Currant is a shrub that can reach 2.5 m in height. Currant leaves have large teeth along the edge, the berries reach up to 1 cm in diameter and have a strong characteristic odor. Currants can grow in the shade, but a more favorable area will be the soil in a sunny, well-lit area.
Currant berries contain many vitamins, organic acids, micro-and macronutrients. Its use is useful in many human diseases. Moreover, not only berries, but also currant leaves and its flowers are used for treatment.
It is important to care for currant bushes, as they are prone to certain diseases and can undergo invasions of insect pests. The gardener's task is to diagnose the bush disease in time and accurately, in order to cure it. There are also preventive measures, consisting in preventive treatment, proper care and initially proper planting.
If prevention was not carried out, or was not effective, currant bushes can undergo diseases. Currant has different diseases, each of them has its own characteristics and measures to overcome.
Fungal
There are several types of currant diseases. One type of currant disease is a fungal disease.
Did you know? For red, black and white currants, the diseases manifest and are treated equally. But some types of currants are more susceptible to certain diseases.
Fungal diseases of red currant, black and white currant, there are such: powdery mildew, anthracnose, white spot, glass rust, columnar rust, drying of shoots, gray mold.
Mealy dew
If a white loose coating appears on the currant, then this indicates a disease like European or American powdery mildew. White and friable plaque appears on young leaves, goes to the berries and old leaves. The second name of this disease is a sphere library.
Treatment: if powdery mildew has appeared on currants, it is necessary to take such control measures as spraying with phytosporin or iodine solution.
Iodine solution is made in proportion to 1 bottle of iodine per 10 liters of water. If necessary, spraying one of the solutions can be repeated after 3 days. But if these actions do not give the desired result, you will have to spray the bush with a solution of copper sulfate, copper oxychloride (1 teaspoon per 7 liters of water) or a solution of Bordeaux liquid.
From popular methods, white powdery mildew on currants also has something to treat. A solution of soda ash and laundry soap is used: 50 g of soda and 50 g of soap are diluted with 10 liters of water. Bleach, diluted in a ratio of 1-2 tablespoons per bucket of water, is also effective.
Anthracnose
Reddish-brown spots on currant leaves, which appeared in mid-summer, indicate a bush disease called anthracnose. These spots have dimensions of 1 mm in diameter, which gradually spread out and cover the entire sheet. Anthracnose strikes and leaf stalks, so that the leaves turn brown, dry out and begin to fall off in the lower part of the bush. Often this type of fungal disease appears in the rainy season.
The most susceptible to anthracnose is red currant. The disease can overwinter in fallen leaves, so it is very important in the spring to remove last year’s leaves from under the bushes.
With currant anthracnose, treatment should begin as soon as possible. To do this, treat the currant bush with a solution of Bordeaux liquids in the proportion of 100 g per 10 liters of water. After harvesting, re-treatment is required.
White spot
White currant disease, or septoria, affects mainly the leaves. Visually, it looks like this: leaves are covered with round or angular spots with a diameter of 2-3 mm. These spots are initially brown, and then become white with a narrow brown border.
Most often other types of this disease suffer from black currant. Bushes with septoriosis prematurely lose their leaves, grow poorly and give a bad harvest. The source of infection are diseased fallen leaves.
Treatment: spray with phytosporin bush. Fallen leaves to collect and burn to prevent further infection. To prevent the appearance of white spot, in the feed you need to make such trace elements as copper, manganese, boron, zinc.
Glass rust
Quite often there is another fungal disease of currants - scaly rust. It looks like orange-red bubbles on currant leaves. Fungal spores are brought by the wind from sedge trees growing nearby. Also a favorable environment for the development of glass rust is high humidity. On the affected bush leaves turn yellow, which then fall off, like berries.
How to cure currants, affected by the rust cup - to hold a series of sprays of the bush. Used 1% Bordeaux liquid, which is sprayed with currant bushes 3 times: when the leaves bloom, flowering begins and immediately after flowering.
The second spraying option is to use a 0.4% suspension of 80% Kuprozan and 1% colloidal sulfur at the rate of 3-4 kg / ha. Spraying is carried out with this solution 4 times: before flowering, after flowering, 12 days later and after harvesting.
To prevent infection by this fungus, the sedge growing alongside should be destroyed. In the fall, you need to scrape and burn the leaves, if orange-red pimples were seen on the leaves of the currant bushes.
Columnar rust
Unlike glass rust, columnar rust is transferred from coniferous trees. Especially from this fungus suffers blackcurrant.
There is columnar rust with small yellow specks on the leaves of the bush. Orange pads are visible on the underside of the sheet. This disease is dangerous because the leaves fall ahead of time, shoots grow worse and the bush's hardiness is lost.
Treatment: spray the bushes before the sheets appear, after flowering, after picking the berries with 1% Bordeaux liquid. The procedure is carried out with injured bushes. Once signs of columnar rust have been noticed, the shrub can be treated with phytosporin. The leaves in the autumn with ailing bushes should be burned or embedded in the soil.
Shrinking shoots
Red and white currants are the most susceptible to dry shoots. The name speaks for itself - when the disease shoots and branches wither and die. Treatment should begin as soon as possible in order to preserve the bush and the crop that it can give.
The disease has the appearance of small orange dots on the branches. They may not be very noticeable, but over time they increase and develop into red-brown bumps. After spore ripening, the tubercles become black.
Treatment: affected branches must be trimmed and burned, which will save from reinfection of the bush. The cut sections are treated with 1% Bordeaux liquid and covered with garden pitch.
Gray rot
Many cultures are susceptible to gray mold. It spreads with wind and rain from infected branches and mummified fruits. It has the appearance of brown spots on the leaves. Also on the currant bushes appears lumps mold. White currant is the most susceptible to gray mold.
Treatment: gray rot has to be fought by removing the affected leaves, shoots and fruits, which must then be destroyed. To prevent the occurrence of this disease of currant, you need to destroy the weeds, to observe the water regime and the mode of feeding.
Viral
Viral diseases of currants are more dangerous than fungal. Very often they lead to the death of the bush. The virus can not be removed from the plant. Common currant viral diseases and their treatment are described below.
Important! If the currant bush is sick with a terry or striped mosaic, the bush must be destroyed completely. This will help prevent infection of neighboring plants.
Terry or reversion
Terry or reversion causes plant sterility. This is the worst possible disease of the blackcurrant bush. They suffer all kinds of currants, but more often black.
Terry visible during flowering by the form of leaves and petals. The leaves have not five, but three lobes, the tips are pointed and elongated. Along the edge of the sheet, the teeth are rarer and larger than usual. The veins are smaller and coarser, the lamina is thickened. The leaves have a darker color. The smell of currants is not felt.
On an infected shrub bloom late for a week, inflorescences are small, narrow and elongated. The color of the inflorescences is dirty pink, and may even be green. Berries are not tied, buds dry out.
There is no cure for a bush for terry, it must be uprooted. Even if only one shoot was struck, you need to get rid of the whole plant. The bush must then be burned.
Striped mosaic
The striped mosaic is spread by aphids and mites, grafting a diseased cutting on a healthy shrub. Also, if you cut the sick and healthy bushes with one tool without disinfecting it, the disease can be tolerated.
On the diseased plant, leaves appear around the large veins of a bright yellow color. This usually occurs in early June.
Since currant viral diseases are not treated, the bush affected by a striped mosaic must be completely uprooted and burned.
Important! If the currant in the garden was sick with a viral disease, then you shouldn’t plant a new bush instead of a sick bush. duringasminimum5 years.
Currant disease prevention
Gardeners should know how to spray currants in the spring to prevent various diseases. Well proven drug "Zircon", spraying which is carried out in the spring and which can be repeated in late August.
Spraying in the fall also gives good results. It is necessary to make a solution of urea in the proportion of 700 g per 10 liters of water, which is used to treat all the bushes and the soil under them. Such processing should kill in the flown foliage pests and fungal spores. In April, such prevention can be repeated.
Did you know? In the spring, strictly before the buds swell, but when there is no threat of severe frost, the currant bush can be poured over with boiling water. Soda or potassium permanganate can be dissolved in boiling water. Such treatment helps well against fungal diseases and helps from spider mites.
Also, measures to prevent diseases of currants include recommendations for observing the neighborhood of plants from which diseases can be transmitted. Burning infected shoots and foliage, including guaranteeing that re-infection will not occur after the treatment of the bush.
Prevention of viral diseases of currants is the treatment of the garden from mites and aphids that carry diseases. Also, you need to carefully select planting material.
