Planting And Growing Black Currant

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Vitamin champion. Part 1

Black currant berries are a storehouse of vitamins, organic acids, necessary for the human body, micro- and macroelements. Berries and even leaves of black currant have anti-inflammatory, diuretic, diaphoretic, tonic effect.

Black currant is very useful for vitamin deficiency, cough, bronchitis, renal and hepatic colic, for gastritis, atherosclerosis, hypertension. It is very useful to add fresh or dry black currant leaves to tea. For drying, young leaves are harvested after harvest. In the spring, when pruning bushes, you need to collect the cut branches and put them in the water. Leaves and flowers blooming on them are useful to put in tea.

However, there are caveats - like all dark colored berries, black currants thicken the blood, so older people should not lean too heavily on this berry. It is not for nothing that there is a saying that white currants grow for themselves, red for children and black for grandchildren.

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Secrets of planting currant bushes

The most suitable time for planting berry bushes and, in particular, currants is the end of August and the beginning of September. If you purchased planting material at the end of September, be guided by the weather. If, according to forecasts, autumn is expected to be warm, then bushes can be planted even in early October. In berry bushes, the root system continues to grow until late autumn. You just have to mulch the soil under the plantings, you can just throw the weeds under the bushes. If the autumn is cold, with early frosts, then it is better to dig in the bushes in a horizontal position until spring. And plant them in early spring. And the seat for them must be prepared immediately in the fall.

All shrubs, except raspberries and honeysuckle, should be planted obliquely, regardless of whether it is a thin twig or a bush with 2-3 stems. When planting, the stems are buried in the soil so that the three lower buds are in the ground, and only 3 buds are also left above the soil surface. The rest of the upper part of the bush is cut with pruning shears.

Why is this done? So that the bush does not start to age prematurely, when the leaves begin to open in spring due to the nutritious juices in the stems. The root system, damaged during transplantation, has not yet had time to take root well and begin to fully supply the aboveground part with soil solution. Since the owner of each stem is its apical bud, which draws off all the nutrients, with a weak root system, nutrition is enough only for this apical bud.

On the branch, short overgrowing fruit-bearing branches do not form, it is bare, its leaves are located only at the ends. That is, the bush grows old immediately in the first year of planting, therefore pruning is required when planting it.

In addition, it is very important that several shoots come out of the ground at once. It is from the buds buried in the soil that these additional shoots will develop. If the bush is planted vertically, then for a long time it will have exactly as many shoots as you planted, even if it is buried when planting in the soil. Such a vertically planted shrub will not produce large yields for the first few years.

When new branches begin to grow on the oblique bush the following year, you will see two side branches growing on each stem planted. As soon as the growth bud at the end of each branch is removed, new lateral shoots begin to develop from the two closest buds located on the branch below the pruning site. In the fall, you will again shorten all the side branches that have grown over the summer, leaving only three buds on each. The same procedure will have to be repeated again. Now you have completely completed the formation of the bush, and instead of 1-3 stalks planted, you ended up with a bush with a lot of branches on each shoot coming out of the ground.

What to do if the bush is not planted correctly? If the bush is young, then it is necessary to deeply plant a shovel into the soil from the south side of the bush, raise it, tilting the top of its head to the north, pour soil into the formed cavity. Better to do this in early spring. All branches should be shortened by one third of their length.

If the bush is old, then all the lower branches should be pinned to the soil, after making a groove with a nail on the pinned part of the stems for faster rooting. You can pour root root there. So that the rooting site does not dry out, sprinkle moist soil on top and cover it with a film, but so that the wind does not blow away. Stones should not be placed on it.

There is a special way of planting bushes in a standard form, when the bush is specially formed in the form of a tree. Then it is planted vertically, removing all shoots except one. It is shortened immediately upon planting, leaving 3-4 buds above the ground. Then the next spring, all the branches are again shortened by one third of the length, and the shortening pruning is repeated again the next spring. After 3-4 years, the branches rejuvenate, cutting out obsolete ones to the main vertical trunk. The emerging tops (vertically growing young shoots from the leaf axils) are shortened by one third. Such a tree will bear fruit for 5-6 years, then it becomes obsolete

The key to success is not only proper planting, but also in well-prepared soil. Black currants have a superficial root system, so they do not need deep planting holes. It is best to plant currants in one row along the border of the site. Firstly, it will be convenient to look after her, and secondly, she will close you from neighbors' eyes. With this planting, they do not dig individual planting holes, but dig a continuous trench if you plant several bushes at once.

If your site is flooded with water, then it is better to place the currant bushes on a solid ridge that rises about 15-20 cm above the soil level. It is better to remove the sod removed from the soil or protect the trenches with it, spreading it down along the edges with grass. First, you need to remove all the roots and rhizomes of perennial weeds from it.

We fill the dug trench, only 20-25 cm deep, with well-rotted compost or rotted manure. Black currant prefers slightly acidic soils - pH 5.1-5.5, although it even tolerates acidic soil. If your soil is acidic or even strongly acidic, then a deoxidizer should be added to the planting hole, which will work in the soil for a long time. Fluff lime is not suitable for this: it all and immediately dissolves in water and is immediately washed out by rains from the upper soil layer to the lower ones.

Better to use dolomite or chalk, gypsum, old cement, old or dry plaster. You can use eggshells, which should be pre-ground. If you use ash, then you should know that the calcium contained in it is also quickly washed out with water, and you will have to add ash annually. Deoxidizing materials should be applied taking into account the acidity of your soil.

Black currant belongs to the group of phosphorus-loving plants. Its total removal from the soil with a crop of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium from each square meter per season (agronorm) is only 27 g. So it can be classified as an economical plant - the ratio between these elements (in%) is 41:22:37. In most plants belonging to the other two groups (nitrogen lovers and potassium lovers), the consumption of phosphorus does not exceed 15-16% in the balance, while for currants this figure is 22%. Therefore, when planting in a hole, phosphorus fertilizer should be applied.

Enough two tablespoons of double granular superphosphate under the bush. When planting, it is recommended to add an additional half a tablespoon of urea and a tablespoon of chlorine-free potassium. But such a recommendation is not suitable for the North-West. Potassium and nitrogen, which readily dissolve in water, are washed out of the soil into the lower layers during autumn planting by rains and during winter thaws. By the spring, these fertilizers will be inaccessible to the roots of the currant. In winter, the roots of plants do not assimilate anything from the soil; they have a long winter vacation.

Sometimes it is advised, after planting, especially late, to sprinkle the bushes with earth. This can be done under the indispensable condition that in early spring, as soon as the weather permits, you will uncook the planted bushes. The fact is that the currants start to grow in early spring, and the young roots will immediately sprout in the hilled part, since it will warm up faster than the one in the zone of the main roots. And since this soil dries up quickly, the roots will dry out or freeze out next winter. Currants will lose part of the new root system, which is undesirable for the plant.

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What does black currant like?

Weakly acidic, humus-rich, moisture and air permeable soils, sunny location (although it can tolerate partial shade), phosphorus fertilizers, and, most importantly, moist soil. Therefore, it is regularly watered throughout the spring and early summer, especially in dry and windy weather. Watering is stopped only after the ovaries have fully grown and started to stain. At this point, watering is harmful, since the berries can crack right on the bushes from excess water in the cell sap.

What does black currant dislike?

A large amount of lime, so it is better to apply it gradually, in the form of watering with lime milk once a season, if the soil is acidic. In addition, she does not like top dressing with potassium chloride, large doses of nitrogen, drying out of the topsoil, so the soil under the bushes must be kept loose, regularly removing weeds. It would be nice to immediately mulch the soil under the currants in the spring (cover the soil). Usually it is recommended to use peat or just dry lumpy soil as mulching materials.

But it can be sphagnum moss, and even just newspapers. The soil under the bushes should be covered with newspapers only during the period of the appearance of a green cone and the separation of buds (by the way, this simple technique will not allow pests to leave the soil after wintering). At the time of flowering, newspapers should be removed, since at this time beneficial insects come to the surface of the soil. After flowering, the newspapers are returned under the bushes, but already in order to prevent the evaporation of moisture from the soil.

Newspapers can be replaced with the remnants of old film from greenhouses, pieces of cardboard, roofing material, but best of all with black lutrasil, which allows you to water directly on the material. Black materials contribute to the rapid heating of the soil in the spring and the awakening of the roots.

What care does black currant need?

First of all, watering, at least 2-3 buckets under a bush per week in the absence of rain. Let me remind you that all plants should be watered in the evening, so that moisture can penetrate into the root zone during the night. If you water the plants in the morning and, especially, in the afternoon, then the moisture, not having time to absorb into the soil, will evaporate from the surface of the earth. Such watering can be recommended only as a physical exercise.

Black currant needs additional fertilizing at the moment of intensive growth of ovaries. At this time, all plants mainly need microelements. In addition, all plants, including black currants, should be fed immediately after fruiting, since at this moment they lay the harvest of next year. Therefore, as soon as the ovaries began to grow, the bushes must be sprayed with a solution of trace elements.

Uniflor-micro (2 teaspoons per 10 liters of water) is best suited for this. Immediately after fruiting, the bushes should be fed with phosphorus and potassium. Under each bush of black currant, one tablespoon of double granular superphosphate and one spoon of chlorine-free potassium per 10 liters of water should be added for watering if the weather is dry. But if it rains, then it is better to close up dry fertilizers in moist soil. I remind you that all watering and dressing is done along the perimeter of the crown of the bush and even a little further, but not in the center.

What if there is no fertilizer, lime or dolomite too?

Do not be upset at all and add a half-liter can of ash under each bush in spring, but not in the center of the bush, but along the perimeter of the crown and even 20-25 cm further, because that is where the bulk of the sucking blackcurrant roots is located. This top dressing must be repeated in mid-August. And in late autumn (in the North-West at the end of October), pour a bucket of rotted compost around the perimeter of the crown of each bush.

How I care for black currants. First, immediately when planting a bush, I put a glass of Aquadon, a tablespoon of granular AVA fertilizer and a glass of ash right under the roots. Then I water it well, but so that it does not wash away with water. I plant the bush obliquely, as mentioned above, and again gently, slowly, water it.

Do I need to feed blackcurrants planted with AVA fertilization? No, because the fertilizer contains everything necessary for the growth and development of the plant, including trace elements. There is no nitrogen in the fertilizer, but it is not required either, since the nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in the upper layer of the soil provide the plants with sufficient nitrogen. Nitrogen fixators develop especially vigorously in soils when the AVA fertilizer is applied to them.

In addition, black currants do not need large doses of nitrogen. The application of this fertilizer will only be required after three years. Then you will make a circular groove around the bush around the crown perimeter with a depth of 5-6 cm with a weeder angle and evenly sprinkle 1-1.5 tablespoons of fertilizer into the groove, then seal it into the soil. In the next three years, no additional fertilizing with mineral fertilizers will be required. AVA only works in soil, therefore fertilizer should not be spread over the surface.

For the North-West, it is especially valuable because it does not dissolve in water and, therefore, does not wash out into the lower layers. The fertilizer slowly melts like candy, gradually releasing everything it contains into the soil solution, while the elements are released only until the soil temperature drops below 8 degrees Celsius, that is, while the plant roots are working. In winter, when perennials are dormant and do not take anything from the soil, AVA is not consumed or lost in vain, as is the case with ordinary mineral fertilizers.

Planting on Aquadon makes it possible to water the bushes once every two to three weeks for two years, which greatly facilitates the work on the site. After two years, Aquadon decomposes into carbon dioxide and water in the soil.

I do not mulch the soil under the bushes and in the fall I do not introduce organic matter under them. Why? Yes, because I do not pull out the weeds, but cut them off with a Fokin flat cutter, burying it in the soil by about 2 cm. I leave the cut weeds right there under the bushes and around them, just raking them a little from the center of the bush to its periphery. For this work, you can use any other suitable tool, only it must be well sharpened, since shaving weeds with a blunt tool is very difficult, and with a sharp one it is easy.

What does it give me? Cut weeds become a kind of mulch and protect the soil from drying out, and me from unnecessary watering. The cut topsoil replaces loosening the soil under the bushes. The weeds left under the bush, gradually rotting, provide organic fertilizer, and I do not need to apply organic matter under the bushes in the fall. Plus, I don't have to weed and carry them to the compost heap. My experience clearly shows that the easiest way to deal with perennial weeds is by oppressing them, that is, by constantly cutting off the aerial part. They die in one season. Weeding leads to their increased reproduction, since new plants immediately begin to appear from each scrap of root or rhizome of the weed remaining in the soil.

If you don't believe it, check it out. Cut one of the two dandelions growing next to each other, deepening the tool 2-3 cm into the soil, and dig the second with a shovel and pull out together with the root. In three weeks, look at what you have grown. You will see that one plant has grown in the place of the cut dandelion, and a whole company has grown in the place of the excavated one. In addition, my observations show that digging the soil is generally harmful, and doubly under bushes and trees.

Why, then, is it recommended to dig up the trunk circles? Basically, then, to get rid of pests that hibernate in the soil under the plants, in addition to loosen the compacted soil. Loosening retains moisture in the soil and reduces watering, so loosening is also recommended several times during the summer. In addition, regular loosening forces the roots to sink into deeper soil layers.

However, both loosening and digging the soil under plantings undoubtedly harm the sucking part of the root system of plants, especially such as black currants, in which the roots are located shallow from the surface. In addition, all these operations are far from easy, and they can be avoided by systematically (about 3 times per season) cutting off the weeds growing under and around all plantings.

This also requires labor, but in an amount much less than the work that is usually recommended to be done on the site. If you look under the cut weeds after a couple of weeks, you will see a large number of earthworms that have come to feed on decaying plant debris and their roots. You will undoubtedly notice that the soil under the cut weeds is loose and moist. This approach greatly simplifies the work on the site.

Read the rest of the article →

Vitamin Champion:

Part 1: Planting and growing black currants

Part 2: Pruning black currants. Diseases of black currant

Part 3: Pests of black currant

Part 4: Reproduction of black currant. Black currant varieties