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In early spring, the gardener’s work begins with an inspection of trees and shrubs. Pest larvae and spores of various infections perfectly withstand even the most severe frosts, so they can be easily found on currant bushes. Do not wait until the snow completely melts or the ground thaws – you need to act as soon as possible! Experienced gardeners have their own list of the most effective means and methods of processing: 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 control of currant diseases will be described in this article. Here you can find information about when and how to spray currants in the spring, from what diseases and pests bushes of black and red berries should be saved.
Importance of care
Berries of black and red currants are very tasty and healthy. Unfortunately, growing these crops is quite difficult: the bushes do not take root well after planting, and subsequently become bait for various insects and infections. If you do not organize competent care for currants, you can not expect a harvest from it.
Spring treatment from pests may not be necessary if the currant bushes are properly cared for. Care for this shrub is necessary almost all year round, and activities have to start in early spring:
- At the very beginning of spring, until the buds wake up, it is necessary to carry out sanitary pruning of the bushes. To do this, cut out all dry, frozen and diseased shoots with a sharp pruner, form a bush in accordance with garden rules. During the pruning process, stumps should not remain, as they can become a “gateway” for the penetration of infections further along the shoot.
- Shrub shoots 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 that have grown heavy under the ripening berries will not break off and will not get sick.
- Most often, spores and larvae overwinter in the near-trunk circle, so experienced gardeners always remove the top layer of soil under the currant bush. In the spring, you need to remove all the debris around the shrub, rake out dry leaves and branches. It is advisable to burn this garbage, and do it away from currants. It is better to replace the surface layer of soil by sprinkling dry and clean earth.
- When the snow melts and the earth dries up, you need to loosen the soil around the currant. 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 with nitrogen fertilizers so that the vegetation process takes place more actively, young shoots grow faster on the bushes.
Protection of currants from diseases and pests
As practice shows, even the most thorough care is sometimes not enough – currant bushes begin to hurt or are affected by pests. In this case the most important thing is to identify the cause of plant damage and select a drug that is effective for a particular situation.
The most popular and dangerous diseases and pests that affect black and red currants in the middle lane will be listed below.
The Mite
One of the most dangerous pests of currants is the kidney 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 open, but will begin to loosen.
The bud mite can greatly reduce the yield and even completely destroy the currant bush, so the methods of dealing with this pest should be radical:
- at the beginning of spring, the bushes are examined 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 is dissolved in a bucket of water.
If you miss the moment, the tick will destroy the buds, and the currant will no longer produce a crop this season.
Aphid currant
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 as aphid prevention, because this pest hibernates right on the shoots (more on the method will be discussed below).
When the shrub is already affected by aphids, only special chemicals for currant treatment can help. Gardeners talk about the effectiveness of such a composition:
- 20 grams of chlorophos per 10 liters of water;
- trichlormetaphos;
- carbofos.
The resulting solution should be abundantly sprayed with currant bushes and lightly water the ground near the plant.
Zlatka currant
Currant borer larvae eat the tender tops of young shoots, which can cause the branch to completely dry out. Due to the impact of this pest, currant berries become smaller, and the overall yield of the shrub suffers.
It is necessary to fight with the goldfish and its larvae radically – 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 shrub – it eats the leaves. As a result, currant vegetation suffers, photosynthesis is disturbed in the plant.
You need to fight the spider mite by cutting 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
Finding this pest is not so easy, as it hides, and the form of its habitat is considered hidden. Usually, gardeners understand that the currant is affected by the sawfly only when the ovaries form and the berries ripen – the larvae of this insect are inside the fruit.
At a certain moment, the larvae begin to get out, damaging the fruits, which leads to the fall of the berries. Together with currant berries, sawfly pupae fall into the ground, where they live until the next season.
So that next year the currant does not suffer from the sawfly again, in late autumn or early spring it is necessary to dig up the soil in the trunk circle. The shrub itself can be sprayed with a 0,2% solution of chlorophos.
willow shield
The eggs of the scale insects are on the shoots of the currant, and they are painted in a red-violet hue. However, it is difficult to notice the clutches of this pest, as it hides them under the shields of dead adults. During the flowering period, larvae hatch from the eggs of the scale insects.
Insects feed on juice from currant shoots, which can lead to complete drying of the bush. Effective cleaning of currant branches with a metal brush.
Terry currant
Disease prevention sometimes does not help, and the plants get sick anyway. One of the most common diseases of black and red currants is terry. Terry is dangerous in that it is difficult to identify it in the early stages, and then it is too late – the shrub completely ceases to bear fruit.
Twisted, deformed leaves on the currant indicate the presence of terry. Such leaves should be cut off and burned as soon as possible. It is better to remove infected shoots completely.
Mučnistaâ rosa
It is necessary to treat powdery mildew in a timely manner, since the disease often causes the death of entire orchards. At the stage of ovary formation, when the shrub has completely faded, it is additionally possible to spray the bushes with a solution of benlat or karatal (20%).
Anthracnose (flycat)
This is a fungal infection that poses a danger to currant leaves. The greatest risk of shrub damage by this infection occurs in the middle of summer. However, preventive treatments of plants should begin as early as early spring.
To combat anthracnose, before flowering, the shoots are treated with a solution of colloidal sulfur, the procedure is repeated after a couple of weeks.
preventive measures
Competent care may not be enough, and it is extremely difficult to deal with an already spreading infection or breeding pests. As described above, the lesion can be completely eliminated only by radical methods – cutting off the shoots, picking off the leaves and fruits. In order not to start the situation, it is necessary to use preventive 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 the treatment of raspberries and currants with boiling water.
How to treat currants in the spring from pests with 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 a few simple steps:
- Shrub shoots are tied up so that they are more crowded.
- Bring water to a boil in sufficient volume (it is better to take a bucket).
- Currants are poured with boiling water using a watering can with a divider.
Chemicals
You should not wait for the first signs of disease or damage to the currant 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 and crop, provided that they are used correctly and in a timely manner.
The most popular among gardeners and summer residents are the following drugs for prevention.
Urea
This tool not only fights diseases, fungi and pests, urea (the second name for urea) contains a large percentage of nitrogen and is a natural fertilizer.
It is necessary to spray currants with urea in early spring, before the start of the growing season. The buds on the bushes should still be sleeping, as carbamide can burn young leaves. At the time of treatment, the air temperature must necessarily rise to + 5- + 6 degrees, otherwise the product will not be effective.
To prepare a solution in 10 liters of water, you need to dissolve from 500 to 700 grams of urea (depending on the degree of currant damage last season).
Copper sulfate
Copper sulfate is also a microfertilizer and an active fungicide. 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 in spring. This must be done at a time when the plant is “sleeping”. Autumn processing takes place in November, in the spring it is necessary to act as soon as the temperature is established at positive 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 is spent on a currant bush.
Carbophos
The malathion-based agent has an insecticidal-acaricidal effect and is suitable for spring treatment of currant bushes. A feature of the drug is a quick action (insects die almost instantly), but it should be borne in mind that karbofos kills only those individuals on whose bodies it is sprayed (hidden pests will remain alive).
If the currant did not get 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 tasty berry – it attracts many insects and often gets sick. As practice shows, it is much easier to deal with problems at the initial stage and prevent them than to deal with the consequences.
Read more about the prevention of pests and diseases of currants in this video:
