Currant is a priceless generous gift of nature to people, a rich source of vitamins and microelements, which are practically not destroyed during heat treatment. Therefore, currant berries are valuable both fresh and as blanks.
The currant bush is unpretentious, yields a crop regardless of the vagaries of nature. Each bush lives about 15 years. Over time, there is a need to update old berries or increase the planting area.
Currant is a berry crop that reproduces well, gives a lot of planting material, and, which is especially important, almost all of it takes root. Therefore, you should not hope for luck when buying planting material on the side. It is much easier to get it from your bushes, especially if you are satisfied with the yield and taste of the berries. The easiest way to propagate is to plant currant cuttings in the fall.
Preparation of planting material (+ video)
An important stage is the preparation of planting material. Depending on its quality, you will get currant bushes with high yields. You should carefully consider the choice of the mother bush from which you will cut the cuttings.
The currant bush should be healthy and strong, the cuttings will be weak at first, so you should not put them at additional risk. Plants from cuttings will completely repeat the qualities of the mother plants.
In autumn, woody cuttings are harvested. They are taken from annual shoots that have developed from the root zone. Cut off the entire shoot above the soil level. In spring or autumn, two processes can be combined: pruning a currant bush and harvesting planting material.
Two-year-old shoots are not suitable for cuttings, as are the one-year-old shoots that have formed on them. Currant cuttings prepared from such shoots are too weak, they have few nutrients, as a result of which they take root poorly and are more likely to become infected with diseases.
It makes no sense to make blanks shorter. This will mean that the short cutting has too few nutrients for subsequent rooting. Too short blanks may not take root. Let there be few cuttings, but they will be with a guarantee of full rooting.
Before proceeding with the preparation of planting material, inspect the tool. The secateurs must be well sharpened and disinfected so as not to bring dangerous viral or fungal diseases to the cut site.
For disinfection, a dark pink solution of potassium permanganate, ferrous sulfate, alcohol or kerosene is used. The secateurs are lowered into the liquid and wiped dry with a rag. You can also use the special preparation “Pharmaiod” – an effective means for disinfecting garden tools.
A well-sharpened tool should make an even cut, not grind or crush the shoot. The cut is made above the kidney, stepping back about 1 cm at an acute angle. The upper part of the cutting is cut at a right angle. For cuttings, take the middle part of the shoot or its base, the top of the shoot is not suitable for blanks. The suitability of the shoot is checked by bending it. It should be flexible, break only when sharply bent.
Another sign of the high quality of currant cuttings is their color on the cut, it should be a light green hue.
A round kidney is a sign of a mite infestation. We also need completely healthy planting material from currants.
In order for the shoot to have moisture, choose the right time for cutting the cuttings. It can be early in the morning if the weather is hot, but a cloudy day in late September or early October is best. At this time, the kidneys go into a state of rest, fall asleep.
The degree of rooting of cuttings increases. As a rule, choose the time 2 weeks before the onset of the first frost. Deadlines may vary by region. In the southern regions, they shift to the beginning – mid-October, in the Urals and Siberia by mid-September. Be aware of the weather conditions in your area.
After the currant cuttings have been cut, they are tied into bundles, wrapped in a dense damp cloth, and then in a piece of polyethylene if they are intended for storage. Before planting, it is recommended to lower the lower part for a day in a solution of a root formation stimulator. Use such drugs: “Zircon”, “Heteroauxin”, “Kornerost”, “Kornevin” and others.
Watch a detailed video on how to prepare and plant cuttings:
Planting cuttings
Planting currant cuttings can be carried out before winter. Under the blackcurrant, a slightly lowered site of the site is chosen, but well lit and protected from the winds, for example, along the fence. The plant loves well-moistened soil, but does not tolerate stagnant moisture in plantings. Acidic soils are also not suitable for blackcurrants. Take care in advance to deoxidize the soil with lime, ash, chalk.
For planting blackcurrants, heavy and medium-heavy loams are preferable, for red and white currants – light sandy loams and loams.
Consider which plants grew before the autumn planting of cuttings. It is better to plant currants after their predecessors: cereals and annual herbs. Worst of all, the cuttings will have after raspberries and gooseberries. Blackcurrants and gooseberries have the same pests and diseases, and raspberries are able to produce shoots for a long time, even if they are uprooted, while taking away nutrients from young plants, clogging plantings.
Next, you should dig up a bed to a depth of 30 cm. This is an important point, since in the process of digging up the soil, pests, their larvae and eggs that have prepared for wintering will be on the surface and die from the next frost. They will not be able to hide again, as they are in a sleeping state.
Further, the area for planting currant cuttings should be well cleaned of weeds and their roots, leveled, fertilized with humus, compost or peat. Or make top dressing from mineral fertilizers: double superphosphate – 50 g and potassium sulfate – 20 g per 1 sq. m landings. It is better to prepare the soil 2-3 weeks before the planned plantings.
Then shallow trenches are made at a distance of about 40 cm from each other. Such a distance will allow you to conveniently care for currant cuttings or then dig them out for planting in a permanent place of growth. Currant cuttings are planted in trenches at an inclination of 45-60 ° at a distance of 15-20 cm from each other, to a depth of 6 cm, so that the lower bud is at the level of the soil. In total, 2-3 buds remain above the soil surface. The soil around each currant cutting is carefully crushed so that air voids do not form. Well watered.
Then the ground under the landings is covered with mulch. You can use peat, straw, humus, with a thickness of 5-10 cm. Or use non-woven black agrofibre, on which a hole is made with scissors above each currant cutting. Mulch or agrofibre helps retain moisture, which in turn promotes rooting. If the weather has been dry and warm for a long time, then planted currant cuttings should be watered.
With the onset of spring heat, at a temperature of +10 + 15 °, autumn seedlings start growing, grow roots and green mass. By mid-May – the end of May, their leaves bloom.
Watch a video on how to plant blackcurrant cuttings:
Currant cuttings harvested in autumn can be planted in prepared containers filled with fertile soil based on garden soil, with the addition of humus, peat, compost and river sand in equal proportions. Under planting containers, flower pots, and boxes, and cut plastic bottles, as well as packages for juices and dairy products are suitable. At the bottom of the improvised container, be sure to make a drainage hole.
Currant cuttings are planted in a turf mixture, leaving 2-3 buds on the surface, the soil is pressed with hands around the cutting, well spilled with water. Containers can be placed on the windowsill. Regular care will consist in watering currant cuttings.
So, it is possible to successfully grow currants with cuttings at room conditions before the start of the planting season. In spring, when daytime temperatures are at least +13 + 15 ° С, seedlings can be planted in a permanent place of growth. Although it is better to let them grow in a separate area until the fall, giving them the opportunity to gain strength in order to easily endure the coming winter.
The method is good because all autumn cuttings, without exception, take root, unlike planting in winter. In the middle lane, the period of autumn is too short before the onset of frost, many currant cuttings do not have time to adapt to new living conditions and die as a result of the onset of cold weather.
If the cuttings turned out to be unclaimed in the fall, then they can be stored dormant until spring in the refrigerator, and planted in open ground with the onset of spring heat.
Conclusion
A delicious fragrant berry grown on your site will bring much more health benefits than a purchased one. In order for currants to be plentiful, its plantings should be increased. There are several ways to propagate blackcurrants in autumn or spring. The most affordable and reliable way is autumn cuttings. So, you can quickly increase the number of productive and rare varieties. How to plant currant cuttings, the issue should be given close attention. However, the result will please. Next year, young currant bushes will grow in you, from which you can get the first harvest. Planting currants with cuttings is beneficial from an economic point of view, as it does not require additional costs.