Currant constantly needs nutrients, which it mainly consumes from the soil. From year to year, the amount of nutrients in the earth decreases, and in order to prolong the life of berry bushes, the quality of the soil has to be improved by applying fertilizers. During the season, it is recommended to feed currants 4-5 times, using both mineral and organic fertilizers.
- The very first top dressing is carried out at the moment the plant awakens and active growth green mass;
- The second dressing is carried out during flowering;
- The third top dressing falls on the period of formation and ripening of fruits;
- Fourth, after harvest;
- The fifth can be done when preparing the bushes for wintering.
Top dressing can be root or foliar. foliar top dressing carried out by spraying the bush, a weak solution of fertilizer.
Nutrients with this type of top dressing are absorbed through the leaves and get to the plant faster than with root top dressing.
When root feeding Nutrients enter the soil and are absorbed by the plant through the absorption of useful elements by the roots. The process of delivering nutrients to the roots takes time, and the bush does not receive them immediately.
To obtain healthy harvest with berry bushes, it is recommended to alternate these two types of top dressing.
How can you feed currant bushes
On the Internet, there are a lot of tips and recipes for all kinds of solutions for top dressing with the percentage and weight content of all substances necessary for application, depending on the stage of vegetative development of the bush. Remembering everything is almost impossible, and probably not necessary. The most important thing that beginner gardeners need to know is:
- The composition of the first two dressings should include nitrogen.
- Subsequent feeding should be carried out by eliminating or reducing the level of nitrogen elements (because nitrogen contributes to the active growth of green mass, and at the stage of formation and ripening of berries this is no longer necessary, because the bush should direct all its forces to the formation and ripening of fruits, and not active green growth).
The simplest compositions for feeding currant bushes
Specialty Blends fertilizers for fruit bushes. Purchased granular or liquid fertilizers for feeding fruit bushes (spring-autumn) are easy to use. On the back of each package is detailed instructions on application, composition, terms and rates of fertilizer application.
Folk recipes:
- Nitrogen-containing top dressing (spring);
- Complex feed (summer - autumn).
Nitrogen is found in manure, compost, bird droppings.
1. The rotted manure is diluted in water 1: 4 and the bushes are watered. Fresh, pour water 1:1 and insist 2-3 days. The finished composition is diluted 1:10 and watered with the calculation of 1 bucket of solution per bush.
2. Bird droppings are diluted 1:12, the application rate is the same - 1 bucket per bush.
3. It is good to mulch the ground under the bush with humus or compost, throughout the spring-summer period.
Complex fertilizing currants
Complex feeding should contain phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and other useful elements. For such top dressing, you can use ash, starch, yeast.
All of the above compositions can be used both for the root method of feeding, and for foliar. You should be more careful only with manure and bird droppings, their concentration should be halved.
At first glance, it may seem that the preparation of infusions is a long and laborious process, but this is not so, we lay the right ingredients in a bucket of water and put in a greenhouse. The cooking process will go on by itself while you go about your business.
Folk methods of feeding should be used in combination with mineral fertilizers, alternating them with each other.
Take care of the currant bushes and then they will surely thank you with a plentiful, juicy and very sweet harvest.
Almost every summer resident grows currant bushes. Monastic berries (an old folk name), literally bursting from an abundance of vitamins and necessary to a person micro and macro elements, eat fresh and harvest for future use. The natural desire of the gardener is to find out for himself how to feed the currants for a good harvest, and choose the most suitable fertilizers, the right timing for their application.
The purpose of fertilizing
Currants are unpretentious, even without fertilizing they will yield a crop, but its quality will be poor - the berries will turn out to be small, sour, poor in useful material devoid of fragrance. Without additional nutrition, the bushes will quickly degenerate, bear fruit irregularly, and get sick more often. But in a timely and high-quality fed bushes are less susceptible to infections, pest invasions, the harvest is given annually, responding to fertilizers with sweetness, aroma and large size of berries.
Fertilization methods
Currants are fed during the season in two main ways - root and foliar. They are equivalent, only in the second case, nutrients enter the green parts faster, and in the first case, to the roots, saturating the whole plant. Experienced summer residents recommend alternating top dressing at the root and along the leaf.
Foliar top dressing
Nutrients enter the plant literally in a matter of hours, so this method is often used for emergency application. nutrients if signs of acute deficiency appear. It is optimal to alternate spraying weak solution root fertilizers.
The concentration of the nutrient solution for foliar feeding is reduced by a factor of three compared to formulations for applying under the root.
Spray the leaves in clear, dry weather, in the morning or evening. If the summer is damp, rainy, it is advisable to feed the currants with dry compounds at the root.
Root top dressing
The method involves the introduction of dry and liquid forms of fertilizers. Dry formulations are usually applied to the planting hole or mixed with the topsoil of the near-stem circle. As the soil becomes moist, the particles dissolve and enter the root system. Granules or powders are usually applied in the spring, when the soil is saturated with moisture, their work during this period is most effective. Although liquid fertilizers reach the roots more quickly, they are best applied in combination with watering.
Types of fertilizers for currants
The berry bush perfectly perceives all types of fertilizers: mineral, organic, folk remedies. The use of each species has its own characteristics associated with the time of year, the growing season, soil characteristics.
There are no regional differences in the composition of fertilizers, their types, names, forms. Be guided by the characteristics of the soil.
Mineral fertilizers
If, when planting currant seedlings, the soil was compiled and fertilized in accordance with all the rules, mineral complexes begin to be applied from the third year three times per season:
- in early spring when processing the soil;
- during the active formation of shoots;
- when preparing plantings for winter.
When choosing mineral complexes, summer residents take into account the following factors:
- From spring to mid-summer, currants need more nitrogen, as fruitful branches are growing.
- With the beginning of the formation of ovaries, during the period of ripening of berries and fruiting (in June-July), the emphasis is on potassium and phosphorus.
- Currants do not like chlorine, so potassium chloride is not used.
- The nitrogen component of fertilizers is absorbed by the root system very quickly.
- Potassium- and phosphorus-containing minerals are fixed by the soil, their assimilation proceeds gradually.
Among summer residents, superphosphate, ammonium and calcium nitrate, ready-made mineral complexes of the Kemira-Lux type (N–P–K is 16–20–27) are popular. The optimal rate of application of mineral fertilizers during the growing season is from 10 to 30 g active substance on a plant.
organic
Bird droppings and manure - perfect solution for fertilizing bushes with organic matter. However, due to the high nitrogen content, they are used only in spring and early summer. Manure is taken rotted, diluted in a ratio of 1:5. Fresh manure is diluted with an equal part of water, insisted for several days, mixed with water 1:10 before use. Bird droppings (1 part) and water (12 parts) are mixed well. The consumption rate of both types of top dressing: 5 liters per young bush, 10 liters per adult.
Do not pour manure or litter under the root. A groove is dug around the circumference of the crown of the bush, where the nutrient liquid is poured.
Compost and humus, as they do not contain nitrogen, are used throughout the season. The usual practice is to mulch the near-stem circle with a centimeter layer of substance after caring for currants - loosening the soil, watering.
Folk remedies
Home dressings are especially loved by summer residents who are trying to reduce the use of chemistry on the site and at the same time increase the yield. However, if the soil is not fertile, replacing conventional fertilizers with folk remedies will not be complete, and you still have to add minerals. Wood ash. Universal remedy, which is easy to find on every suburban area. Ash not only helps to cope with pests, protect against diseases, it also serves as a valuable mineral raw material for feeding garden and garden plants. You can use it almost without restrictions. It is often enough to sprinkle a glass of the substance in the near-stem circle.
Ash infusion is considered effective:
- ash is poured into the bucket to about half;
- add water to full volume;
- insist 2 days;
- infusion is diluted with water 1:10;
- 10 liters of infusion are poured under an adult bush, 5 liters under a young one.
Starch. Currant bushes love starch, although they absorb the substance poorly, such top dressing is useful for them during the period of berry growth, they acquire great sweetness. Starch is added in one of several ways. Starch from the store is diluted with water (100 g / 2.5 l), allowed to boil, removed from heat, cooled. Cold jelly is diluted with a bucket of water and currants are poured at the rate of 2 liters per black bush or 3 liters per red, yellow or white currant bush.
They feed the monastery berry with starch before flowering and when pouring berries. Potato peelings. The best fertilizer for black currant, is a great way to use food waste. Under the bushes, either fresh cleanings or dried crushed ones are added dropwise, or an infusion is prepared from equal parts of waste and water in volume.
Infusion for feeding potato peels they cook for a month and a half, so they have to be harvested from the winter. Ready infusion is diluted with water 1:10.
Bread. good remedy for currants of colored species - red and white (yellow). Dry pieces of bread are poured with an equal volume of water, insisted for 10 days, water is added 1:10. Under each bush pour 1 liter of the finished product. For blackcurrant, such top dressing is meaningless. Instead of bread, yeast is also used: 200 g per 1 liter of water, after mixing, dilute with water 1:10. An adult bush of a monastery berry needs 1 liter of liquid. "Tea" from weeds. One of my favorites country tricks caring owners. Weeds without seeds fill the tank by 2/3 of the volume, pour water, insist 5-7 days. After fermentation, the liquid is filtered, topped up with water:
- for watering under the root 1:10;
- for feeding on the sheet 1:20.
For every 10 liters of finished "tea" add 1 liter of tobacco infusion and half a glass of ash. For root dressing, each bush needs 1 liter of the mixture.
Terms of feeding currants
In total, black currants are fed five times during the season, red and white - four, root system in bushes with colored berries, it is more powerful, capable of extracting nutrients in larger quantities.
- The first feeding is carried out in the spring, at the beginning of the active growth of young shoots.
- The second time fertilizers are applied when the mass flowering of the shrub begins.
- The third recharge is required when the fruits begin to set.
- The fourth time nutrients are applied after harvest.
- The fifth time the blackcurrant needs to be fertilized 4-5 weeks before the stable winter cold, the procedure is not needed for the red berry.
Planting fertilizers
When planting or transplanting a shrub, fertilize the soil for the planting pit:
- 1/2 bucket of rotted manure or compost;
- 2 tbsp. l. granular superphosphate;
- 1/2 st. l. urea;
- 1 st. l. potash fertilizer (without chlorine!).
Fertilize the soil with manure about a year before planting or transplanting.
Fertilizers applied in spring, during flowering and after
As soon as the buds swell, the monastery berry bushes are fertilized in spring with mineral fertilizers - nitroammophos. 10–15 g are placed under a blackcurrant bush, 8–10 g dry under a colored one. During flowering, plants need liquid fertilizers:
- under the root - 10 g of potassium sulfate or 12 g of superphosphate, dissolved in 10 liters of water;
- according to the sheet - a solution of 3 g of potassium sulfate or 4 g of superphosphate and 10 liters of water.
When berry tassels begin to form, the bushes are fertilized with ash.
Fertilizing when berries ripen
When deciding how to feed currants during fruiting, preference is given to liquid fertilizers because of their rapid digestibility:
- organic - mullein 1:4, chicken manure 1:10 or herbal infusion 1:10;
- mineral complexes - 10 g of nitrogen-, potassium- and phosphorus-containing substances per 10 liters of water;
- or ready-made complexes with high content phosphorus and potassium, 20-30 g per 10 liters.
Fertilizers are applied at the rate of 10 liters per plant, it is advisable to feed after heavy watering or rain. Upon completion of top dressing, the soil of the near-stem circle is mulched.
Autumn after harvest
Often, summer residents, having collected berries, leave currant bushes to themselves, switch to caring for other crops. But this is against the rules of berry farming, and it is important to know how and with what to feed the currants after harvesting.
Usually in the fall, the bushes are watered with a solution of potash and phosphorus fertilizers (5-10 g per bucket of water). Nitrogen cannot be applied during this period, the bushes must recover after fruiting, prepare for the winter, and not waste energy on the release of new shoots. Therefore, currants are fed after harvesting before winter with compost: 5–6 kg with the addition of 20 g of potash fertilizer and 50 g of superphosphate.
Fertilizers for currants are applied only in the indicated dosages, especially ready-made complex formulations, including trace elements. Exceeding the dose can lead to the opposite effect - a decrease in yield, a deterioration in its quality. On sandy, sandy, calcareous soils organic matter is applied several times a season, trunk circle be sure to mulch.
Dry fertilizers are scattered evenly, followed by watering. Thus, their uniform distribution in the soil is achieved. Sowing green manure in early spring and before winter improves the quality and increases soil fertility.
Proper fertilization, compliance with the timing and sequence of fertilizing preserves the ability of the bushes to produce abundant yields of tasty, useful berry long years. Attentive care guarantees the health of the most valuable gift of nature - the currant, loved by children and adults.
Currant thanked you for leaving with berries. And if this gratitude seemed a little small to you, it means that something was missed in the spring and summer. After harvesting appears new chance correct mistakes and help the bushes lay the next year's harvest. And in the case of abundant fruiting, when the currant gave a lot of strength, it can not do without your attention.
Caring for currants after fruiting
During this period, you no longer need to be afraid to treat currants with insecticides and fungicides. If you find pests on the bushes, you see clear signs of disease, then you can finally get rid of them. But first, tidy up the bush. And after all the events, it would be necessary to support the currants with watering and top dressing.
We clear the ground under the bush
Pull out all the weeds, remove fallen leaves and berries, clear the place under the bush and around it to the black earth. This event will facilitate all subsequent care for you. Branches will be more visible. And if diseased leaves and berries infected with pests fall off again, you can easily collect them.
By clearing the ground under the bush, you will facilitate your further work on caring for currants.
We do sanitary and cosmetic pruning
Pest and disease control will be more effective if foci of infection are removed before treatments:
- tops of branches with aphid-twisted leaves;
Aphid colonies live inside such wrapped leaves.
- tops of branches covered with white powdery mildew;
Disease powdery mildew also starts at the top.
- unharvested berries, braided with cobwebs, wormy, bursting or dried;
Collect not only good berries but also spoiled by pests
- leaves with spots, swelling and other damage;
Leaves with signs of diseases and pests should be cut off
- whole branches with withered leaves and dried berries on red currants, inside them live glass larvae.
A glass case often settles on red currants, the larvae bite into the shoots, the leaves and berries wither on them.
All this immediately burn or take it out of the area and throw it away. In addition, you need to prune branches that:
- broke;
- grow inside the crown;
- creep along the ground.
Spend a partial formation of the bush, make the final one next spring. Cut out one of the oldest branches with black bark and small green growths (up to 20 cm).
In black currant, 4-year-old branches are already considered old, their yield at this age decreases. Redcurrant is more durable, its shoots remain productive up to 6-7 years.
Also thin out the annual shoots growing from the center of the bush. Leave only 3-5 of the tallest and thickest. Pinch their tops for branching, because currant berries grow on lateral shoots of the first and second orders.
Video: how to increase the yield of currants by 1.5–2 times with summer pruning
We fight pests and diseases
No need to buy from spider mite one drug, the second from moth, etc. Treat the bush with broad-spectrum insecticides: Aktara, Karbofos, etc. For all diseases, it is also enough to choose one drug: Topaz, Skor, HOM, Horus or another fungicide. Work with them not only the bush, but also the ground under it, all the props and the fence, if it is nearby.
For healthy currants, one preventive treatment is enough. Bushes affected by insects and fungi, spray both fungicide and insecticide twice with an interval of 7-10 days. The frequency of treatments is indicated on the packaging of each drug.
Watering currants
After fruiting, a reorientation of forces occurs at the currant bush, now it is not the aerial part that grows, but the root. Moisture deficiency during this period will result in poor plant development next year: growth will be weak, yield will decrease. Be sure to water, wetting the ground to the entire depth of the roots: in young 3-year-old bushes - up to 1 m, in adults - up to 1.5 m. 4–5 holes along the perimeter to the same depth. Fill them with water, let them soak and water again until the water begins to stagnate in puddles.
Water the bush in the groove made around it.
We feed
Top dressing must be combined with watering or rain, it is impossible to apply on dry land! Sprinkle evenly 2 tbsp into already moistened irrigation holes or grooves. l. superphosphate and 1 tbsp. l. potassium sulphate on a bush and continue to water over fertilizer. You can dissolve this amount in a bucket of water and apply when watering. Superphosphate dissolves more easily in hot water. Mineral fertilizers can be replaced with a glass wood ash, bringing it in exactly the same way: into a groove or loosen it in a bucket of water.
Shake the ash in water and pour it under the bush
Loose and cover with mulch
After all the procedures, level the ground under the bush, loosen the top layer from the base to the periphery. Cover with mulch with a layer of 5 cm. Use sawdust, weeded and dried weeds, straw for this. After leaf fall, when the daytime temperature drops to 5–7 ° C, it would be good to find an opportunity to remove this mulch, take it to the compost, and lay a fresh 10 cm layer instead.
In the old mulch at this time, pests have already hidden for the winter, they are inactive. Caught in top layer compost heap, insects will freeze. As a new mulch, you can use humus, ready compost or bedding from under birds and cattle. These materials will serve as a good top dressing in the spring, immediately after the snow melts.
Video: preparing currants for winter
Any experienced summer resident knows perfectly well that during the period of bud formation, flowering and ripening, currant bushes should be fertilized abundantly in order to get a rich harvest. Everything goes from folk remedies to chemical fertilizers.
Feeding currants after harvest ensures good fruiting next year.
Choosing the right fertilizer
Someone is surprised by the very fact of fertilizing the bush after the harvest is harvested. Indeed, why is this even necessary if the berries have already been harvested and there will be none until the next season? In fact, after harvesting, all the nutrients go not to the formation of foliage, flowers and berries, as in June and July, but to strengthen the branches.
At good nutrition branches become thicker, saturated with salts and organic matter. In other words, top dressing currants in the fall provides an easy wintering. Some experts even argue that a healthy and strong bush does not need to be closed for the winter - it can easily withstand long frosts down to -30 degrees without harm to itself. Therefore, it is clearly not worth neglecting autumn top dressing.
It is especially important to fertilize sandy or simply soil poor in organic matter. If you first plowed virgin soil a couple of years ago, the soil probably has everything you need for wintering.
If three generations of summer residents successfully work on one piece of land, then currants will draw the last useful substances from the soil for abundant fruiting. The stock needs to be restored immediately!
So, how to feed currants in the fall? Refuse immediately nitrogen fertilizers. They "invigorate" the plant, ensure the growth of young branches, the formation of leaves. If in the spring this is extremely important, then by autumn, on the contrary, it is undesirable - the bush should begin to fall asleep, and not wake up.
But Compost will become good decision. Unlike chemical fertilizers, it decomposes for a rather long time - the results make themselves felt after 2-3 months. Therefore, it is best to apply compost under the soil in mid-late September (for middle lane Russia). Before frost, it will only begin to decompose, enriching the soil, but after the snow melts and the earth warms up, the bush will receive rich top dressing, which will be needed to form a large number of branches, leaves and buds.
Some gardeners believe that it is best to introduce humus and compost in stages. They feed blackcurrants in three stages: in September, October and November. Others are convinced that you can save time by fertilizing the bush at a time - the effect will be exactly the same. It is difficult to harm a plant with humus, so you can safely apply up to 4 kg under a young bush and up to 6 kg under a strong one that has been growing in place for more than a year.
The addition of ash also gives a good result. You should be more careful with it - 200 grams under a bush is quite enough. This is if the soil has an average acidity. If your garden has high acidity, you can add up to 300 grams. Conversely, on slightly acidic it is undesirable to use more than 100 grams per square meter.
If you have no prejudices about the use of chemical fertilizers, you can scatter Superphosphate on the ground - no more than 100 grams. It stimulates the strengthening of the roots, which means that it further increases the chances of a bush for a successful wintering.
After the top dressing of blackcurrant is completed, the earth must be carefully dug up. The depth is not more than 7-10 centimeters. Otherwise, you risk damaging the roots. If the autumn turned out to be dry, immediately after fertilizing, the bush should be watered abundantly - the water should saturate the ground by 40-50 centimeters, gaining access to the entire root system.
So that the wind does not dry the soil once again, it can be mulched. Use needles, dry manure, chopped grass, sawdust and any other mulch.
Alternative fertilizer
Autumn top dressing of currants is extremely important - it is impossible to argue with this. But apart from autumn, spring and summer top dressing there is also a special, stretching on everything warm time of the year. It is simple and does not cause concern even among the most ardent supporters of ecological farming. We are talking about the landing of green manure.
If you want to get the most out of green manure, then it is best to plant legumes:
- beans;
- beans;
- peas.
Summer residents who simply want to improve the quality of the soil, in addition to the above crops, you can pay attention to:
- rape;
- lupine;
- mouse peas.
All these plants absorb a large number of nitrogen from the air, bind it and saturate the soil. And nitrogen, as mentioned above, contributes rapid growth leaves, which has a positive effect on plant vitality and yield.
Some summer residents prefer to cut green manure before flowering in order to next year not have unnecessary problems with their bushes. But you can act more rationally - harvest peas and beans in the summer, and in August carefully mow them, sending them to compost heap or shredded and used as mulch.
They can be soaked overnight warm water, dig a small ditch around the perimeter of the hole with a bush and bury the potatoes and waste in it. Potatoes contain a huge amount of starch. Having rotted rather quickly, such a fertilizer will perfectly support the bush, nourishing its roots, ensuring that the bush will survive even the most frosty winter without serious losses.
The main thing is not to use rotten potatoes. Rot may well infect the ground and harm currants. Therefore, it would be better to send potatoes affected by rot to a compost heap.
Bread crusts and other scraps can be a good help. They must be kept in warm water, and then buried under a bush. Bread contains not only a large amount of starch, providing the roots with the same nourishment as potatoes, but also yeast. During reproduction, the latter secrete carbon dioxide, which is absorbed by the bush and recycled during photosynthesis.
You can also use mullein: cook it with a large capacity and fresh cow dung, every newcomer who has not previously worked in the country can. Fresh manure is filled with water in a ratio of 1:5. It is advisable to leave the barrel in the sun - the warmer the water is, the more actively the bacteria necessary to revitalize the depleted soil will multiply.
Fertilizer is infused for a week. If possible, the contents of the barrel should be stirred with a long stick at least once a day. After this time, the resulting slurry is additionally diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 1 and poured under a bush.
Manure in general is one-stop solution. On the one hand, applied in dry form, it perfectly performs the function of mulch, protecting the soil from dry wind, retaining moisture.
On the other hand, constantly moistened and heated in the sun, it gradually rots, giving useful substances to the plant and providing a rich harvest.
It is worth recalling that black currants need significantly more nutrients than, for example, red and white. It bears fruit more abundantly, and the berries in most of its varieties are much larger. So, when a blackcurrant bush (especially if it has been growing in one place for 10-15 years) has to winter, make sure that the soil under it is thoroughly fertilized. Then you can be sure that the plant will not only easily overwinter, but will also bring a rich harvest the next year.
