How to treat currants from powdery mildew

Contents

Protecting currants from disease
Conclusion

Powdery mildew on currants is one of the types of fungal diseases that affects berry bushes. The disease manifests itself in the form of a white-gray spotted plaque on young twigs, petioles of leaves and on leaf plates. One of the main reasons for the emergence and development of fungi on currants is unstable weather with sharp temperature fluctuations and frequent rains. Mycelium of the fungus, for the time being in remission, in such conditions begin to multiply rapidly, capturing more and more surfaces on young currant growths.

Protecting currants from disease

Currant bushes are low, compact, very easy to care for and harvest. The fruits of black, red and white currants are healthy and tasty, they can be used to make excellent juices, cook compotes or preserves and jams. Currant leaves are suitable for brewing green teas – fragrant and unusual in taste drinks. For these reasons, many gardeners grow different types of currants in their gardens, but it is not always possible to get a good harvest from a berry bush if powdery mildew has appeared on it. It is urgently necessary, without waiting for the wide spread of the disease, to take drastic measures to combat this disease, otherwise you can lose not only the crop, but also the plant itself.

Definition of the disease

By biological definition, powdery mildew (ashpelt or whitewash) is nothing more than a fungal disease of the currant caused by the smallest spores of the powdery mildew fungus of the Erysiphales family. This family includes more than 700 species, united in 19 genera. For some reason, such a disease that manifests itself on plants is also called in Our Country “American powdery mildew”with what this is connected is not exactly known.

The two concepts should also not be confused: true powdery mildew or downy mildew. Today we talk only about the present species, downy mildew is rarely found on currants, it is caused by a completely different pathogen and its signs differ from the symptoms that we mentioned above.

It should be noted that all types of fungus powdery mildew prefer to breed on certain types of plants. A fungus that has settled on a currant does not move to an apple or pear tree; it will not move from cucumber leaves to tomato or eggplant bushes. Infection occurs on a family basis, that is, an apple tree is infected from an apple tree (regardless of variety), a pear from a pear, a currant from a currant, and so on.

Symptoms

Signs of currant disease with powdery mildew appear on plants in the same way, but this happens rapidly. Gardeners did not notice any manifestations yesterday, and the next day the upper young shoots and leaves are already covered with white bloom.

Important! At the first visible signs of infection, it is important to stop the further spread of the disease. Noticing them, immediately proceed to treatment, the methods of which we will talk about a little later.

Symptoms of infection:

in the first stages of the disease, the leaves of young currant growths on the front side are covered with small whitish spots, as if the leaves were sprinkled with flour;
then (in the absence of the necessary treatment) the spots become more and more enlarged, pass to leaf petioles and twigs, currant leaves curl, shoots become thinner;
the entire apical part of the young growths twists into an ugly lump of dry foliage, the leaves fall, the petioles and branches become brittle, the growth of the shoots stops;
having destroyed the young parts of the plant, the fungus “occupies” the fruit ovaries and the fruits themselves, drying them up and turning them into hard balls, which also crumble to the ground;
without receiving proper treatment during the season, currants have to spend the winter weakened and unprotected;
many plants do not withstand such a state and die from cold or lack of nutrients, the supply of which to the currant bushes is completely blocked by a malicious overgrown fungus.

The top photo shows the condition of currant leaves at the initial stage of powdery mildew damage. In the video attached to this section, you can clearly see how infected currant bushes look compared to healthy plants.

Powdery mildew on currants

Смотрите это видео на YouTube

Causes

Let’s move on to the next section of our article, for what reasons and why the infection of the berries occurs, whether it be black, red or white currants. Experienced gardeners consider the main reason for the spread of powdery mildew in the garden and vegetable garden to be insufficient care for plants and violations of the technology for growing horticultural crops. If we add to such conditions frequent and sharp changes in air temperature during the day and night, heavy rains with rare sunny days, it will be just a “paradise” for fungal diseases.

The main prerequisites for infection:

The presence of a large number of weeds in the area.
Exceeding the planting density of currants in excess of the permissible technological standards.
Excessive soil and air moisture (excessive watering or precipitation in the form of rain).
Lack of moisture and nutrients.
Big difference between nighttime and daytime thermometer readings.
Lack of preventive measures to combat plant diseases and their pests.

Only by eliminating the presence of all these shortcomings, except for weather conditions, of course, which do not depend on a person, can one begin to implement measures that contribute to the treatment of already infected currant bushes or measures that prevent the emergence of new foci on young growths of berry bushes.

Prevention and treatment

Most gardeners and gardeners keep their plots in perfect condition, they know that in order to grow any garden, fruit and berry crops, it is necessary to follow the technology of planting, caring for the plant and carry out preventive treatment against diseases and pests. Novice gardeners sometimes pay insufficient attention to these activities. We want to give some recommendations to young growers who do not have experience in gardening.

It is necessary to constantly maintain cleanliness in the garden and vegetable garden, remove and mow weeds in a timely manner, crushing it and filling it in a compost heap. Plant waste: fallen dried leaves and branches, fallen to the ground, damaged and infected fruits of currants and other shrubs should be burned or disposed of in any other way.
In spring, autumn and throughout the summer season, carry out preventive treatment of all garden plantings from harmful insects and various diseases.
If you have only recently started laying your garden, then buy and propagate powdery mildew-resistant currant seedlings, there are plenty of such varieties on sale these days.

These first preventive steps will help keep the spread of fungal diseases on currants, in particular, such as powdery mildew.

Methods of dealing with powdery mildew on currants and methods of treatment:

at the first stage of the lesion, when whitish spots appeared on rare leaves and there are very few of them, you can get rid of them by removing them from the bush, cutting off and burning the remains, then prepare the means for processing and immediately spray the currants, repeat the treatment after 7-10 days;
if you missed such a moment or did not notice powdery mildew for 2-3 days, then the mycelium of the fungus during this time can already cover a large area on the plant, in which case it is impossible to remove some parts of the currant without harming it. The plant must be immediately treated with chemicals 2-3 times at intervals of 7 days;
Let’s say that you haven’t been able to visit your garden during the summer, and the currant bushes are affected by powdery mildew very badly, they are almost impossible to save. There is one treatment that is risky but very effective. It is used by experienced gardeners to save valuable varieties of currant bushes. In early spring, they treat the plant with hot water at a temperature not lower than + 70-80 ° C. There is a risk, but the plant would still die, and with this method there is a chance to save the currant and give it a second life.

Specialty horticultural stores have a wide range of chemicals that help fight powdery mildew on any crop, you just need to find the one that does its job effectively.

Fans of environmentally friendly gardens who do not accept the use of chemistry can use folk remedies in the fight against powdery mildew, we recommend the recipe for one of them:

dissolve baking soda in water in a proportion of 3 tablespoons without top per 10 liters of water warmed to air temperature (place the bucket in a sunny area),
Dissolve 50 g of laundry soap in a small amount of water to the consistency of a thick slurry, add to the soda solution, mix everything thoroughly;
you need to use the resulting product within 3-4 days, spraying all plants, starting from the tops;
such treatments must be carried out 5 to 8 times per season, making intervals of 7-8 days.

You can learn about other folk remedies by watching the attached video clip, which describes many recipes for their preparation.

Powdery mildew (Control methods and prevention)