How to properly rejuvenate the old black currant bush?

Even the most well-groomed plantings of your favorite garden culture sometimes grow old, and it's not in the appearance of the bushes: the berries are noticeably smaller, their quality leaves much to be desired, the yield is noticeably lower. The first thought - "to uproot and plant young bushes" is far from the best. This is the loss of your favorite varieties, money for seedlings, time - until the "youth" begins to actively bear fruit. The best solution to this problem will be to rejuvenate the old black currant bushes.

Why red and black currants are rejuvenated?

Currant not only quickly enters into fruiting, but also quickly grows old. Even with proper carea five-year-old bush has to be rejuvenatedat least in the planned order.

Start the annual pruning (the formation of the currant bush) should be already in the year of planting. If you remember that the main harvest of berries is given by two or three summer branches, it is quite clear thatwhen pruning, you must delete:

• all branches older than this age (except for thickening, they do not give anything);
• tops and weak branches of zero order.

Proper care of black currant bushes guarantees high yields for a maximum of seven years. Then, not only the yield decreases, but the quality of berries also deteriorates. They melt and become worse in taste.

You can also rejuvenate the currant in the following cases:

• severe damage to the disease or pests;
• the bush is overgrown;
• many old thickening branches;
• the hive is initially incorrectly formed;
• He is over 6 years old and the harvest has fallen;
• roots are damaged.

Such pruning is the best option in case,if the variety is very like, and I do not want to lose it.

Black currant, like any garden shrub or tree, rejuvenating pruning gives resistance to various fungal and other diseases. Care after pruning the bushes becomes much easier.

As the ventilation and illumination of the green part of the bush improves, the properties of the variety return to their previous level.

When to crop - in the autumn or in the spring?

Preferably trim in late autumn(after the fall of the leaves) or early in the spring to swelling of the kidneys, almost in the snow. It turns out that it will be necessary to rejuvenate the black currant late in the autumn.

Do not wait for the leaves to fall completely. Enough if at least half of them turn yellow. They can stay on the branches until the strong frost hits.

When the soil warms above about 5 degrees, an active sap movement will start and the lesion will spread further. Branches for pruning are chosen as for autumn,leaving a stump of healthy wood in 2 centimeters.

Determine the condition of the wood is very easy: dark areas indicate damage, they are cut to healthy light wood.

After spring pruning, nitrogen fertilizers are introduced into the soil.

It is also necessary to observe in summerfor the condition of planting currants:

• remove improperly growing "zero" shoots;
• get rid of broken branches;
• in time to cut sick and diseased branches.

Fundamental rules

Starting pruning,it is necessary to consider the basic rules:

• spend it in dry weather;
• the garden tool should be well honed and disinfected;
• All pruning branches should be removed from the site and burned.

Therefore, these three yearsIt is necessary to use step-by-step rejuvenation, for example "in the Chinese way":

• prikopat young shoot;
• the next year to transplant the young bush to a new place;
• the old one should be uprooted after harvesting;
• place of the old bush is disinfected, fertilized, you can return the seedling to the place.

How to rejuvenate an old bush

Preparation of tools

For cutting red and black currantswill be needed:

• secateurs;
• garden knife;
• a small hacksaw.

The requirements for these tools are standard:

• The blades should be well honed (easy to work and less injured by the bush);
• Cutting edge must be disinfected even with a solution of potassium permanganate (especially when switching to another bush).

Step-by-step recommendations

To begin with, you need to decide how much the situation is running: you need a simple next autumn pruning with rejuvenation or you need a radical rejuvenation of the bush.

Be sure to cut out:

• branches broken, directed into the bush or into the shadow, lying on the ground;
• poor crops (they should be noted in advance);
• weak growth of the current year.

To provoke their regrowth, it is necessary to remove 2-3 completely viable, but old branches.

Growing "zero" branches will be stronger ifregularly remove the tops on the lower parts of the left branches. Of these "nouveaux" leave for fruiting three (the strongest).

The finishing touch is necessaryprune the tips of left branches(not "zero but left to fructification), to well-ripened wood. This will increase the growth and make the berries larger.

Practice shows thatso you can bring back to life even bushes 10-15 years old. At the same time, the cutting is carried out really radically: the bush is cut completely, you can leave the hemp 2-3 cm (it's very problematic to cut the level with the ground).

Such a bush needs enhanced feedingnitrogen fertilizers in the spring. It is necessary to choose 5-7 branches and a full bush will grow in a year, which will last for another five years.

Someone the planned pruning scheme may seem too complicated. Understand where the branches are "zero 2-3 years old, and which are even older and should be deleted - a beginner is difficult.

A very simple way to rejuvenate currant bushes (for beginner gardeners) -Each year, 1/4 of the bush is removed(mentally divide the bush into 4 parts and remove one).

Branches older than 4 years in the bush with such an original method of pruning can not be in principle. The bush simply does not have the opportunity to grow old.

Update bush without errors

Currant is such a plastic culture thatIt is practically impossible to apply special cuts to it. It will only grow stronger. But mistakes are still possible.

First of all, it is not superfluous to repeat thatgarden tools must be decontaminated, so as not to reduce all works on rejuvenation to zero.

Remaining young shoots should not be shortened. This leads to unnecessary additional branching. The bush will be too thick, with all the ensuing consequences.

Caring for the bush after pruning

Restoration of the bush after rejuvenating pruning is impossible without proper care for it in the following period.

In the radically cut bush, the balance of forces between the root and the branches outweighs the root system.

New shoots grow faster than usual. Of these, you must choose and leave a few (not more than five) of the strongest (the rest cut).

When restoring the circumcised bushit is very important to remove the weeds and to introduce into the soil a nitrogen fertilizer(best of all, to humidify the soil with humus).

Currant prefers watering infrequently (about once every three weeks), but abundant. Autumn fertilize complex, and in spring - nitrogen fertilizers.

The first year after such pruning is to restore the strength of the bush, and the next harvest will be pleased.

Even a very old old bush, which got from the previous owner of the villa,you can updateand yet another year to feast on his berries.

Rejuvenating pruning can produce not only a professional.

It is absolutely not necessary to rust off the old plantations of black currant, when the bushes stopped to please the berries. Rejuvenationit is possible to restore their yield for another 5 years.

And during this time it is quite realistic to grow new young shrubs of varieties you like.

Trimming a neglected currant bush: