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Red currant bushes are often found in personal plots, however, they still undeservedly give preference to black currants. Although in terms of the content of many elements, red currant berries are richer. For example, they contain more iron, potassium, vitamin A and flavonoids. There are many biologically active substances - coumarins, which reduce blood viscosity and prevent blood clots from forming.
The easiest way to collect berries is to collect them on brushes and freeze them in the refrigerator, and in winter, during colds, cook vitamin compotes and jelly. However, it often happens that red currants grow on the site, like an ornamental shrub, not giving a good harvest of berries, which would be enough both for food and for harvesting.
Why cut currants
Red currant bushes can live in one place for up to 20 years. The plant prefers well-lit places with fertile light soils, without stagnant moisture. You can pick up 2-3 varieties that ripen at different times, and the family will be provided with berries from June to late autumn.
Caring for red currants is simple, the bushes are resistant to pests and diseases, they tolerate frosty winters well. Red currant pruning in the fall - an important agrotechnical technique, which should be given special attention, after its implementation, the next growing season will bring many pleasant surprises to gardeners:
- The harvest of berries will increase;
- The berries will become much larger;
- Removing excessive thickening of the bush, all currant branches will be illuminated by the sun. The berries will be tastier, and a lot of vitamins and microelements are formed in them;
- The bush will rejuvenate, it will look neater;
- It will become easier for gardeners to care for the bush and carry out work around it;
- Autumn pruning promotes the growth of young shoots, from which new fruiting shoots can be formed in the future.
Red currant pruning is done after the plant has shed its foliage and prepares for the hibernation period. Approximate time is the second half of October. The bush can be pruned in the spring, however, at this time it is more difficult to choose the required time before the start of sap flow and swelling of the buds. And in late autumn, gardeners have much more free time, and it is aimed at cleaning up vegetable waste and recycling it.
Garden pruning tool
To trim the bush, you should arm yourself with the necessary gardening tool, which must be well sharpened and disinfected in a solution of potassium permanganate, Bordeaux liquid, alcohol or kerosene. Disinfection is necessary to exclude infection of healthy bushes by viruses, bacteria and fungi. After all, it is the diseased branches that are most often removed.
Required tool:
- You will need a pruner. A well-sharpened pruner can easily cut branches of any diameter;
- A garden saw or hacksaw may be required to remove old, thick shoots. They have sharp teeth that will cut off the branch that the pruner did not cope with;
- And one more garden tool that you can have in stock, loppers. They have long arms. If the bush is very neglected, and there is no way to get into the middle, then you can stick in the lopper and cut off what you want.
With such garden assistants, any pruning work will be a joy, you can easily cope with any volume.
Rules for pruning red currants (+ video)
How to prune red currants in the fall? There are several rules that must be followed:
- Equally important is the question of when to cut red currants? The best time period is the end of September - the beginning of October. The foliage has already flown around, all the shoots that need to be cut are clearly visible. The plant is in a dormant mode, painlessly endures all interventions;
- At the currant bush, young weakened branches are cut off;
- Without fail, those shoots that are damaged by diseases or insect pests are cut off;
- Don't take principles as a guide black currant trimmings... It won't be right. Shrubs form crops in different ways. The main part of the black currant crop is formed on 1, 2, 3-year-old shoots. Therefore, branches older than 4 years are removed from black currants, the remaining shoots are shortened for better branching, part of the zero shoots is cut off;
- In red currants, the harvest is formed on one-year-old shoots and on adult branches of 2-6 years of age. After 6-7 years of life, the yield of such branches drops significantly, so they should be completely cut off;
- It should be borne in mind that red currants form very few young shoots, so they are not cut off, but left to rejuvenate the bush;
- The upper part of the currant shoots is cut off only if in the summer it was damaged by aphids, as evidenced by the curvature of the shoot;
- When planting a young bush, immediately cut off all the shoots, leaving no more than 3 buds;
- In the next 6 years, pruning is carried out only for sanitary purposes. Cut off dried, broken and diseased shoots. Such pruning does not have to be left until autumn. The branches are cut off as soon as damage is detected;
- In the 6-7 year of the life of the bush, shoots are cut off, which are of the most advanced age (6 or more years);
- Cut off shoots, the growth of which is directed into the bush and those that grow parallel to the ground;
- If the branches have grown very much, then their length can be reduced by a third;
- Slices should be treated with garden varnish or Bordeaux mixture so that no infection gets in.
The currant bush, which has been properly pruned, bears fruit well and has about 20-25 branches of different ages.
Watch a detailed video on how to properly trim red currants:
It is recommended to collect and burn cut material, litter and foliage, since the threat of spreading diseases from infected branches is too great. In plant residues, as a rule, larvae of insect pests, bacterial and fungal spores overwinter.
The bush may look quite healthy on the outside. Do not be too lazy to examine it carefully. Especially the cuts.
If you see that the core is dark, then this is a clear sign of damage by currant glass - a pest butterfly. In the spring, a wasp-like butterfly lays its eggs in the cracks in the bark of a currant bush. After 2 weeks of their eggs, caterpillars hatch, which penetrate into the stem. They live and eat there. The black middle of the stem is the fruit of the activity of the beetle butterfly caterpillars.
It is difficult to fight this pest, since it spends its life inside the stem. Therefore, carefully inspect all cuttings before planting. In the fall and spring, cut off all affected shoots to the length where you see a light core. Preventive insecticide treatment in the fall will also help in the fight against glass.
Another enemy of the currant is the kidney mite. Its presence can be determined by large, rounded kidneys. In the fall, they fight it through pruning damaged shoots and spraying with colloidal sulfur. Sulfur treatment enhances the shrub's immunity against fungal infections.
If there is a need for planting material, then cuttings, 15-20 cm long, can be cut from the scraps for subsequent rooting. They are planted in a prepared place, mulched, with the beginning of the growing season, the rooted specimens will dissolve the leaves.
Another way to get seedlings: select a branch of a bush that is inclined to the ground, dig a shallow trench under it, place a branch in it, securely fix it with staples, sprinkle with soil on top, mulch with peat. In the spring, you will have a ready-made redcurrant seedling, which should be cut from the mother bush and transferred to a permanent growth site for planting.
Caring for red currants in the fall
Currant bushes do not need special care in the autumn. However, if you take preventive measures to protect the plant in the fall, then in the spring - summer period you can avoid many problems.
Watch a video about autumn pruning and caring for a bush:
After trimming and cleaning up the garbage, the red currant bushes are treated for preventive purposes with a solution of Bordeaux liquid, "Carbaphos", urea, colloidal sulfur.
Under the crown of the bush, the soil is loosened and covered with mulch: peat or compost. They act both as fertilizer and as protection against excessive moisture loss, and inhibit the growth of weeds in the coming season.
It is carried out in order to compensate for the loss of moisture during the summer period. If the plant does not receive moisture in the required amount, then this will affect the formation of future flower buds. At a red currant bush, the trunk circle should be soaked 0.5 m deep. At the end of October, water charging will require about 30 liters of water. Do not pour all the water under the bush at once, stretch the watering for about a week, spending about a bucket of water at a time on watering.
Conclusion
If you are interested in getting a decent harvest of very healthy berries, then you should pay some attention to caring for the red currant bush. Especially the plant needs proper autumn pruning, which will rejuvenate it, form the crown of the bush, and you will get large sweet berries, saturated with sunlight.
