There is hardly a garden without currants. Black, red, white, pink, golden - any of them is tasty and healthy and with proper care will thank the harvest. But provided that the bushes are healthy. To achieve this, you need to know well currant diseases and their treatment.

Currant: main diseases and their treatment

Currant has a lot of diseases. Most of them are fungal in nature. Most often they occur in wet summers. A considerable contribution to the spread of diseases is made by the pests that transmit them, as well as weeds. Pathogens can persist for a long time on them. If the disease is not treated and the currant is not treated for pests, they can not only leave the gardener without a crop, but also lead to the death of the plant.

Powdery mildew

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The spore marsupial fungus, which is the causative agent of the disease, was brought to us from America more than 100 years ago, which is why the disease is sometimes called American powdery mildew. The pathogen hibernates in fallen leaves and, under favorable conditions, begins to multiply rapidly. Powdery mildew is a disease of blackcurrant, white and red are much less likely to suffer from it.

How does the fungus manifest:

  • plaque on the shoots and leaves of white with a gray tint;
  • due to the defeat of the growth point, the development of shoots stops, they deform, and then dry;
  • the formed berries do not spit, but are covered with a bloom, those that have not formed just crumble.

How to deal with powdery mildew on currants:

  • this fungus is well destroyed by fungicides, of which there are many on sale, you only need to strictly follow the instructions;
  • you can use folk remedies: infusion of ash in a proportion of 1:10, insist for several days, filter and spray until the manifestations of the disease disappear;
  • mullein infusion helps well: first dilute it with water 3 times, after three days of infusion, dilute it again in the same proportion, spray it until the disease disappears.

Anthracnose

This is mainly a disease of red currant. It has a fungal nature. The first signs appear already during flowering. The correct treatment carried out at this time will help the plant cope with the disease. But if time is lost, then in the second half of summer, redcurrant bushes will remain almost without leaves, which will fall, affected by a fungus. On blackcurrant - they will remain, but still dry.

How is anthracnose on currants:

  • the appearance of red or brown spots, which gradually occupy most of the leaf;
  • premature leaf fall in red currant and leaf drying in black.

Similar signs appear on the leaves when the currant of the gall aphid is affected. To distinguish one from the other, just look at the inside of the sheet. The pest is clearly visible to the naked eye.

It is interesting:redcurrant: diseases and treatment

What do we have to do:

  • in the spring before flowering, treat the bushes with the Topsin-M preparation, adding to it an immunostimulant: Epin, Immunocytophyte;
  • during the ripening of berries, biological treatment is possible: Fitosporin or Gamair;
  • when the crop is already harvested, it is treated with any permitted fungicide.

White spotting

Otherwise, the disease is called septoria. Blackcurrant is more sick. The disease is fungal in nature and is caused by the Septoria fungus. An outbreak can be expected if the winter was warm and not very snowy, and in the summer wet and cool.

Septoria is difficult to confuse with other diseases: spots on the leaves, first brown quickly acquire a bright middle, in which, upon careful examination, tiny black dots are visible - mushroom pycnids. White spotting very quickly takes an aggressive course and can destroy not only the diseased bush, but also neighboring plants.

How to fight:

  • the first thing to do is to collect all the infected leaves and shoots and burn them;
  • treat bushes, both sick and adjacent, with copper-containing preparations: Bordeaux liquid, vitriol, Hom or Oxychom;
  • you can do this prophylactically: before the leaves appear, immediately after they have appeared and after another 21-30 days.

With the appearance of white spotting, it is necessary to spray not only the bushes, but also the soil under them.

Column and glass rust

The columnar rust disease is caused by fungi, which often affect the cedar and pine of Weymouth. From them, spores of rust are carried in the vicinity, affecting currants, often black. Warm and humid weather contributes to the spread of the disease. It usually appears in July. On the upper part of the leaves, only yellow spots are visible, the mushroom itself is located from the inside first in the form of pads, and then orange columns, then they become like hairs. With significant infection, the leaf appears hairy.

Control measures:

  • remove and burn all affected parts of the plant;
  • treat bushes with copper-containing fungicides.

Scalloped rust is a fungal disease most often targeted by redcurrant bushes. The rust mushroom, which is the cause of the disease, has an intermediate host - sedge, and overwinters on it. Infection of berry shrubs occurs in the spring, when spores arising from basidia are spread over the site. Especially fast infection occurs in warm and rainy weather. In the summer, sedge is already infected, on which the fungus hibernates.

What does goblet rust look like?

  1. Bright spots with black dots are clearly visible on the top of the sheet.
  2. From the inside, there are orange cup-shaped pads that carry spores on top.

How to overcome the disease?

  1. Destroy all diseased leaves and branches.
  2. Spray bushes with copper or other fungicides.

Gray rot

Another disease caused by mushroom-like organisms wintering on plant debris. You can notice it after the cessation of the first wave of bushes growth in late June. Freshly grown shoots begin to fade, starting from the top. In humid weather, you can see a mushroom covering the shoots with a gray coating. Leaves on the edges are covered with light brown spots that crack, and a gray coating also appears on them.

To prevent the disease from appearing, treatment is carried out before flowering and when it ends. It is also necessary to process the bushes when the crop is harvested. For this, an infusion of ash and water in a proportion of 3:10, a solution of soda ash and soap, both of which 50 g per 10 liters of water, are suitable.

Drying of shoots and currant branches

It is also caused by a fungus. Its spores ripen in red-brown tubercles located in the lower part of the shoots. Currant drying is treated by removing damaged shoots to healthy tissue. So that the slices do not dry out, they are treated with garden varieties, it is good to disinfect them with Bordeaux liquid in a concentration of 1%.

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Striped mosaic

Caused by viruses that transmit sucking insects: spider mites, aphids. You can bring the disease by grafting a sick stalk on a healthy plant. If you trim, without disinfecting the tool after each bush, there is also a chance of infection.

Striped mosaic appears in early summer by the appearance of a pattern near the central leaf vein in the form of bright yellow stripes and spots.

There is no cure for this disease. It is necessary to take drastic measures and completely uproot the bush. You can not plant currants in this place, you have to wait at least 5 years.

Terry

Dangerous disease caused by a virus. The shape of the sheet changes, it becomes three-bladed, tougher to the touch, its color darkens, and the smell disappears. Flowers also undergo changes: the petals become narrow and elongated, their color changes to purple or green, the berries in place of the flowers are not tied. Flowering itself occurs a week later.

The disease is not treated, you need to do with the bush the same way as in the previous case.

Disease prevention

All fungal diseases spread in conditions of high humidity. It is necessary to deal with it by timely pruning, leaving from 15 to 20 shoots. In a well-ventilated bush, humidity is much less.

Among other preventive measures:

  • loosening to a depth of about 5 cm and regular weeding, there should be no weeds under the bushes;
  • cleaning in autumn from under bushes of all plant debris, including fallen leaves;
  • preventive treatments for diseases and pests, including spring treatment of bushes before buds bloom with hot water at a temperature of about 65 degrees; the roots of the bushes are covered with plywood or cardboard;
  • selection of only healthy planting material and disease-resistant varieties;
  • disinfection of the tool during cutting;
  • strengthening currant immunity with the help of immunostimulants;
  • proper and timely care.

Processing currants in the autumn from pests

After harvesting, there are no longer such restrictions on the choice of various preparations used to treat bushes from diseases and pests. Therefore, autumn is the best time to destroy them. Treatment of currants from pests begins after leaf fall. It should be preceded by pruning and thinning of the bush. Since the best fruiting is on young 1-3-year-old shoots, all branches older than 5 years are cut, as well as dry and damaged, as well as growing inside the bush.All cut material and fallen leaves must be removed from the site or burned. The soil under the currant is dug to a shallow depth, since its root system is superficial. Now proceed directly to the processing.

Fungicides are effective against diseases:

  • phytosporin;
  • copper-containing preparations;
  • colloidal sulfur;
  • infusions and decoctions of onion husks, celandine, wormwood, garlic, calendula.

With pests will help to cope:

  • 0.2% malathion;
  • Fitoverm.

It must be remembered that not only the plants themselves are sprayed, but also the soil around them - some pests and pathogens winter there. For processing, choose dry and calm weather. After 2 weeks, it must be repeated.

Proper outdoor care

Strong plants are less susceptible to attack by pests and pathogens. To strengthen the health of currants and collect good crops, the bushes must be properly looked after. Consider how to do it seasonally.

Spring

  • Currants begin vegetation early, therefore pruning plants, if not done in the fall, is carried out in early April before the sap flow begins.
  • As soon as the earth dries out a little, they loosen the soil under the bushes, combining cultivation with top dressing with nitrogen fertilizer. For 1 square. m make 15 g of ammonium nitrate or 10 g of urea.
  • The soil is mulched with any organic layer of 6-8 cm.
  • Before flowering and after it can be processed from pests and diseases, if necessary.

Summer

  • You need to water the currants regularly in the summer, she loves moisture. Watering is especially important at the time of formation and filling of berries. Irrigation for the bushes is undesirable, so as not to provoke an outbreak of fungal diseases.
  • If the ground under the bushes is not mulled, regular cultivation will be required, especially after watering.
  • Once harvested, feed the currants with full mineral fertilizer - up to 150 g per bush.
  • Plants respond well to foliar top dressing with a urea solution by sprinkling method from the calculation - a bucket of water with three matchboxes of urea dissolved in it for each bush.
  • At the end of July, pinch the null, i.e., newly grown shoots, so that they branch better.

Autumn

This is the time to prepare the plants for winter. For this, each bush is fed one hundred grams of superphosphate and thirty grams of potassium sulfate, not forgetting regular watering. If in the summer pests or diseases were noticed on the plant, autumn is the most suitable time to treat them. In the fall, they also conduct forming pruning of bushes.

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