Currants, like other garden plants, are not immune from various diseases. What can prevent you from getting the treasured harvest and how to cure this plant in case of illness?
Rust
Let's start with a currant disease like rust. It often affects shrubs in summer cottages. Orange spots appear on the underside of the sheet. In case of exacerbation of the disease, leaves from currant completely fall off. Bushes become weak, yield decreases.
How to deal with rust? Firstly, it is necessary to avoid planting currants in those places where sedge grows, and not to plant bushes too densely. Carefully clean the area of weeds. Dig the soil deep in the autumn and apply autumn leaves to it. To combat the disease, spray the plants with a solution of copper or iron sulfate, as well as Bordeaux liquid.
Anthracnose
For a currant disease such as anthracnose, the appearance of small brown spots, which are darker at the edges, is characteristic. It affects in early May, not only currants, but also gooseberries. The spots grow over time and merge into one, and the leaves begin to turn yellow, curl and fall off. In redcurrant , the fruits, stalks and petioles of the leaf are affected. Anthracnose leads to premature leaf fall and stunted growth.
In order to combat anthracnose, the soil needs to be dug in early spring and late autumn, mixing in the leaves fallen from the bush. Before the buds bloom, the plants must be sprayed with a solution of copper or iron sulfate (50-100 or 300 grams per 10 liters of water). During the growing season, the plant must be sprayed four times with a one percent solution of Bordeaux fluid. When spraying, it should fall on both sides of the sheet - both the top and bottom. The first time you need to spray the currant when the buds open, the second after flowering, the third 10-15 days after the second, the fourth after harvesting.
Powdery mildew
American powdery mildew does no less harm than anthracnose . How do I know if currant has been affected? A white powdery coating appears on the leaves, which eventually becomes dense and changes its white color to brown. The fungus, which is the causative agent of this disease, affects only young organs and tissues of the currant - annual shoots, unripe berries, recently bloomed leaves.
To avoid this currant disease, in the autumn, old branches and fallen leaves and cleaned shoots are completely removed from the plot (in all these places, as a rule, the mildew fungus tolerates winter). In early spring, before the buds are full, it is recommended that the bushes be poured with hot water. From the beginning of spring, it is recommended to spray plants with cow manure, which must be diluted 6-8 times with water. To prevent this disease, use infusion of wood ash - 1 kg per 10 liters of water, which is heated in the sun. The solution is infused for 5-7 days or boiled for half an hour. After that, you need to drain it and add a little soap. The thicket needs to be diluted to 10 l and after that you can spray the bushes with it.
Terry
As for such a currant disease as terry, it can completely deprive the plant of the crop. Terry affects blackcurrant and is transmitted by a kidney tick. This disease can be detected during flowering. The blades on the leaves become only three instead of the usual five, they are lengthened and sharpened. The leaves lose the usual smell of currants and outwardly look darker than healthy ones. The calyx, corolla and stamens turn purple, and the flowers dry out and stay on branches for a long time. Berries on diseased branches do not form at all. As a rule, terry develops on the plant gradually - at first the disease affects only a few branches, and only over the years the whole bush. Unfortunately, there are no varieties that would be resistant to this disease.
You need to deal with terry in the following ways. Be careful about planting material - use cuttings only from those plants on which for three years there have been no symptoms of this disease. At the end of flowering, carefully inspect the bushes. If an affected plant is found, then uproot the entire bush and burn. You can cut out their individual diseased branches when the disease has just begun to develop. But there is no guarantee that it will not start again.
These are the main diseases of currant and their treatment. As you can see, in most cases it is possible to save the plant, the main thing is to pay attention to the manifestation of the symptoms of the disease in time and take up the treatment of the "patient".