Having a personal plot, it is a sin not to plant at least a few currant bushes on it. Delicious and healthy berries can be eaten fresh, frozen, made jam for the winter. They are a source of vitamin C, antioxidants and other useful substances, so you should definitely allocate space for planting this berry.
But here's the bad luck: some gardeners do not know how to care for currant bushes and complain about low yields. There can be many reasons. For example, damage to plants by pathogens or harmful insects. As a result, the berries grow so small and sour that the owner does not even want to waste time picking them.
Everyone can achieve record harvests, you just need to show the desire and master some secrets of growing shrubs.
A good harvest of currants is laid in the fall
Harvest care must be taken from the fall. Around the bushes, the soil must be loosened, sprinkled with wood ash (a liter can of ash is enough for 1 bush), potato peelings must be dug in, which will rot during the winter.
The trunks are covered with weeded grass without seeds.
Onion hulls and dried potato peels are a top dressing and pest spraying agent.
Starch is essential for currant bushes. If in winter time potato peelings are periodically placed under the plants, then good harvests will not take long.
Currant pest control
Pest control begins after the snow cover disappears. Take a piece of an old rubber overshoe, nail it to a long stick and light it. Each branch of currant must be fumigated with caustic smoke, this is a good preventive measure against aphids, which can significantly reduce the yield of the berry.
Organic currant farming does not tolerate any chemicals. If you want to eat organic berries, use the following method to get rid of scale insects, bud aphids, and prevent powdery mildew. So, before the soil thaws, currant bushes are poured with boiling water from a watering can. There is no need to be afraid of unpleasant consequences, because the water, before it hits the branches, has time to cool down to 70 degrees and the plant does not threaten burns.
In the spring, when the buds are just beginning to bloom, the bushes are sprayed with a Bordeaux mixture and scattered in the trunks of a couple of tablespoons of urea.
A week later, the bushes are sprayed again, this time with an infusion made from onion peels. For this you need:
- Boil half a bucket of onion peel with boiling water and leave for a day. Then strain and add water before use (for 1 part of the infusion, 2 parts of water).
Another way:
- Onion peel (200 g) is poured with 10 liters of warm water and allowed to brew (5 days), filtered and used without dilution.
Sprinkle currant bushes twice with onion infusion, repeat the next time before flowering. For each plant, approximately one liter of infusion is consumed.
Fertilizing currants to increase yields
Flowering currant bushes need to be fertilized.To do this, pour a jar of dried potato peelings with 10 liters of boiling water, wrap the container and set it aside until the product has completely cooled down. Top dressing is applied at the root in the amount of 3 liters.
2 tablespoons of superphosphate, dissolved in 10 liters of water, are applied under the bushes during the formation of an ovary on them. One more sprinkle of onion skins will not hurt.
Watering for the berry is very important, you need to constantly monitor that the ground under the bushes is moist. It is not for nothing that wild currants are found in swampy areas, where they feel great.
Taking note of the recommendations for caring for the shrub described above, you can achieve good results and harvest large, sweet berries annually.
