Top dressing of currants in the spring with potato peelings

Experienced gardeners believe that potato peelings for currants are an indispensable fertilizer, so they are in no hurry to throw them away. Top dressing with this type of organic matter enriches the soil with nutrients, helps to destroy pests and protect currants from their attacks.

You should learn not only to collect, but also to process, store and properly use potato peelings as a top dressing.

Thanks to their use, it is possible to reduce the use of chemicals, while maintaining the environmental friendliness of the grown products as much as possible.

Why make potato peelings for currants

Potato peelings contain trace elements necessary for plant development:

• phosphorus – promotes the growth of the root system, abundant flowering;
• potassium – thanks to him, the berries become sweeter and juicier;
• magnesium – provides plant photosynthesis;
• iron – Necessary for the formation of chlorophyll.

For this reason, fertilizer from potato peels is desirable for use under fruit trees, vegetables, flowers, any berry bushes, including currants.

Many summer residents advise the use of this fertilizer and share their positive experience in making potato peelings for currants.

The berry bush likes glucose and starch contained in large quantities in the skin of potatoes. After burying dry cleanings under berry bushes in spring, they decompose and at this time give all useful substances to the soil. It is possible to prepare an infusion from potato peel and use it as a liquid top dressing for currants. It provides a rich harvest, large juicy berries. In autumn, it is worth burying dry cleanings in a circle under the bushes and covering them with mowed grass on top, which will serve not only as fertilizer, but also as soil mulching, protecting the root system from the coming winter frosts.

Feeding currants with potato peels is not difficult, not expensive, the process does not require additional time. At the same time, soil fertility increases without the use of chemicals, which is an undoubted advantage.

Gardeners are advised to make them regularly, for which during the season they should be harvested in all possible ways. In a private house, it is easy to find a place for potato skins by laying it in the compost on the site. If this is not possible, they resort to freezing on the balcony, where the temperature has dropped below zero. It is more difficult to dry cleanings, but it is easier and more convenient to store them. You can dry them in the oven or on a radiator, then grind them with a meat grinder and dry them again.

Useful properties of peeling potatoes for currants

It is worth making potato peelings for currants for several reasons. One of them is a rich chemical composition, including several useful components:

• organic acid – contribute to the normalization of oxidative processes;
• mineral salts – strengthen immunity, speed up metabolism;
• starch – the simplest sugar that can increase the energy component;
• glucose – helps to maintain the strength of the plant in winter.

Gardeners and gardeners consider potato peelings to be the best fertilizer for currants for other reasons:

• high nutritional value, saturation with micro- and macroelements guarantee the growth, development and abundant harvest of currants;
• the possibility of using as bait for pests – slugs, Colorado beetles;
• fertilizer can increase the percentage of fertile humus;
• the soil becomes looser;
• oxygen access to the currant root system increases;
• the plant develops in an ecologically clean environment;
• the heat released during the decomposition of cleanings warms the soil, creating more favorable conditions for vegetation.

The main ingredient in potato skins is starch. Currant very quickly responds to this component. Starch allows you to get berries larger and sweeter than usual. It is enough to carry out three top dressings: during the appearance of the ovaries, during the ripening period and a few days before harvesting. Starch in the composition of the potato peel has a beneficial effect on the rate of absorption of nutrients by the root system. However, it does not lead to rapid growth of weeds.

How to make dressing for currants from potato peels

There are several ways to prepare blackcurrant fertilizer from potato peels. All methods require time to collect the peel. It is acceptable to use small potatoes that are not edible, have lost moisture and become wrinkled.

Composting

The process is quite lengthy. Readiness comes not earlier than in a year. Cleaning speeds up the composting process. In order to avoid the development of a pathogenic fungus, experts advise adding potato waste already in a scalded form.

But most often they are stored raw along with other household waste, grass, leaves. The mixture should be periodically shoveled for a uniform supply of oxygen to all parts of the compost.

Potato infusion

For infusion, fresh potato peels are washed with water, put in a container and poured with boiling water in a ratio of 1: 2. After the peel is soaked, the mixture is thoroughly mixed, kept for another day and the currant bushes are watered. The process should be completed by loosening and mulching the soil under the bush.

Dry cleaning

Drying can be carried out in the oven, stove, on a radiator, in a microwave oven, in the open air. For this purpose, the cleanings are laid out in one layer and periodically mixed for uniform drying. It is necessary to monitor the process, since its duration depends on humidity, device power, season.

Freezing

If the volume of the freezer allows, then the peel, after washing and light drying, is folded into bags and placed in the freezer.

You can also freeze on the balcony when the air temperature becomes negative – and store them there in layers. They freeze quickly.

Nutrient mixture

From frozen and dried peelings, you can make a mixture and pour it with hot water. Three days later, thoroughly mixed and crushed gruel is brought under the currant.

potato flour

Well-dried peel is ground in a blender, coffee grinder or meat grinder. Sprinkle the soil around the currant bushes with the prepared powder or gruel.

How to feed currants in spring with potato peels

Gardeners claim that the berries can grow to the size of raisin or cherry grapes if they are applied under the bushes as a cleaning fertilizer. They are loved by white, red, but most of all – blackcurrant. It is on it that the effect is most noticeable. One way to use potato peels as fertilizer for currants in the spring is as follows:

1. Before the gardening season, the potato peel is harvested by drying.
2. Immediately before entering into the soil, slightly moisten it with water.
3. Immediately after the snow melts, the prepared cleanings are buried near the roots of the currant to a depth of about 15 cm.

Top dressing of bushes can be carried out in winter and very early spring, when the snow is still lying. To do this, it is necessary to remove the leaves from the root zone of the currant in the fall and cover it with plastic wrap. As the cleanings accumulate, it is necessary to rake the snow and, spreading the raw materials on the ground, cover again. In the spring, the soil must be carefully dug up.

Before the currants begin to bloom, in the spring, they dig a groove in a circle that coincides with the projection of the crown of the shrub to a depth of about 20 cm. A layer of dry cleanings is laid on its bottom and buried. In the process of decomposition, the fertilizer saturates the berry bush with all the necessary substances.

Infusion prepared from cleanings must be cooled before use. Top dressing is effective due to starch and glucose, which are important for the full growth of currants. The soil structure is improving. Clay and heavy soils after repeated application become lighter and looser.

Tips from experienced gardeners

Experts believe that currants can be fertilized with potato peels in spring, winter, autumn and summer. With the correct application of top dressing, only benefit can be obtained from such a procedure.

Experienced gardeners recommend using potato peels not only as a fertilizer, but also to protect plants from pests. To this end, a number of actions should be taken:

1. Place the peel in different containers without holes – jars, glasses.
2. Add syrup or jam to them.
3. Bury next to the currant bushes so that the edge of the tanks is at ground level.
4. The next day, get the traps and destroy the insects that got there.

Gardeners believe that, unlike such a bait, fresh cleaning spread around the garden brings several problems:

• tender currant roots can be damaged by them;
• in the heat, they begin to rot and emit an unpleasant odor;
• can attract rodents to the site;
• thanks to the “eyes” potato peelings are able to germinate.

It is worth listening to the advice of agronomists on the use of the peel:

• it cannot be re-frozen;
• potatoes are not mixed with ash, since the nitrogen contained in the peel is converted into ammonia by the action of alkali and evaporates;
• you should not use boiled peelings for top dressing, since after heat treatment they lose a lot of useful properties.

Gardeners consider an infusion to be a very effective fertilizer, containing, in addition to cleanings, other components. For cooking you need:

1. Pour water into the barrel.
2. Put there, except for the potato peel, gout, nettle, crusts of rye bread.
3. Use the remedy after three weeks of infusion.
4. Apply bread top dressing three times per season.

Conclusion

For a long time, potato peelings for currants have been recognized as an effective fertilizer. Thanks to him, berry bushes receive all the necessary substances for the development and formation of a rich harvest.

Availability, environmental friendliness, efficiency, ease of use make this type of top dressing popular among professionals and amateur gardeners for many years.