Almost every owner of a summer cottage or country house has currants on his garden plot. Currant is a tasty and healthy berry that does not require special care, frost resistance. Resistance to frost and other external influences in currant bushes is quite high, but still it must be properly prepared for winter.
I want to share with you how you need to prepare currants for wintering in order to get a good harvest in the future.
Pruning
I start pruning the crown as soon as the leaves fall. For this procedure, you need to take a pruner or garden shears. It is necessary to carefully examine the currant bush and remove the following branches:
- old and thick;
- weak, shriveled;
- painful, spoiled by parasites;
- broken;
- undeveloped young shoots.
The next year, due to old, dry and injured branches, there will be no good harvest. And weak shoots will not be able to withstand frost. This is an additional load on the roots of the plant.
After pruning, do not forget to process the cut points of the branches with a solution of copper sulfate. At the end of the procedure, I lubricate the cut sites with garden varnish. With this, it will be possible to avoid rotting and getting into the sections of parasitic microorganisms.
On the bush, I leave only the healthiest branches that do not interfere with each other. If you prune old branches on time, then you will have a young currant bush with a bountiful harvest next year.
Treatment against diseases
For the prevention of diseases and getting rid of insect pests, it is necessary to dig and loosen the earth near the bushes. I remove all the weeds at the same time. The roots go deep - 15-40 cm into the soil. When working with the soil, try to avoid damaging the roots. Then you should sprinkle the ground around the bush with wood ash, which will serve as a fertilizer.
I process currants only in dry and very cold weather, so that the rain does not wash away the funds from the bush, and the cold does not allow bacteria to spread. For spraying, I use ready-made complex preparations or folk remedies.
I use:
- copper sulfate with slaked lime;
- copper oxychloride;
- "Karbofos";
- "Nitrafen";
- Fundazol;
- "Topaz".
I will share the folk methods that I have been using for several years.
- Garlic. Grind, add water, put in a warm place for 10 days. After this period, dilute in water and spray the entire bush - 20 ml of infusion per bucket of water.
- Tobacco. For 10 liters of water, you need to take 400 g of tobacco dust, insist for a day, then filter and add 50 g of laundry soap. Spray the plant immediately.
- Sagebrush. Pour the grass with water, boil for 10-15 minutes. over low heat, leave for 24 hours, add 40 g of laundry soap.
Natural laundry soap is added to various solutions to increase their viscosity, so that the solution better settles on the leaves and does not run off them.
It is also necessary to spray these means around the trunk circles of the bush.
Top dressing
In the fall, nutritious currant foods can help strengthen your immune system and survive the cold. In the autumn period, only potash and phosphorus fertilizers are applied. I completely gave up nitrogen fertilizers because they are washed out by the rains in the fall. I use potassium sulfate, and I add phosphorus supplements in the form of double superphosphate.
So that the plant does not suffer from highly concentrated substances, potassium-phosphorus fertilizer must be applied at a distance of at least 30 cm from the plant trunk. In the period from mid-October to mid-November, it is necessary to feed the plant so that it has time to slow down the sap flow. As for organic currant feed, chicken droppings, compost or manure are best suited for it.
Ash is a storehouse of potassium and phosphorus compounds, so I use it as the main component for the preparation of fertilizers. After completing all the manipulations for pruning, fertilizing, cover the soil with a thick layer of mulch from dry grass, hay, sawdust or dry straw. In this case, heat will remain at the plant roots.
Shelter currants for the winter
Binding with twine
I wrap the bush with a rope in a spiral, carefully pulling the branches up. At the top of the loop, I make an incision into which the string is inserted, and then I secure it at the end with a clothespin. After that, the branches will not break under the weight of the snow.
Do not cover bushes with plastic. Such material does not allow air to pass through, and the plant dies. When the snow falls, you need to throw it over the bush and tamp it well. Top can be covered with burlap. The more snow there is on the bushes, the more comfortable it is for the plants to winter.
Bending the branches of a bush
It is necessary to eliminate drafts, which are terrible for bushes in winter. I tilt the currant branches to the ground. In this position, the entire bush is covered with snow, and frost is not afraid of it. You can sprinkle it with earth or put pieces of slate on the branches.
How do you prepare currants for wintering? Share your experience.
Read also: Top dressing of apple trees in the fall: what fertilizers are best to apply to get a good harvest next year
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#currant#feeding currants#preparing for winter