We take care of red currants all year round!
Content:
Red currant is a deciduous shrub. It grows in many forests, and people first grew it as an ornamental shrub, just for beauty. Red currant bushes grow up to two meters with a very powerful root system. It blooms in May, flowers are either yellow-green or red collected in a brush. Currant berries are pale red, sweet and sour. Red currants rarely suffer from frost because they bloom later. Easily tolerates drought and grows in one place up to 35 years. Helps to normalize hemoglobin in the body, helps with constipation, and pregnant women to fight toxicosis. Therefore, for gardeners, caring for red currants is so important and valuable.
The most popular varieties:
- «Viksne"- large early maturing.
- "Uralskaya krasavitsa" is a large, winter-hardy.
- "Fetodi" is a fruitful winter-hardy variety.
- "Darnitsa" - large, medium-term.
- Rondom is a high-yielding late variety.
- "Early Sweet" - winter-hardy, high-yielding.
- "Firstborn" - frost-resistant, high-yielding.
Spring care for red currants
The best time for planting red currants is September, but it is also possible in the spring at the end of April. She is very fond of light. For planting, take a one or two-year-old seedling with roots up to 25 cm.Before planting a seedling, you need to remove all the leaves from it and soak in water for two hours. You need to plant a seedling in a hole with a diameter of at least 50 cm and a depth of 40 cm. When you put the seedling in the hole and start covering it with earth, shake the bush a little so that there are no voids in the roots. The distance between the bushes should be about two meters. If you plant currants near a fence or some kind of buildings, then you need to retreat a meter from them. After planting the seedling, you need to make a furrow around it at a distance of 30 cm and fill it well with water. All shoots from the bush must be cut 15 cm from the ground, leaving no more than three buds on the bottom. Until the seedling takes root, it needs to be watered 2-3 times a week. Every year at the end of March it is time to cut and form a bush, cut out diseased and broken shoots, leaving only healthy ones. You need to add fertilizer and loosen it into the ground around the bush. In May, if the frosts return, the bush will have to be protected from them, and at the same time it is necessary to examine it for various infections. If several branches are affected, then gently cut them off with pruning shears, and if the entire bush, then it must be removed immediately. In the spring, during watering and loosening, all weeds must be removed.
Summer care for red currants
In July, the bushes need to be fertilized again. Red currant berries are harvested as they ripen. And the bush must be watered and loosened. After the leaves fly around from the bushes, they are cut off, and if the autumn is dry, then the bushes need to be watered again. In early spring, the bushes need to be shed with warm water heated to at least 50 degrees. Treat with copper sulfate for diseases, and can be treated with lime 30-35 cm from the ground. When the bud begins to set, it is advisable to treat the bush from insects that harm the plant. Lack of water slows down the growth of the bush and the formation of ovaries. At the end of September, red currants are fertilized for the last time. After five years, absolutely all old branches need to be removed, regardless of their condition. Only young shoots should remain. The closer the branches grow to the bush, the better.
Autumn berry care
In the fall, all those branches that are in poor condition are also cut out. Red currants can be diluted both by layering and by dividing the bush or cuttings.Layers: next to the bush, make a loose trench, fertilize it, put shoots in it and fix it well, covering it with earth so that the top remains on the surface. After three weeks, they need to be hilled, the layers are watered all summer, and in the fall the shoots are cut off from the bush and transplanted to a permanent place. Cuttings: cuttings are cut, planted in a box of sand for two, three months, and kept at a temperature of no more than 5 degrees. During this time, well-developed roots appear, and the stalk is planted in a permanent place, initially fertilizing the ground, watering, warming and covering the seedling. Dividing the bush: remove all old and diseased, defective branches from the bush. We dig it up. We divide into several parts. We fertilize the soil, shed well. And we plant the bushes immediately in a permanent place.
It should be planted in a sunny place, preferably where there are no drafts. At a distance of at least half a meter from fences and buildings, water, but do not allow stagnation of water. Then these healthy and tasty berries will delight you for many years.