Fruitful shrubs are not uncommon in Russian horticulture. Summer residents plant unpretentious plants along the perimeters of the plots, thus providing a hedge with zoning. Currants and gooseberries can be put in a number of the most popular varieties. These shrubs give aromatic and tasty berries that can be eaten and used for medical purposes. However, not everyone succeeds in getting a healthy and plentiful crop. To do this, a novice gardener should know how to feed the currant and gooseberry bushes in the spring in order to provide the plants with optimal nutrition and protection against diseases. During this period, the bushes enter the flowering phase, which requires appropriate fertilizer with useful trace elements.
First feeding
Spring top dressing is especially important for young shrubs. Even when planting, it is recommended to carefully fill the soil. If this is done, then a full-fledged fertilizer this season can be ruled out. However, in the first year of life, currants and gooseberries are still worth mulching. As a rule, the question of how to feed gooseberries in early spring is decided by the standard set, which includes compost, humus or manure.
For mulching, these are optimal materials. Having prepared the composition, it should cover them with soil around the bush. But it is important to consider that direct contact of the same compost or humus with berry plants can be dangerous, so they should be laid out carefully. By the way, mulch is often made from other materials, so there should not be problems with finding what to feed the gooseberry bushes in spring. You can use dry foliage, sawdust and bark, as well as covering materials such as roofing material.
Feeding young bushes
One of the most effective components used in top dressing is liquid nitrogen. But it should be applied only if necessary to plants whose age exceeds one year. Top dressing should be done in late spring or early summer, if light leaves were found on the bushes. A healthy bush has a dark green color, and pale yellow shades indicate poor nutrition of the plant. Now you can consider in more detail than to feed currants and gooseberries in the spring in case of insufficient supply of useful elements. To prepare such a solution, it is necessary to dissolve about 15 g of ammonia nitrate in a bucket of water - half a bucket should be spent on one bush. For biennial plants, it is important to maintain a stably rich crop, so the soil is additionally seasoned with organic, potash and phosphorus additives.
Feeding adult bushes
The listed methods of feeding should be enough to get bushes with the optimal level of fertility in three years. But the achieved result should be maintained in the future. To do this, it is necessary to season mineral or organic top dressing on the near-stem circle annually - this is done in a combined form or separately. It is especially important to determine how to feed gooseberries in spring, which gives a good harvest. When you turn on a new top dressing, there is always a risk of disrupting the current level of fertility. It is under such gooseberry bushes that the following composition is introduced: 70 g of ammonium nitrate, 100 g of superphosphate and 50 g of potassium chloride.
For currants, you can use the same composition, but with lower doses (about 10-15 g). Nitrogen fertilizing should be seasoned annually, and potash and phosphorus - every 2 years. If there is something to feed gooseberries in spring without using special fertilizers, this is also good. On fertile soil, you can limit yourself to manure with compost. But in this case, it is worth supplementing top dressing with fruit and berry mixtures.
Mineral fertilizers
Those who prefer to use mineral fertilizers separately must carefully consider which components will be included in them, as well as in what doses. The solution to the first question of how to feed currant and gooseberry bushes in spring can be as follows: use superphosphate, defluorinated phosphate, phosphate rock or bone meal. In the case of using superphosphate separately, its volume can be varied within 400–500 g. If nutrition is planned in a combined form, then the mass of superphosphate should not exceed 200 g, and bone or phosphorite flour should be used in doses of 350–400 g.
Potassium chloride will require 150 g, but if you choose how to feed gooseberries in spring without currants, you can increase the supplement to 200 g. This volume is enough to improve the fertility of medium-quality soil. If the soil rich in microelements is fed initially, then the mass of potassium substance should be reduced.
Differences in feeding currants and gooseberries
Often the bushes of both plants are planted in the neighborhood, which facilitates care activities. Despite the similarities in recipes and ways of eating gooseberries and currants, there are some differences. In particular, currants require less potassium than gooseberries. This is due to the fact that it is susceptible to chlorine - especially white and red. Therefore, before feeding spring currants and gooseberries with potash fertilizers, it is necessary to calculate the dosage separately for each species. Another difference relates to the frequency of feeding. The strongest additives for currants are best used once every several years, and for gooseberries annual dressing is allowed, as it develops more slowly.
What places to fertilize?
It has already been said that direct contact between the fertilizer and the bush should be avoided. But the distribution of top dressing in the near-stem zone should be thought out, otherwise refueling will not give the expected result. Part of the approach to determining the best places for making mixtures depends on the substances used, but this factor is not significant when using standard nutrients. Calculating how to feed gooseberries in spring, it is much more important to remember the features of its root system. It develops strictly under the crown, while currants may spread roots farther from the central trunk. But in both cases, most of the roots are located directly under the crown. Adult bushes can grow up to 2 m in width. This radius should be covered by top dressing. In total, for all years of fertilizing, you need to spend 40-50 kg of fertilizer per bush.