Diseases and pests of gooseberries: photos, examples, how to treat

Author: Elena N. https://floristics.info/ru/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=19 Category: Fruit and berry plants Published: June 29, 2015Last edits: April 24, 2021

The common gooseberry (lat. Ribes uva-crispa) , or rejected , or European , is a species of plant in the Gooseberry family, first described by Jean Ruel in 1536. Gooseberries are native to North Africa and Western Europe, but are now widespread throughout the world. In the wild, the common gooseberry grows on mountain slopes and in forests, being the ancestor of many cultivated varieties grown in gardens. Gooseberries, along with such berry crops as currants and raspberries, are one of the most common berry bushes in our gardens. Today there are about one and a half thousand varieties of gooseberries. Its fruits contain acids, sugars and vitamins that are beneficial to the human body, so it is consumed both raw and used to make jelly, jam, marmalade and wine. Gooseberries are also in demand in medicine.

Botanical description

Gooseberry is a low shrub - up to one hundred and twenty centimeters tall, with exfoliating bark of brown or gray color. The cylindrical shoots have thin needle-like thorns. Gooseberry leaves are petiolate, heart-ovate or round, three to five lobed, dull, pubescent with short villi, the edges of the leaf blade are blunt-toothed. Greenish or reddish flowers, single or several, grow from the axils of the leaves.

Gooseberry is the earliest of the honey-bearing berry bushes. Gooseberry berries, oval or spherical with obvious veining, 10 to 40 mm long, naked or covered with coarse bristles, ripen from June to August. If the original species has green fruits, then thanks to the work of breeders, today red gooseberries (varieties Krasnoslavyansky, Ravolt), yellow gooseberries (varieties Yellow Russian, Rodnik), white gooseberries (varieties Triumph, Belorussky Sakharny) and even black gooseberries (varieties Negus, Protector). Although varieties of the usual color for this berry still remain in demand - green gooseberries of the Malachite, Yubileiny, Ural Izumrud and many others varieties.

This article is devoted to pests and diseases of gooseberries and the fight against them, but if you follow the rules for planting and caring for gooseberries, then all these troubles can be avoided.

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Rust of flowers and plants

Compositae crops

All Asteraceae crops are susceptible to rust, for example: asters, chrysanthemums, dahlias, daisies, marigolds, marigolds, zinnias and many others. In this case, the causative agent of the disease is the fungus Coleosporium solidaginis. In a diseased bush, pustules containing fungal spores form on the underside of the foliage. Over time, the affected stems and leaf blades dry out and die.

To combat the disease on plants belonging to the Asteraceae family, it is necessary to use the same methods and means as in the case of fruit and berry crops, namely: adhere to the agrotechnical rules of the crop, take good care of the flowers and do not forget about preventive spraying. Fungicides are used to treat affected bushes.

Clove crops

In clove crops affected by rust, in the first half of the summer, brown pustules are formed, covered with epidermis; as they mature, they crack. The affected bushes experience a lag in development and growth, and their foliage dries out and flies off. In autumn, dark brown pustules can be found on the affected leaf blades, which have passed into the winter stage of the fungus.

Bulbous plants

Hyacinths, tulips and lilies are also affected by rust, in which case the pathogen is the fungus Uromyces scillarum. In diseased bushes, discolored spots form on the foliage, reaching up to 0.2 cm in diameter and turning yellow over time. The formation of brown spores occurs under the epidermis and on the internal scales of the bulbs. The bush looks lethargic, and over time the diseased foliage begins to fly off. The disease also negatively affects the quality of flowering.

Cruciferous crops

Cruciferous plants are affected by white rust, caused by the fungus Albugo candida. In a sick plant, all its above-ground parts suffer. The disease develops most actively in the first months of the growing season, when the weather is cool. White formations appear on the surface of the affected parts of the plant; as the disease progresses, they become distorted or swell due to the formation of fungal spores under the epidermis.

To cure asteraceae, bulbous, cruciferous and clove crops with rust, you need to use the same methods and means as when treating fruit and berry plants.

Tips for fighting RUST on tree leaves

Gooseberry diseases and their treatment

Unfortunately, gooseberries have many enemies among insects, and gooseberries suffer from various diseases. However, if you follow all the rules for growing and caring for this crop, gooseberry diseases and pests will not have a chance to settle in your garden. But even if trouble happens and the gooseberry gets sick with something, nothing irreparable will happen if you recognize the trouble at the very beginning and take the necessary measures to save your garden, and in order to find out the problem, you need to have information about it, and we are ready for you provide it. In this chapter we will answer most of your questions about what gooseberry diseases are and how to save gooseberries from certain diseases.

White plaque

As a rule, this is a symptom of so-called powdery mildew. There are two varieties of this disease - American and European, and we will talk about each of them separately.

Plaque on gooseberries

White plaque on gooseberries is the initial stage of powdery mildew disease, brown plaque is a later stage of the same disease.

Powdery mildew

Most often, this fungal disease develops on gooseberries or currants. Powdery mildew looks like a white coating on gooseberries in the form of a cobweb. There is a difference between European powdery mildew and its American variety (spheroteka), which we will talk about later.

White berries on gooseberries are the beginning of a disease that is important not to miss. Gradually, the white, loose coating becomes a dense brown crust, the diseased shoots bend and die, the leaves turn yellow, curl, break, the berries crack and fall off while still green. The entire gooseberry crop may die, and within a few years, if treatment is neglected, all the plants may be lost.

The fight against powdery mildew on gooseberries should begin immediately after the first symptoms of its appearance are detected: if the gooseberry is covered with plaque during flowering or fruiting, spray it two to three times at intervals of a week or ten days with a solution of soda ash and soap at the rate of 5 g of soda and 50 g of grated soap per 10 liters of water. Affected berries and shoots are destroyed.

If you find powdery mildew before the buds open, act with confidence: the best remedy against powdery mildew is spraying with fungicides.

Treat the gooseberry bushes and the soil under them with Nitrophen solution or a three percent solution of iron sulfate, or a one percent solution of copper sulfate. Preparations such as Fundazol, Horus and Topaz have proven themselves well in the fight against this main enemy of gooseberries. As a preventive measure, it is recommended to dig up the soil on the site in spring and autumn. You can avoid fighting the disease by growing gooseberry varieties that are resistant to powdery mildew - Orlyonok, Consul, English Yellow, Northern Captain, Chernomor and others.

Gooseberry Spheroteka

Spheroteka is an American powdery mildew that is found in our gardens even more often than European powdery mildew. This type of powdery mildew is not much different from the European one in symptoms, and the means of combating it are approximately the same. So, what to do if the gooseberry is covered with a coating of spheroteca? It is necessary to start treating with fungicides as quickly as possible and not stop at half-hearted results, otherwise you will have to start all over again.

Treat gooseberries for spheroteca and be sure to determine the cause of the disease, that is, find out what agrotechnical errors resulted in the gooseberries' susceptibility to American powdery mildew, and eliminate them. Do not neglect preventive measures that strengthen the gooseberry’s immunity to diseases.

Spots on gooseberries

There may be several reasons for the appearance of spots. If at the end of May or early June, gray-brown or red spots with a yellow rim began to cover the leaves and berries of the gooseberry, and then the spots turned white, and only the rim around them remained brown, you are faced with white spotting, or gooseberry septoria. By August, the leaves may fall en masse, shoot growth will noticeably decrease, and next year's harvest will be in jeopardy. It must be said that septoria primarily affects weakened specimens, so be attentive to the health of your plants.

fight white spotting by treating the gooseberries and the soil around the bush with fungicides. Be sure to remove all affected leaves from the bushes and trim the shoots back to healthy tissue.

Anthracnose

Small brown spots with dark shiny tubercles on gooseberry leaves, gradually merging with each other - this is anthracnose gooseberry disease. As a result of the disease, the foliage on the gooseberry dries out and falls off, and leaf fall begins from the lower branches of the bush. The development of the disease is more intense during the rainy period in mid-summer.

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In early spring, before the buds open, spray the gooseberries and the soil around the bushes with nitrophen or one percent copper sulfate. Bordeaux mixture (100 g per 10 liters of water), homitin, cuprosan, colloidal sulfur are suitable for combating anthracnose. The same drugs are also used after the first manifestation of septoria on gooseberries.

Rust

Orange pads may form on the leaves, flowers and ovaries of gooseberries - this is goblet rust, which often affects the plant if sedge grows nearby. Small yellowish spots on the upper side of the leaf blade and yellow-orange growths on the underside of the leaf are symptoms of columnar rust, but it can only affect gooseberries if cedar or pine grows somewhere nearby.

An effective remedy against both rusts is triple treatment of gooseberries with a one percent solution of Bordeaux mixture or any other fungicide. The first session should be carried out when the leaves bloom, the second - when the buds appear, the third - after flowering. If the rust damage was very severe, carry out the fourth spraying ten days after the third.

Gooseberry disease

The gooseberry fruit is affected when the plant becomes infected with powdery mildew - it becomes covered with a white coating, which then becomes a brown crust, cracks and falls off the bush before it has time to ripen.

Scab on gooseberries

Actually, I’ve never heard of gooseberries getting scab. This problem usually occurs in fruit trees and potatoes. Other berries that do not suffer from scab are strawberries, wild strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants and blueberries. True, sometimes amateur gardeners call powdery mildew on gooseberries “scab.” But if you suspect that your gooseberry might have become infected with scab from an apple tree or from some other plant, treat the gooseberry with Bordeaux mixture, Fitosporin or copper sulfate.

Gooseberries turn yellow

Why do gooseberries turn yellow? Yellowing of the leaves is the first sign of spheroteca infection - powdery mildew. Yellow stains on the leaves also occur when gooseberries are infected with mosaic, a viral disease that, unfortunately, cannot be treated. Bushes affected by mosaic must be uprooted and burned. To prevent this disease from appearing in your garden, carefully inspect gooseberry seedlings before purchasing and under no circumstances purchase suspicious or weak specimens.

Mold on gooseberries

This is the same powdery mildew that we already wrote about.

Gooseberries are falling

Why do gooseberries fall off? Gooseberry fruits can fall due to the caterpillars of the moth, which we will talk about a little later. Gooseberries also fall off from powdery mildew.

Mechanical damage to the gooseberry bush

Various mechanical damage to a plant always contributes to its weakening, and therefore to an increase in the risk of infection with various diseases and damage by parasites. Therefore, all such damage must be immediately covered with oil paint diluted with natural drying oil.

But if the damage was discovered late, then first the wound on the plant should be covered with a solution of copper sulfate, and only then covered with the same oil paint. Let us add that all cuts of dried bushes that are formed after phytosanitary cleaning of gooseberries are processed in the same way.

Remember that any open wound will eventually lead to rotting of the wood, and subsequently the death of the branch.

If you want to prevent branches from breaking under the weight of snow in winter, then gooseberry bushes should be tied with twine or rope in advance. And to protect the root system from freezing at the beginning of winter, the base of the bush must be sprinkled with snow.

Gooseberry pests and their control

Gooseberries also have more than enough pests, and you need to know each one by sight. We will tell you about those that are the most common cause of problems.

Aphids on gooseberries

The gooseberry shoot aphid infects leaves and young shoots of gooseberries, feeding on their juice. As a result of the vital activity of aphids, which produce several generations over the summer, the leaves curl, and the shoots slow down and eventually stop growing. It is not easy to detect aphids right away - they are very small and green in color, and you can notice them when there are already too many of them. Cut off and destroy damaged shoot tips and treat gooseberry bushes with Actellik or Karbofos.

If you managed to detect the appearance of aphids at the very beginning, it will be enough to spray the gooseberries with a solution of three hundred grams of soap in ten liters of water. And carefully examine the area: if you find an anthill on it, know that aphids will appear on the gooseberries all the time, and you need to fight first of all not with aphids, but with ants.

Caterpillars

In early spring, gooseberries that are just opening their leaves are attacked by caterpillars that emerge from eggs laid along the veins of the underside of the leaves by butterflies of the yellow or pale-legged gooseberry sawfly. One butterfly can lay up to 150 eggs, and two or three generations of sawflies develop in one season.

Treatment of gooseberries with insecticides (Actellik, Karbofos, etc.) against the first generation of caterpillars is carried out from the moment the buds open until the formation of buds, the next time you need to spray the gooseberries immediately after flowering, and if after picking the berries you again find caterpillars on the gooseberries, carry out a third treatment of the bushes insecticides. Try to change insect killers every year.

The caterpillars of the gooseberry moth, which reach a length of four centimeters, behave in approximately the same way. They are destroyed by the same means and in the same time frame as the caterpillars of the yellow or thin-legged sawfly.

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Light green caterpillars with a black head, emerging from gooseberry moth eggs laid in gooseberry flowers, eat away the fruit ovary, enveloping it in a web. One caterpillar can destroy 6 berries. Remove from the bush and destroy any spider nests you find, and after the gooseberries have flowered, spray the gooseberries with insecticides (actellik, karbofos, ethafos). Next year, carry out preventive spraying of gooseberries with these preparations before flowering.

Currant glass

This butterfly lays up to 60 eggs in cracks in the bark of gooseberry shoots, and the emerging caterpillars feed on the core of the shoots, gnawing them from top to bottom, making a tunnel from the top to the base of the shoot. As a result, damaged branches wither and dry out. In the fight against currant glass, the same drugs are used as in the fight against moth, sawfly and moth. In addition, it is necessary, upon discovering branches damaged by caterpillars, to immediately remove them, without leaving stumps, and treat the cuts with garden varnish.

Currant gall midges

Currant gall midges - shoot, flower and leaf - that infect plants in too dense plantings also cause harm to gooseberries. They lay larvae in the shoots, flowers and leaves of gooseberries, which feed on these parts of the plant and destroy them. It is necessary to destroy gall midges after harvesting with the same insecticides as the insects that we have already told you about. As a preventative measure, treat the gooseberries with insecticides again in the spring of next year.

Currant bud mite on gooseberries

This insect damages gooseberry buds by penetrating them and feeding on the juice of young leaves. This makes the kidneys look too large and ugly compared to healthy ones. In addition, this mite carries the terry virus, which is dangerous for currants. From bushes infected with mites in the fall or early spring, you need to remove all unnaturally large buds and treat the plant twice with a solution of colloidal sulfur at the rate of 100 g per 10 liters of water or ISO preparation in accordance with the instructions. The first treatment is carried out during the opening of the buds, and the second – immediately after the gooseberries bloom.

Types of rust

Gooseberry plantings are susceptible to two types of infections: columnar and goblet, the latter being more common.

Both types of rust affect gooseberry leaves, but still have distinctive features.

glass-shaped

Orange spots with spore pads are observed on the leaves of the affected plant. Over time, when the spores open, they take the shape of small glasses. A light touch or shaking breaks the integrity of the glasses, and the spores easily spread to other plants.

Fruits with goblet rust are most often deformed, quickly dry out and fall off.

Attention. With this type of disease, the intermediate host is sedge, so you should avoid planting shrubs in places where it accumulates.

Columnar

Peak development occurs in July. It appears in the form of small yellowish spots on the fruits, the upper plate of foliage and yellow-orange growths on the bottom of the plate.

The close proximity of shrubs to cedars and pines in most cases leads to infection, because these trees act as intermediate hosts for columnar rust.

How to treat gooseberries, prevention

Treatment in spring

Today there is a huge selection of means to combat insect pests and all kinds of plant diseases, and the old, usually labor-intensive methods of plant prevention are undeservedly forgotten. But in vain. Let us remind you of one remedy that awakens gooseberries in the spring after winter rest and strengthens its immunity to diseases and pests. In early spring, at the end of March or beginning of April, pour a bucket of water brought to a temperature of 80 ºC into a watering can with a divider and quickly pour this almost boiling water over the gooseberry bushes. One bucket of water should be enough for five, at least three bushes.

Then collect last year's foliage from the site and burn it along with all pathogenic fungi and viruses, as well as their carriers. Cover the ground under the bushes with pieces of roofing felt or roofing felt to prevent butterflies that lay eggs on the ground parts of the gooseberries from flying out of the ground, and after flowering, when this danger has passed, the covering material can be removed.

Treatment for diseases

In early spring, broken and weak branches are removed from gooseberries, darkened ends of shoots that are frostbitten or affected by powdery mildew are cut off, and buds that are too large compared to others are removed, as they may be affected by the currant bud mite. At the beginning of bud break, preventive treatment of gooseberry bushes and soil in the area is carried out with nitrophen or three percent Bordeaux mixture.

After flowering, for preventive purposes, gooseberries are sprayed twice with one percent Bordeaux mixture at an interval of two weeks.

In the summer, it is necessary to treat gooseberries against powdery mildew twice with an interval of 10 days with a solution of soda ash and soap. After harvesting, anthracnose is prevented or treated with a one percent solution of Bordeaux mixture or another fungicide.

Treating gooseberries against pests

At the beginning of the formation of buds on the gooseberry, it is sprayed against gall midges, aphids and sawflies with karbofos (75 g per 10 l of water) or rovikurt (10 g per 10 l of water). Against kidney mites, spraying with a solution of colloidal sulfur is used at the rate of 30-40 g of the drug per 10 liters of water. After flowering, gooseberries are sprayed against insect pests with karbofos or actellik.

Treatment in autumn

In the fall, it is necessary to prune the gooseberries, remove fallen leaves and other plant debris from the area, treat the gooseberries and the soil around them with nitrophen, loosen the rows, water and feed the gooseberries generously, and mulch the area for the winter. When the snow falls, sprinkle it on the gooseberry bushes and you can forget about it until the end of March.

Prevention of gray rot and powdery mildew

Methods for preventing fungal diseases of gooseberries:

• crop rotation;
• loosening the soil;
• moderate watering;
• thinning out plantings;
• cleaning of infected shoots, foliage and berries;
• planting varieties and hybrids resistant to powdery mildew: Houghton, Jocelin, Curry, Sadko, Russky, Pushkinsky Rozovoy-2, Plum, Rodnik, Lada;
• moderate nitrogen application;
• sanitary pruning of bushes;
• planting plants in ventilated areas;
• spring treatment with Zircon.

Feeding gooseberries

What to feed

It is well known that all plants need nutrition, which is supplied by organic and mineral fertilizers. How to feed gooseberries in the spring to strengthen their resistance to diseases and pests and ensure abundant fruiting? At this time of year, gooseberries most need nitrogen fertilizers - before the buds open, add 25 g of ammonium nitrate or 30 g of urea to each square meter of plot.

Potassium-phosphorus fertilizers should be applied only a year after planting the gooseberries, or even after several years - it all depends on the composition of the soil on the site. They are applied in the fall: per square meter, half a bucket of rotted manure, 15 g of potassium chloride or 100 g of ash and 45 g of superphosphate. Fertilizers are scattered around the bush at a distance of up to two meters from the center in a circle - this is the distance the roots of the bush grow, and then buried with a hoe to a depth of about 10 cm.

Rust on gooseberries - causes

Deformation of gooseberry leaves, the appearance of red spots on them or fruits indicates the activity of pathogenic fungi of the genus Phragmidium or Puccinia . The disease is popularly called rust. The disease is quite common and dangerous for the plant. In terms of severity, gooseberry rust is equivalent to powdery mildew. If measures are not taken in a timely manner, it can harm all fruit-bearing bushes and destroy the crop.

Fungal microorganisms live in the host body under anaerobic conditions. Vectors can be plant debris, weeds or intermediate plants.

For reference. A pile of autumn leaves left in the garden is the most common refuge in which pathogenic microorganisms survive the winter.

With the arrival of spring, spores are carried over long distances by the wind. Warm weather and high humidity levels stimulate the process of plant infection.

How to recognize

The spore-bearing stage of development in rust fungi appears on the leaves and stems of plants. Brown rusty spots appear in the form of lines on the infected parts.

Over the summer, they ripen, dry out and cracks form on them, through which spores spill out, easily spreading to nearby plants.

Among the secondary signs:

• leaf deformation;
• premature drying of the plant;
• deformed and dry berries.

If you ignore the disease, the gooseberry bush dies after a few weeks or months.

It is recommended to carefully inspect gooseberry plantings once every 7 days.

Anti-rust preparations (fungicides)

The following fungicides work best against rust on various crops:

1. Abiga Peak . A broad-spectrum agent containing copper, it is used to treat a whole range of fungal and bacterial diseases.
2. Azophos . A new generation drug is used to combat fungal diseases. Environmentally friendly.
3. Baktofit . Biological bactericidal and fungicidal agent used for bacterial and fungal diseases.
4. Bordeaux liquid . A broad-spectrum copper-containing product is used to protect fruit, citrus, ornamental, vegetable, berry, melon and flower crops from a number of diseases.
5. Vectra . The contact-systemic drug is used for the treatment and prevention of fungal diseases. Capable of exterminating spores of phytopathogenic fungi.
6. Cumulus . An inorganic contact agent is used to treat fungal diseases.
7. Cuproxat . A contact preparation, characterized by eradicating and protective effects, is used in the fight against a number of fungal diseases.
8. Medex . This effective remedy is made from copper sulfate and is used to treat various fungal diseases.
9. Pencozeb . The contact preparation has a preventive effect and is used to protect plants from fungal diseases.
10. Polisher . This product is highly effective and is used for preventive spraying.
11. Speed _ The systemic drug effectively treats fungal diseases and also protects plants from them for a long time.
12. Strobe . The broad-spectrum product is highly effective and is used to treat ornamental, fruit and vegetable crops in the fight against fungal diseases.
13. Topaz . This systemic drug is most often used to protect plants from fungal diseases. Plants are sprayed with it at the very beginning of the growing season.
14. Fitosporin . A contact microbiological preparation is used for preventive treatment of various crops against a number of fungal and bacterial diseases.