Each currant berry is an incomparable storehouse of vitamins, a source for delicious homemade preparations, fruit drinks and filling for pies. Without exaggeration, a good, plentiful harvest of puffy, pot-bellied, shiny berries is the desire of any gardener. It is quite real, with the right variety of bushes, taking into account the climate, and competent care for them.
But, currants have a serious enemy - parasites, which seriously reduce productivity, or generally nullify all the efforts of the summer resident... The main pests that are prescribed on berry bushes are aphids and kidney mites. Drying or rolling leaves and shoots may be the first signs of plant infection. Let's see why such pests appear, what to do and how to deal with them?
Why currant leaves turn yellow and dry
The causes of the disease of the bush, in which leaves and whole fresh shoots begin to dry, are most often fungal infections and pests.
The main parasites that harm currants are:
- spider mite;
- kidney mite;
- currant glass jar;
- currant leaf gall midge;
- currant shoot gall midge;
- leaf gall aphid;
- gooseberry shoot aphid.
Currants are ill from the following infections:
- spheroteka;
- anthracnose;
- septoriasis;
- columnar rust;
- goblet rust.
Most often, currant bushes suffer from a variety of aphids and kidney mites.
Kidney mite, methods of dealing with it
This pest lives on the currant bush all its life. A very small insect, the body length of the female is only 1.5-3 mm, and the males are even smaller... Insects hibernate and lay eggs in the buds of the plant. When the larvae hatch, there is not enough space for them, respectively, they move to neighboring buds, capturing new shoots. Thus, the entire currant bush is affected, and then neighboring currant bushes and other plants - raspberries, gooseberries and others - also fall ill.
Of course, the shoot does not develop if it is affected by the pest. If such branches grow, then only in a mutated form. Accordingly, the yield also decreases. In addition to reducing the number of berries, mites do other harm. They carry many infections that can hurt plants, including viral curl or marbling.... In this disease, the leaves curl up and become sticky, almost like aphids.
There are a lot of methods for dealing with ticks that have settled on currants:
Pouring boiling water
The way to solve the problem is the most environmentally friendly and cost effective. The method is quite effective - all larvae die during scalding, and the bush is only getting stronger and stronger.
The use of boiling water has its own nuances:
- no need to use steep boiling water, enough temperature 60-80 degrees;
- it will be more convenient to pour over the branches if tie them together;
- ticks begin activity with the first warm rays, if the bush has already begun to bloom, then you cannot water it with boiling water... Processing must be done before the appearance of a "green haze";
- dousing can also additionally in late autumn.
Manual removal
This method requires concentration and patience. Sorting the buds in order to remove the tick should be done in early spring, before opening them.
This method has two significant disadvantages.... First, it is very difficult to distinguish a visually healthy kidney from one in which the larvae lurk. Secondly, there is a high probability of cutting off full-fledged healthy shoots, especially at the end of the inspection of the plant.
When choosing this method, all removed kidneys must be collected in one bucket and burned.
Sulfur chemicals
The most popular and effective sulfur-based preparations are:
- colloidal sulfur;
- lime-sulfuric broth.
Ticks cannot tolerate sulfur in any form. Preventive spraying with sulfur-containing solutions is a guarantee that pests will not settle on the bushes.
If the plant is severely affected, then you need to prepare a sulfur solution in proportions of 10 grams per 1 liter of water, and treat the plant with it. Bushes are treated with sulfur twice:
- before flowering or at the beginning, a 2% solution is used;
- after flowering - 1% or 1.5% mixture with sulfur.
There is a significant risk of remaining in the year of processing in this way without a crop, however these chemicals completely destroy both the tick itself and fungal infections... It is important to follow the recommendations specified in the instructions for the chemicals in order to comply with safety measures when working with it.
Pruning
This is an extreme, drastic measure. If a tick suddenly turns out to be resistant to everything in the world, and this, although very rare, but happens, the plant is cut to the root in late autumn, or it is completely dug up, that is, completely destroyed.
After the destruction of the diseased bush, as well as after pruning it, the entire tool with which the work was carried out must be disinfected, if possible, it is also good to heat it additionally.
Folk remedies and methods
Long ago fought with mites with garlic... He was simply planted around the bushes, creating a kind of fence against parasites.
Also, the affected shoots were doused with a steep garlic broth - 200-300 grams of peeled garlic per 10 liters of water.
If flowering has already begun, then the bushes are sprayed with decoctions from plants such as:
- tobacco is a plant, but the tobacco that is used in production is also suitable;
- dandelion;
- Walnut.
The use of a simple tea brew has also proven itself well.
Using folk recipes, you need to remember that these measures are good with a slight spread of the tick. If the area affected by the pest is large, then more effective measures should be taken.
There is nothing better for the prevention of tick activity than acaricides... This is a modern line of chemicals with a wide spectrum of action, which means helping not only to combat ticks, but also with other pests and a number of diseases. The preparations are very widely presented in any of the gardening stores and are a complete alternative to sulfur, having its effect, but without harming the bush.
Aphids on white, black and red currants, how to fight?
If swellings appear on the leaves of red or white currants, and the leaves of the black currant are curled up into tubes. This indicates the defeat of plants by such a parasite as aphids.
Aphids usually settle on the bushes of the white and red varieties:
- red-gall;
- currant hairy.
Black gooseberry aphid loves the same.
Dangerous for diseased plants and extremely favorable for aphids are weather conditions such as:
- arid;
- hot;
- sunny.
All wonderful days for relaxing in the country, as if intended for barbecue and mowing lawns, are loved not only by humans, but also by aphids. It is necessary to fight this pest constantly, since the life cycle of an individual is very short, and during the summer season can change from 10 to 15 generations in one colony of insects.
The aphid that settled on the currant is a very small insect, on average, the body length is only 2.2 mm. In close congestion, pests look like a patch of light grayish, yellow or green shades.
Aphids feed on the juice of currant leaves, biting into them from the back. Even a small settlement of these pests takes a lot of energy from the bush., significantly reducing not only the yield, but also the growth and development of currants.
The waste of aphids is the honeydew, or, as it is also called, honeydew - a favorite delicacy of ants. It is a common misconception that ants eat aphids, helping the summer resident to fight it. It's not like that at all. on the contrary, ants carefully protect the pest colonies and even spread aphids, transferring them to fresh shoots and neighboring bushes.
Aphids and ants are a natural symbiosis of species, therefore it is extremely important, starting the fight against aphids, to destroy anthills.
You can get rid of pest colonies in the following popular ways:
- noticing swollen leaves on the bushes, shoots with twisted lumps of leaves, you need to immediately, without putting off, cut and burn;
- helps well spraying bushes and processing each leaf with an infusion of ash and makhorka, prepared in such a proportion - 400-500 grams per 10 liters of water;
- good effect gives hand washing each sheet and then spraying the whole plant with a solution of soap and soda - a lot of soap and a tablespoon of soda per liter of water;
- celandine is poisonous for aphids, therefore, having prepared an infusion in a proportion of 3.5-4 kg of freshly cut celandine per 10 liters of water, you can spray the bushes, both already affected and outwardly healthy, but you need to wear gloves and a respirator, since celandine can cause severe irritation;
- just wash every leaf with soap and escape, a household one is best.
In addition to these widely accepted and fairly simple methods, pesticides and insecticides can be used against aphids, such as:
- vofatox;
- karbofos;
- kinmix;
- aktara;
- rokyvoort.
The list of drugs offered to gardeners by the industry is quite large and varied, but whichever one you choose, you will have to spray the bushes three times:
- in the spring, before bud break;
- after the appearance of leaves;
- in summer, about a month before picking berries (July - August, depending on the variety).
For preventive measures, in order to initially scare off aphids, it is good to plant plants next to currants that it does not tolerate:
- onion;
- dill;
- tomatoes;
- garlic;
- mint;
- parsley;
- basil;
- coriander;
- tansy;
- marigold.
It will be most effective to apply comprehensive measures, including detection and baiting of ants. Getting rid of aphids is completely difficult, but quite possible.
What if the currant dries?
There are many reasons due to which the bushes may begin to turn yellow and dry, but they can all be divided into three categories:
- natural circumstances;
- the action of pests;
- plant diseases.
Natural causes include weather, such as drought. The wrong place in which the bush grows is too sunny and dry, or, conversely, moisture stagnation, which causes rotting of the roots.
Insects that harm currants are the most common cause of leaf drying. In addition to traditional parasites, ants and fire butterflies can cause plant ailments.
Diseases leading to plant drying out are usually carried by insects. The most common ones are:
- veined and striped mosaics;
- anthracnose, a fungal infection that requires immediate action;
- powdery mildew, both European and American;
- cercosporosis;
- rust, both goblet and columnar.
If the origins of the drying of currants are due to weather reasons, for example, in a hot and sunny summer, then it is easy to deal with it. You just need to provide watering. They drink a lot of bushes, from 1.5 to 2 x buckets per day... During the ripening period of berries, the amount of water received by the plant must be increased to three buckets.
You can not water the currants with cold water, from such care the plant can get sick. The water should warm up well in the sun. To do this, you can dial it in the morning, leaving it for the day.
If the bush dries up due to decay of the roots, due to their flooding, which is typical for a very rainy summer, the actions should be as follows:
- pour soil under the plant;
- dig drainage grooves around the bush, at a distance of 50-60 cm.
After the completion of heavy rains, when the earth dries up, the drainage layer must be filled up, since currants are a moisture-loving plant, and under normal conditions it does not need water drainage.
If the bushes dry out due to the fault of insects or diseases, then appropriate measures must be taken.
Not every modern summer resident understands the types of insect pests or a variety of plant diseases. therefore very popular chemicals of a wide complex action, such substances include:
- sulfur;
- phosphomide;
- karbofos;
- vitriol;
- bordeaux liquid;
- phytosporin;
- foundationol.
Fungal infections, such as anthracnose, require fungicide treatment of the bush as soon as possible. The causative agent of the disease, a fungus, starts in fallen leaves. That's why it is extremely important to remove foliage from the site and burn it... The disease itself manifests itself in the middle of summer, in the form of red-brown spots on the leaves. If the disease is not cured, the “rash” will capture all the leaves, eventually exposing the bush, and infect neighboring plants.
As preventive measures against insects and diseases, the following are very effective:
- processing of currants and soil under it 2% solutions of nitrophene or karbofos in the spring. Before bud break;
- periodic spraying during the summer of the bushes with foundation.
Often the currant dries up simply because the bush is old. In this case, either you need to rejuvenate it with pruning, or dig it out, and, after disinfecting and fertilizing the soil, plant a new one.
It is not so difficult to ensure that the currants bear fruit well, do not hurt or dry out. It is enough just to comply with some conditions:
- correctly choose a place for the bushesnot too dry and without stagnant water;
- provide watering into drought;
- remove dead leaves;
- prophylactically process plants;
- attentively monitor the state bushes.
By following these simple rules, currants will certainly delight from year to year with large, juicy, tasty and very healthy berries.