Growing black currants: planting, care and propagation

Planting black currants

Even a schoolchild can cope with planting black currants! The shrub is unpretentious and hardy, the survival rate is high. Therefore, you only need to choose a high-quality seedling, decide on the planting time, prepare the planting hole and follow the rules and planting scheme.

Landing location

When choosing a place for currants, select a suitable area:

1. with nutritious soil,
2. with a groundwater level no closer than 2 m to the surface,
3. without stagnation of moisture,
4. Soil pH is about 6.0.

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GROWING BLACKCURRANTS IN SIBERIA

Photo: plant black currants in a fertile area without stagnant water with slightly acidic soil

Landing dates

It is best to plant black currants in the spring – in March or April.

When planting in the spring, it is important to have time to plant the shrub before the currants come to life:

• until the buds and green cone of the future leaf appear,
• before sap flow begins.

If you plant in the fall, you need to be sure that the shrub will have time to take root before severe frosts arrive and a thick snow cap covers the ground.

Seedlings for planting

• When purchasing seedlings, inspect the root system and shoots for integrity.
• It is better to take two-year-olds as seedlings.
• They have already reached half a meter in height, acquired a reliable root system, and developed immunity.

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WHEN AND HOW TO PLANT CURRANTS CORRECTLY

Photo: the best time to plant blackcurrants is spring

Planting hole

Carefully dig up the area for the currants, add 15 kg of humus and 1 tbsp. nitroammophoska per 1 m² of soil. Break up all the clods, level the soil and only then dig the planting hole.

• Immediately place a couple of shovels of expanded clay at the bottom of the hole for drainage.
• The size of the hole should correspond to the volume of the roots of the seedling, so that the roots are not crowded, and they are quietly located in the hole.

Before planting, place 1 tsp in the hole. nitroammophoska and a bucket of humus, pour out a bucket of water. We will place the seedling in this nutritious liquid.

Planting scheme

Plant the bushes so that the plants do not oppress each other in the future.

1. If you decide to plant several varieties of black currants on your plot, then maintain a spacing of approximately 2 m between the bushes.
2. If you decide to plant several rows, then leave a free space of 3 m between them.

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PLANTING CURRANTS IN THE FAR EAST

Photo: dig a hole to the size of the roots and maintain the distance between the bushes

Landing rules

1. We place the seedling in the hole not vertically, but at an angle of 45°.
2. Try to ensure that the root collar of the currant bush (the place where the roots enter the trunk) is buried 5 cm into the soil.
3. All that remains is to sprinkle all the roots very well and reliably compact the soil so that there are no voids left between the roots.
4. Next, each seedling should be watered with a bucket of water.

• We leave only parts of the growths with 4 living buds on each.
• To avoid infection with glassware, the tops of the cuts should be immediately painted over with garden paint.

Photo: after planting, water the bush and trim it

Blackcurrant care

Blackcurrant care begins in spring.

1. If the bush is young, just planted, the maximum that can be done is to dilute 1 tbsp. nitroammophoska in a bucket of water and pour under each bush.
2. If the bush is already several years oldand he has acquired young shoots, then you need to carefully examine them, cut off all the dried and diseased ones to healthy wood, and cover all the cuts with garden paint or garden varnish, slightly heated in your hand.
3. Biennial plants More solid feeding is needed. You can use 1.5 tbsp. nitroammophoska on a bucket of water under each bush. Before applying fertilizer, the soil must be thoroughly loosened, all weeds removed, then fertilized and mulched on top, preferably with a 2 cm layer of humus.

Watering

It is better to water with water at room temperature, in the evening, in doses: wait until the water is absorbed and water further.

• When watering, try not to get it on the leaf blades of the plant. Excess moisture on the leaves is an additional possibility of the occurrence of such an unpleasant disease as powdery mildew.
• Do not forget about watering during the hot summer period – during drought, the watering rate can be doubled. If, on the contrary, the rains are heavy and do not stop at all, then we reduce watering to a minimum.
• After watering, I advise you to mulch: pour about 1 cm of humus, non-acidic peat or just dry soil under the bush.

Top dressing

1. In the first half of summer, black currants can be fed with organic matter: 15 kg of humus should be placed under each bush in an even layer.
2. During the period when the fruits begin to ripen, it is necessary to apply foliar feeding: mix 6 g of potassium permanganate, 35 g of iron sulfate and 2.5 g of boric acid.

Foliar feeding is usually carried out in the evening and always on a calm, windless evening, preferably cloudy, when the air humidity is high.
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WHAT TO FEED CURRANTS IN SPRING, SUMMER AND AUTUMN

Photo: adult and young blackcurrant bushes require different care

A pinch

Pinching black currants is necessary so that the plant begins to give more energy to the formation of the crop and does not waste it on creating additional above-ground mass

• Around June, you can carefully pinch the ends of annual shoots, literally just a couple of buds.
• In some cases, this technique also stimulates the tillering of the plant – then there will be more harvest.

Loosening and weeding

Don’t forget to remove weeds throughout the season:

1. the bite circle must be clean,
2. try to get rid of such a malicious weed as wheatgrass,
3. Weeds can be removed at a depth of 5 – 30 cm.

Working at maximum depth is dangerous because you can damage the currant roots, but you will destroy rhizomatous weeds such as dandelion.

Don’t forget about loosening currant rowsideally they should be constantly loose:

• You can loosen at least every day in your free time, deepening the tip of a hoe or hoe by 10-12 cm.

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BASIC CARE OF CURRANTS: WATERING, FEEDING, HARVESTING

Photo: pinch out the tops in June, loosen the row spacing and remove weeds in the bush area

Harvesting

Black currants, unlike red ones, are not collected in whole clusters, but are picked individually, trying to remove only the ripest berries first. Black berries do not ripen at the same time, so the harvest will have to be done in 2-3 doses.
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MASKS AND INTICTIONS FROM BLACKCURRANT
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And of course, it is impossible to treat plants with pesticides against diseases and pests during fruiting.
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RECIPE FOR BLACKCURRANT PIE

Photo: during harvesting, do not water or feed blackcurrants

Caring for blackcurrants after harvest

Feeding and watering

After harvesting, you should not start the plants:

1. as soon as the harvest is harvested, feed the plants with a solution of potassium sulfate (1 tsp per bucket of water under each bush),
2. water: once a week with a bucket of water, and so on until the beginning of November,
3. After watering, do not forget to mulch the soil surface.

Trimming

Around November, inspect the shoots again:

• remove broken ones, those that have fallen to the ground, that interfere with others, those growing in the center of the crown, and grease the cut areas with garden varnish or garden paint, which is even better,
• try to maintain the currant bush in such a way that it has an average of 15 mature shoots. The rest can be safely deleted – they are considered unnecessary.

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HOW TO PRUNCE CURRANTS: RULES, SCHEME AND DATES
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Preparing for winter

In general, currants are a very winter-hardy crop – they rarely suffer from frost.

1. The tops of shoots that grew in August and did not have time to become woody can be pinched and the tips covered with oil paint.
2. It is advisable to loosen the soil in the bite area.
3. Remove leaf litter and burn.
4. Tighten the bush itself with twine so that individual branches do not hang, because in winter they can break under the weight of snow or freezing rain. Do not overdo it so as not to break the shoots and tear off the bark!

Photo: after harvesting, continue to care for blackcurrants

Control of diseases and pests of black currant

There are a lot of pests and diseases on currants. If you planted a high-quality seedling in an area where currants had not grown before, they will not appear very soon, if at all.

The most common diseases on currants are:

• terryness,
• gray rot (usually with high humidity – try to simply reduce watering),
• powdery mildew (also occurs as a result of either prolonged rains and fogs or excessive watering).

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HOW TO FIGHT APHIES ON CURRANTS
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Among the insects that harm black currants are:

1. spider mite (sucks juice from leaf blades),
2. kidney mite (lives directly in the buds, which is why they swell, turning into balls, and do not bloom at all)
3. fruit sawfly,
4. glassware (caterpillar living right in the center of the shoot),
5. flamethrower.

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TREATING CURRANTS WITH BOILING WATER IN SPRING FROM BUD MITE

Folk remedies for diseases and pests are used for prevention:

1. in the spring, even before the buds open, currant bushes are watered with water at a temperature of about 80 °C at the rate of 3 liters for each plant,
2. remove affected shoots and leaves in a timely manner, burn them outside the site,
3. cut off and burn buds affected by bud mites,
4. Before the buds open, the bushes can be sprayed with a 1-2% solution of Bordeaux mixture, killing the fungal infection.

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DISEASES AND PESTS OF CURRANTS AND GOOSEBERRY

Photo: preventive treatments and proper agricultural technology will protect black currants

Propagation of black currant

Black currant is one of the few crops that is extremely easy to propagate and in a variety of ways:

• slice lignified cuttings as long and thick as a pencil and stick into the soil in September, and each will form a new bush.
• root green June cuttings in the greenhouse, watering them more often.
• cover the bush with earth, leaving only one crown, then all shoots will form adventitious rootsand the shoots can be separated and planted as independent plants,
• or propagate horizontal layers: spread the shoots radially over the surface of the soil, and sprinkle them with 1 cm thick soil. From each bud, a shoot will begin to grow upward, and roots will begin to grow downward. All that remains to do in the fall is to separate such shoots, divide them into parts with roots and plant them around the site.