, it is possible to destroy a large number of insects at one time, when they are still sleeping and cannot hide or fly away.
If you pour boiling water over currants and gooseberries, the causative agents of diseases are also destroyed, when they are infected, the leaves of the bush subsequently turn yellow, the branches dry out, the berries become covered with plaque and lose their presentation.
The method is folk, it is not considered a panacea for protecting plants, but time has proven that if the timing and rules of watering currants and gooseberries with boiling water are observed, the berries that set on the bushes and the blossoming foliage are clean, without signs of disease. Even the use of boiling water in the spring for preventive purposes gives a big plus in the resulting harvest.
Why do you pour boiling water over gooseberries in spring?
The most common disease of gooseberries and currants is powdery mildew.
Because of it, you can completely lose your harvest. You should not ignore the disease at its first signs, which boil down to the appearance of a white coating on the leaves and berries. Outwardly, it looks like flour scattered on the branches. In fact, these are fungal spores that spread at an astonishing rate. After infection with powdery mildew, the branches of the bushes become bent, dry out and die.Among the numerous varieties of gooseberries and currants, there are those that are more resistant to the disease, but there are also those that become infected in the first year after planting. When affected, gooseberries become hard and cannot be eaten. Many chemicals and decoctions are powerless against the disease, and treating currants and gooseberries with boiling water in the spring gives good results. The reason is the sensitivity of powdery mildew pathogens to heat treatment.
It also helps in destroying insect pests that winter on gooseberries and currants: sawflies, aphids, bud moths, gall midges, and scale insects. If you pour boiling water over gooseberries, you can get rid of not only them, but also cocoons, eggs and spores, which is inaccessible even to chemicals.
Boiling water helps destroy the most common pest - kidney mites.
In early spring, females lay eggs in young buds of gooseberries and currants. Developing larvae occupy more and more new buds, infecting them and turning them into “bloated” ones. From them, weak shoots subsequently develop, and mites carry diseases on themselves - mosaic and terry plants. If you properly treat gooseberries and currants with boiling water in early spring, you can stop the spread of bud mites and a number of bacterial diseases.
Benefits of processing gooseberries with boiling water
The method has long been widely used by gardeners, as it has a number of advantages over others:
- ease of implementation – you only need a watering can and hot water;
- low budget – no costs for special means are required;
- efficiency – after watering gooseberries with boiling water in early spring, the bulk of the larvae and pathogenic microorganisms die;
- environmental friendliness – unlike chemicals, the method is absolutely safe for humans.
Experience shows that plants better withstand changing weather conditions, climatic surprises, and winter frosts, and pests appear on them extremely rarely if gooseberry and currant bushes are poured with boiling water in early spring. The leaves on such bushes are more powerful, the berries are larger, and the shoots develop more intensively.
The disadvantages of the method include:
- difficulties in determining the exact processing time;
- Lack of experience in carrying out the procedure can lead to plant burns.
You can confidently water currant and gooseberry bushes with boiling water after studying the rules of processing or observing how experienced gardeners do it.
When to pour boiling water over gooseberries in spring
You can treat gooseberries with boiling water only at a certain time. Otherwise, there is a possibility that you will not achieve your goal or even destroy the plants.
The approximate timing of the procedure coincides with the end of the snow melting, when the thickness of its cover is about 10 cm, and it still lies near the gooseberry and currant bushes. At this time it is warm like spring, there is no frost even at night. For numerous regions of the country, such weather conditions occur at different times:
- in the Moscow region - should be watered until March 15;
- in Yaroslavl, Pskov, Vladimir regions - until March 25;
- in Tula, Smolensk, Kaluga, Ryazan and other regions - March 10 - 12;
- in the Ural region - April 20-30;
- in Western Siberia (Omsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk regions, Altai Territory) - April 10 - 15;
- in Central Siberia (Transbaikalia, Irkutsk region, Krasnoyarsk Territory) - in the first ten days of April;
- in Eastern Siberia (Primorsky, Khabarovsk Territory, Amur Region) - early April;
- southern Russia (Astrakhan and Rostov regions, Kalmykia, Krasnodar Territory) - late February-early March.
When determining the best time to water gooseberries with boiling water, you should focus more on the climatic conditions in a particular region, since the weather often brings surprises.
How to treat gooseberries with boiling water in spring
Thanks to boiling water, used to destroy diseases and pests, it is possible to bring the bushes out of hibernation and increase the plant's immunity. They begin to water the bushes at the end of winter - the first ten days of spring, before the sap flows and buds begin to bloom. To this end, perform a series of sequential actions:
- Heat ordinary water to 100 oC.
- Pour boiling water into a metal watering can with a divider.
- From a height of about half a meter, water the branches of currant and gooseberry bushes, trying to evenly moisten all the branches.
- Treat the trunk circles of berry bushes with the same water.
- Cover the soil under the bushes with film or roofing felt for several days.
This helps destroy larvae overwintering under the plant, eggs of pests, and spores of pathogenic fungi that cause diseases. Boiling water must be scattered over the root system in the same way as over the crown so as not to damage it. Tree trunk circles are watered only if the roots are not located too close to the soil surface.
To obtain a greater effect, add potassium permanganate (pale pink solution) or ordinary table salt to the water in the amount of 60 g per 10 liters of boiling water.
Preparatory activities
In the spring, when treating gooseberry bushes with boiling water, it is necessary to outline a clear action plan in order to effectively use the time when the water does not cool down during the processing process and, as a result of the procedure, a visible effect is obtained in the future.
First, they decide which gooseberry and currant bushes need to be doused with boiling water. Next, you should tie their branches together with twine, thereby reducing the processing area and simplifying the process itself.
If the root system of currant or gooseberry bushes is located close to the soil surface, you should be on the safe side and protect it from burns. For this purpose, you can use any available material - boards, plywood, slate.
The main tool is a metal watering can with a divider. Plastic is not suitable for this procedure, since the instrument may become deformed under the influence of boiling water.
After bringing the water to a boil, it is poured into a metal watering can, it cools slightly, reaching the desired temperature (80 - 90 oC). Water the bush without staying in one place for longer than 3 to 5 seconds. About 5 liters of boiling water are spent on one plant.
How to properly water gooseberries with boiling water in spring
You can water gooseberries with boiling water if you follow a number of safety rules:
- The hands of the person carrying out the processing procedure must be protected with thick fabric gloves, since the metal watering can gets very hot from boiling water;
- you should check the reliability of fastening the spray nozzle of the watering can - in order to avoid its accidental fall from the spout at the most crucial moment;
- it is necessary to choose the right shoes so that even if boiling water from a watering can gets on them, your feet remain safe;
- You should make sure that children are not nearby during the procedure.
If the processing time has already expired - the buds have awakened, begun to swell, or new leaves are already visible, then it is strictly forbidden to water the plants with boiling water. Heat treatment is postponed until next year. Otherwise, the bushes and roots may be scalded with boiling water and will inevitably die.
If everything is done correctly and on time, some time after blooming the bushes are carefully inspected. If swollen buds containing mites are found, they are plucked out and disposed of.
Conclusion
People began pouring boiling water over currants and gooseberries in early spring a very long time ago and still use this “old-fashioned” method, despite the huge selection of chemicals. The method is not a 100% remedy that does not destroy diseases and pests once and for all, and requires caution. But the undeniable advantage of the method is its environmental friendliness and cleanliness. A one-time treatment with boiling water at the beginning of spring actually frees the gardener from worries about the health of gooseberries and currants throughout the season.
