Content of the article:
Currants are a common inhabitant of gardens and household plots, because its fruits are tasty both fresh and cooked. In addition, leaves can be added to food, especially when canning vegetables for the winter. However, in order for this fruit crop to rejoice with tasty abundant crops and excellent health, it must be properly looked after, and the processing of currants after harvesting is a very important stage of this process.
Processing of currant bushes in autumn
After finishing the collection of berries, care for currant bushes should be continued, and enhanced. At this particular time, the necessary measures are:
- loosening the soil( shallow and at some distance from the trunks);
- planting dressing( as soon as the fruit harvest is over);
- pest and disease treatment;
- forming and rejuvenating pruning;
- water recharge irrigation for the winter( carried out after the leaves fall completely before the onset of cold weather).
This will allow you to get a good harvest next year and grow healthy and strong plants.
The processing of currant bushes in the fall for the black and red varieties is slightly different. For example, black currant after gathering berries can do very well without foliage, so it is worth cutting it off. This will allow the plant to accumulate more strength for wintering. In addition, this technique is an excellent prevention of diseases and reproduction of pests, many of which overwinter in the leaves and under them. In the case of growing red currants, foliage is also recommended to be collected and burned, but it must fall off itself.
Autumn pruning of currants
Before treating currants with protective agents and fertilizers for the winter, they should be pruned. The plants of the first three years of life are thinned out for sanitary purposes, that is, they remove patients, very thin and branches located on the ground. Older shrubs rejuvenate with pruning. To do this, remove the old and weak shoots, leaving two-year and three-year( 4 branches), as well as annuals( 6-7 branches).
In black currants, the complete removal of old branches( 3 years old and older) is recommended immediately after the end of fruit harvesting. The rest of the pruning of currants of different varieties should be done in a dormant period, when the foliage has already fallen. This is usually late autumn, starting in November.
How to process currants in the fall?
Depending on the purposes, the treatment of currant bushes in the autumn is carried out:
- with mineral and organic fertilizers for feeding;
- karbofos, Bordeaux mixture or other protective drugs to combat existing diseases and pests.
For additional autumn currant fertilizer, you can also use manure, preferably with a high content of potassium( 1 bucket per bush), a solution of superphosphate and potassium phosphate( 1 tablespoon per 10 liters of water), nitrophoska( per 10 liters of water 1 tbsp.l.) or other complex mineral fertilizer.
For the autumn currant treatment to be effective, it is also recommended to make litter under bushes, for example, from shredded oak bark. It will protect the root system from drying out and frost.
