Why currants dry out and what to do, why branches and leaves dry out, along with berries - 9 reasons and what to do

Author: Elena N. https://floristics.info/ru/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=19 Category: Fruit and berry plants Published: June 11, 2015Last edits: November 29, 2020

Currant (lat. Ribes) is a genus of plants in the Gooseberry family, which includes about 150 species, common in Europe, North America and Asia. The Russian name of the plant comes from the word “currant”, meaning “strong smell”, and indeed, the berries, leaves and branches of black currant are characterized by a strong, unique aroma. The white and red representatives of the genus do not have such a strong odor. The first mention of currants in Rus' dates back to the eleventh century, and chronicles of the sixteenth century tell that at that time black currants were already grown in abundance in gardens near Moscow. Today, perhaps, there is not a single garden in which a bush or two of this fragrant, tasty and healthy berry does not grow.

Botanical description

Currant is a bush from one to two and a half meters high with alternate palm-shaped three- to five-lobed leaves with large teeth along the edge. Currants bloom in raceme inflorescences, consisting of 5-10 small flowers with five petals, five stamens and five sepals. Berries up to 1 cm in diameter ripen by the end of July. The currant bush can begin to bear fruit the next year after planting. Currants are shade-tolerant, but develop better in well-lit areas.

Of the numerous plant species, the most commonly cultivated are black currant (Ribes nigrum), red currant (Ribes rubrum) and white currant (Ribes niveum); recently, yellow currant has also become popular. The main number of berries is formed on the shoots of the first, second and third years of life. Currant berries are a storehouse of organic acids, vitamins, macro- and microelements necessary for humans.

Black currant is useful for vitamin deficiency, hypertension, atherosclerosis, bronchitis, renal and hepatic colic, gastritis and other diseases. For the treatment and prevention of diseases, not only berries and products made from them are used, but also the leaves and flowers of the plant. However, currants themselves are sometimes susceptible to diseases and invasions of insect pests, and the gardener is faced with the task of promptly and correctly diagnosing currant diseases so as not to be late in treating them. As a preventive measure, proper planting and care of currants, as well as their preventive treatment, are very important.

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Why do currant leaves turn yellow?

Why do currant leaves turn yellow?

Errors in care are one of the main reasons why a plant may turn yellow. In addition, this may occur due to the action of insects harmful to the bush. However, the action of fungus and viruses is the most dangerous cause of yellow leaves. In such a case, the currant needs to be treated immediately.

Perennial shrubs can turn yellow both at the beginning of the summer period and at the end of fruiting: 1. In the spring, branches may dry out due to improper care, and the bush may lack nutrients. Young plants suffer from a lack of potassium and nitrogen elements. 2. A small amount of nutrients or lack of sufficient moisture in the soil is the reason why the bush may turn yellow in May. 3. In summer, due to heavy rains, nutrients may disappear from the tree trunk circle. Feeding on time can solve the problem well. 4. It’s June on the calendar, but the currant leaves have turned yellow? The reason is probably that the pests have already begun their attack. Some types of insects harm bushes in the middle of summer, for example, gall aphids.

Currant diseases and their treatment

Stains on currants

Sometimes it happens to find spots on currant leaves with a diameter of 2-3 mm. At first they are brown, then the middle begins to lighten, turn white, until only the edge around the light spot remains brown. These spots can also appear on currant berries. The disease is called white spotting, or septoria. It usually occurs in heavily dense plantings. Sometimes other spots appear on currant leaves - dark brown with a thin light rim. They appear on the leaves in mid-summer, gradually enlarge, merge and turn into a coating, from which the leaves dry out and fall off. This disease is brown spot, or cercospora.

To combat septoria and cercospora, two sessions of spraying plants with Bordeaux mixture (100 g of the drug per 10 liters of water) are used: the first - when the disease is detected, the second - ten days after harvesting.

Currants turn yellow

If suddenly you notice that autumn is still far away, but for some reason the leaves of the currant are turning yellow, and before that it grew and bore fruit normally for several years, it means that the matter is not a violation of agrotechnical rules or a dry summer. The cause may be some disease or pest attack. If the currant leaves turn yellow along the main veins, it means that the plant has been affected by a striped or veined mosaic. This is bad news, because mosaic is a viral disease, and in fact it cannot be treated - infected plants need to be uprooted and burned, and the place where they grew should be spilled with a solution of potassium permanganate.

But there are means to prevent currants from becoming infected with this disease, and we will tell you about them a little later. There is more than one answer to the question “why do currants turn yellow?” Sometimes the cause of this phenomenon is the gall aphid, which parasitizes not only currants. Gooseberries, raspberries and other garden plants also suffer from it, but we will also talk about this pest in detail in another section below. What to do if currants turn yellow? First of all, determine the cause of the phenomenon.

Red leaves on currant

If there are red spots on the currants, most likely this is a symptom of the presence of red gall aphids or the fungal disease anthracnose, and we will talk about them later.

Currant bloom

White bloom on currants is a sign of American or European powdery mildew, and brown bloom is evidence that you are dealing with advanced cercospora.

Currants are drying

If your currants are drying out, try to answer these questions: are they affected by pests? Doesn't it suffer from lack of moisture? How old is the currant bush? Sometimes at the end of flowering you can find that the currants have dried up - not all, but several branches. The reason for this may be the currant glassworm - a butterfly with lilac-black scales on the body and a wingspan of 2.5 cm, which lays eggs in cracks in the currant bark, and the white caterpillars that emerge from them eat away the core of the branches, which causes the currants to dry out.

The control method is timely treatment with insecticides - actellik or karbofos. If the cause is a lack of moisture, then you yourself know what needs to be done. But if your currant is more than fifteen years old, apparently, it’s time to take measures to rejuvenate the bush - cut off the old branches so that the currant can grow new ones, and treat the cuts with garden varnish.

The currants are falling

Currant leaves may fall off prematurely if the plant is affected by anthracnose, blight or aphids. Read about how to treat currants against diseases in the corresponding section (below).

Anthracnose

In mid-summer, reddish-brown spots no more than 1 mm in diameter may appear on currant leaves. The red spots that appear on the currant gradually blur, covering the entire leaf. Then the leaves in the lower part of the bush turn brown, dry out and fall off, because anthracnose also affects the petioles of the leaves. This fungal disease is most severe during the rainy season. Anthracnose affects red currants to a greater extent. The disease spores overwinter in fallen leaves, which is why it is so important to remove last year’s leaves from under the bushes in the spring.

You need to start fighting the disease as early as possible; for this purpose, currants are treated with a solution of Bordeaux mixture at the rate of 100 g per 10 liters of water. Repeated processing is carried out after harvesting.

Powdery mildew

When in the middle of summer a white, loose coating appears on young leaves, which then spreads to the berries and old leaves, then you are dealing with a fungal disease, powdery mildew, or spheroteca. Since it is mainly weakened plants that are affected by diseases, good care reduces the risk of disease to a minimum, but if the disease appears, spray the currant bushes with Fitosporin or a solution of the contents of one pharmaceutical bottle of five percent iodine in ten liters of water. If necessary, the procedure can be repeated after three days.

If your manipulations are unsuccessful, you will have to resort to treating the bushes with a solution of Bordeaux mixture, copper oxychloride (1 teaspoon per 5-7 liters of water) or a one percent solution of copper sulfate.

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Rust on currants

Currants can be affected by two types of rust - goblet and columnar. Goblet rust looks like raised orange warts on leaves, while columnar rust looks like small orange dots. Goblet rust can be transferred to currants by the wind from sedge growing nearby near a pond, and columnar rust can get to currants from coniferous trees. Start the fight against rust by treating currants with phytosporin, and if this measure does not help, treat the bushes with fungicides (one percent Bordeaux mixture, for example). There can be four such treatments with a break between them of 10 days.

Yellowing of leaves during drought in June

Early yellowing of leaves can be due to many factors. One of them is weather and climatic conditions (sudden temperature changes, prolonged precipitation, etc.).

Let's talk in detail about other reasons - those that the gardener can eliminate on his own.

Deficiency or excess of nutrients

Currants turn yellow and dry out, often due to improper feeding. Deficiency or excess of one or another element is determined by external changes in foliage:

1. Magnesium. Yellowing of the leaves in the lower part of the bush indicates a lack of magnesium. In this case, the veins remain green, and the leaf blade turns yellow. The problem can be corrected by feeding the plant with dolomite flour, wood ash or magnesium sulfate.
2. Potassium. Potassium deficiency manifests itself in yellowing of the leaves along the edges, while the blade and vein remain green. You can compensate for the deficiency of the substance with potassium sulfate, potassium chloride or potassium magnesia. If the leaf curls down but does not fall off, this indicates an excess of the mineral.
3. Nitrogen. With a lack of nitrogen, the shoots stretch out, become thin, and fall off prematurely. The leaf blade loses color, only the veins remain green. The addition of mineral (urea, calcium nitrate, dolomite flour + ammonium nitrate) or organic (poultry droppings, pig/horse/cow manure) forms of nitrogen will eliminate the problem. With an excess of the mineral, the leaves become brittle and have a rich green color.
4. Iron. If there is insufficient iron in the soil, the leaf blade begins to turn yellow and its edges dry out. They compensate for the deficiency of the element by applying iron sulfate at the root and iron chelate as a foliar feeding. An excess of the element is determined by limp leaves with light veins.

The norm of potassium per year for young bushes is 30 g, phosphorus - 40 g.

Poor or excessive watering

Lack of moisture, as well as its excess, is dangerous for the plant. With prolonged drought and insufficient watering, the plant signals a lack of water with yellow leaves.

But in conditions of constant humidity, the root system begins to rot. Therefore, it is important to follow watering standards. Depending on the climate, 1-2 buckets of settled water are required for each bush. This amount is enough to moisten the soil by 40-60 cm and avoid rotting of the root system. The frequency of watering is 2 times a month.

Lack of loosening and improper planting

In order for soil moisture to occur at the required level, the soil is maintained in a loose state without a surface crust. To do this, the soil is loosened once every 15-20 days. Next to bushes this is done no deeper than 8 cm, and in row-spacings - to a depth of 12 cm.

There is a close relationship between the growth of the root system and the development of the foliage apparatus of the aboveground part of the plant. Therefore, the health of the plant depends on the depth of soil cultivation and the time of planting seedlings. If you plant seedlings before return frosts, during the growing season the young plants will have yellow foliage, and the chances of survival of the bushes will be low. For better rooting, currants are planted in the fall, and for the winter they are insulated with burlap or spunbond.

A shallow planting hole prevents the full development of roots. To avoid the problem, it is necessary to deepen it.

For reference. Bushes may turn yellow due to old age - at the age of more than 15 years.

Pests and plant diseases

If the above-described causes of yellowing of currant leaves are easy to eliminate, then if diseases or pests are detected, more effort will have to be spent.

Yellowing of currant leaves is among the symptoms of such diseases:

1. Rust. The disease appears as yellow-orange warts on the bottom of the leaf or small red spots. Over time, the leaves and berries dry out and fall off.
2. Anthracnose. Circular brown spots are visualized on both sides of the leaf, which eventually merge into yellow. Uncharacteristic foliage color indicates the final stage of the disease.
3. Mosaic. The appearance of pale yellow spots indicates the initial stage of a viral disease. Over time, the leaf turns completely yellow, the affected tissue between the veins turns white and dries out.
4. Verticillium. Weak growth of shrubs and yellowing of leaves, their shedding from the lower tier indicates a lack of nutrients, since Verticillium wilt affects the root and vascular systems of the plant.

Powdery mildew, or spheroteca, can cause some yellowing of the leaves.

It is recommended to promptly remove yellowed leaves, dig up and burn severely damaged plants, and use “Fitosporin-M” or “Agrolekar” fungicides for treatment.

Currant pests and their control

Aphids on currants

Most often, gardeners have to deal with such harmful insects as aphids, and very often readers ask the question of how to get rid of aphids on currants. Among the enemies of currants are two types of aphids - leaf gall and gooseberry shoot. The presence of gall aphids is manifested by the appearance of dark red or yellow swellings on currant leaves, depending on the type of gall aphid, and this makes it appear that the currant leaves have turned yellow or red. Over time, the leaves darken, dry out and fall off.

The gall aphid on currants feeds on the juice of its leaves, and in one season there can be seven generations of these insects, each of which makes its destructive contribution to the destruction of your garden, because this aphid settles on any plants. Shoot aphids damage young currant branches, they bend and stop growing.

How to fight aphids on currants, how to treat currants against aphids? Immediately after detecting pests, spray the plant with a solution of actellik or karbofos in accordance with the instructions - these are the best remedies for aphids on currants. If necessary, repeat the treatment after a week or ten days.

Ants

Where there are aphids, there are ants - this is the law of nature. It is the ants that carry aphids to new, “nourishing” areas - to young succulent shoots, the juice of which the aphids feed on, and in the fall they carry the aphids to their anthills, so that in the spring they again bring out their “herds” of aphids to graze in your currant tree. And no matter how you fight aphids, as long as there are garden ants on the site, you will not achieve success, and every year the currant harvest will become more and more meager. In addition, ants spoil flowerbeds and lawns, and their anthill grows every day, reaching a depth of one and a half meters or more, and if you, having discovered the presence of these insects, do not immediately try to destroy them, then it will be much more difficult for you to do this.

There are many traditional methods of fighting ants, but none of them gives a 100% result. The only effective way to get rid of ants is to use modern, highly effective food-based baits and gels. Their poisonous substance does not act immediately, but after a while, so that the worker ants can deliver it to the anthill and feed it to the larvae and the queen. These innovative products were developed in Germany. You can purchase them in online stores.

How to deal with gooseberry diseases and pests

Ognevka

Fire butterflies emerge from the ground during currant flowering and lay eggs in its flowers. The emerging caterpillars eat up the currant fruits, entwining them with cobwebs. One caterpillar can spoil up to 15 currants. If the butterflies have already laid eggs in the flowers, you are unlikely to be able to change anything, but you can prevent the appearance of moths: in early spring, lay roofing felt or linoleum around the currant bushes, and sprinkle the edges with earth so that the butterflies cannot emerge from the soil where they overwintered. in the form of pupae. Remove the covering after the currants have finished blooming.

Mite on currants

Two types of mites can parasitize currants: spider mites and currant bud mites. Spider mites on currants show their presence by the appearance of light spots on the leaves, which gradually turn into discolored areas. And if the damage is severe, the leaves look marbled, dry out and fall off. The bud mite on currants destroys fruit buds, which leads to a decrease in yield. In addition, ticks are carriers and spreaders of various diseases.

How to deal with mites on currants? The fight against bud mites on currants begins with organizing proper care of the plant, and in order to prevent the currants from being occupied by spider mites, it is necessary to increase the air humidity in the area during particularly dry times of the year. Of the chemical preparations that are effective in the fight against both types of parasites, those containing sulfur, such as karbofos, phosphamide, and colloidal sulfur.

Other reasons

Drying of the bush can be caused by various factors:

1. Incorrect use of mineral fertilizers. Deficiency or excessive amounts of certain elements lead to yellowing and dry leaves.
2. Rare watering. With a lack of fluid, young roots die. As a result, the plant does not receive enough nutrients, which leads to yellowing and wilting of the foliage. After some time it begins to crumble.
3. Excess moisture. Excessive soil moisture causes rotting of small roots. The plant does not receive enough nutrients. This causes yellowing and falling leaves.
4. Development of septoria. The disease provokes the appearance of brown spots on the plant. As the disease progresses, the spots become lighter. Moreover, they have a brown border. With severe damage, currant leaves fall off prematurely. The development of the disease is caused by fungal spores that overwinter in fallen leaves. The disease provokes damage not only to leaves, but also to fruits.
5. Vein mosaic. This viral infection begins to become active after the leaves bloom. It provokes damage to the leaf veins. The disease is accompanied by the appearance of a yellow pattern on currant leaves. After some time they dry out and crumble.

How to process currants - prevention

Treatment in spring

Work with currant bushes begins in early spring, before the buds wake up and sap flow begins. First of all, you should carry out “hot” processing of currants. It is carried out for the purpose of prevention from pests and diseases and to ensure full development and subsequent abundant fruiting. Heat the water to 80 ºC and pour it over the currant bushes from a watering can with a divider. Ten liters of hot water should be enough for three bushes.

After a hot shower, it is very advisable to prune the currants - remove damaged and weakened shoots, lightly trim the tips of branches that have frozen over the winter, thin out the bush if for some reason you did not do this in the fall. When pruning, remove those branches or buds that have been affected by the bud mite. All trimmings must be burned, and sections whose diameter exceeds 8 mm must be treated with garden varnish. After this, you need to clean the area with currants from last year’s foliage, in which the larvae of insect pests and pathogens probably overwintered.

Treatment for diseases

In early spring, before the buds open, spray the currant bushes and the soil under them with a two percent solution of nitrophen or karbofos - this will protect the plants from almost all diseases. After a while, to be sure, treat the currants with Bordeaux mixture, and when real spring begins and the currants begin to grow, from time to time you can spray the currants with foundationazole for preventive purposes.

Pest treatment

How to spray currants so that they are not affected by pests? Yes, all the same karbofos or nitrophen, which do an excellent job of their preventive function and protect currants not only from diseases, but also from pests. The fight against bud mites can be carried out at a temperature not lower than 20 ºC, otherwise after spraying the bushes must be wrapped in polyethylene. Don’t be lazy, otherwise you will have problems with kidney mites. To prevent the currant bushes from being harmed by the moth, at the beginning of the growing season, lay roofing material around the bushes, sprinkling its edges with earth. When the flowering ends and the fruits appear, the roofing material can be removed.

Autumn treatment

In the fall, you will need to do annual pruning of currants. All branches older than five years are removed because they are no longer very productive and take up too much space. In addition, you need to cut off to a healthy part or completely all the shoots in which the glass beetle has settled - they are easy to identify, they are withered and dried out. If possible, remove all shoots infected with bud mites, covered with powdery mildew, all weak and too thin zero shoots to the base of the bush.

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If you have an old bush, start rejuvenating it, just don’t overdo it with pruning: if you need to remove too many old branches, do it in three stages, that is, over three years - cut off a third of the branches every year. And do not forget to treat cuts of thick branches with garden varnish and burn the trimmings.

After pruning, it is time to carry out autumn preventive spraying of currants with a two percent solution of karbofos or a one percent solution of colloidal sulfur. Spray the soil under the bushes generously. Spraying should be done in warm, windless, dry weather.

The main reasons for drying of black and red currants

There are many reasons why currants die. If the bush disappears, you need to take action in time.



Adverse climatic conditions

If the currants have dried out, you can suspect the influence of a climatic factor. The plant often suffers in hot and dry weather. Young bushes are especially susceptible to it. If the culture does not take root for a long time, the amount of liquid should be increased.

It is worth watering the plant in the evening, when the scorching sun goes down. For this purpose, you should not use water from a well or well. The liquid is too cold, and therefore it will harm the roots of the plant. It is advisable to keep the water for irrigation in the sun so that it warms up.

It is recommended to water the plant abundantly. You should pour at least 1.5 buckets of liquid under the bush. This is especially true during the period of fruit ripening.

Also, currants can dry out due to a large amount of rain. In such a situation, it is worth pouring soil under the bush. It is recommended to make drainage ditches around the plant at a distance of at least 60 centimeters. They will help avoid stagnation of liquid near the currants.

Moisture deficiency

The weather can be very hot in July or August. It is not surprising that in such a situation the currants dry out. Therefore, the plant needs abundant watering. It is recommended to carry out the procedure in the evening. For this purpose, settled water is used.

Currant feeding

What to feed

As has been said more than once, compliance with the laws of agricultural technology and proper care make any plant practically invulnerable to diseases and parasites. Fertilizers applied at the right time and in correct proportions also strengthen plant immunity. Each plant has its own dose and fertilizing period.

How to fertilize currants and when is the best time to do this in order to achieve high currant resistance to diseases and pests? If at the time of planting the bush a sufficient amount of fertilizer was added to the ground, then the plant will not need fertilizing for the next two years. Starting from the third year, currants need to be fed at the beginning of the growing season, at the time of ovary growth and after fruiting. In the spring, it is necessary to feed the currants with nitrogen fertilizers, for example, ammonium nitrate at the rate of 60-75 g per bush.

During the period of fruit formation, it is best to use Uniflor-micro as a fertilizer at the rate of 2 tablespoons per 10 liters of water, and after harvesting it is advisable to apply fertilizer consisting of phosphorus and potassium: sprinkle a tablespoon of chlorine-free potassium and double granulated superphosphate under each bush , and then water the bush with ten liters of water if the weather is dry. If it rains, just add fertilizer to the soil. All fertilizers are scattered around the perimeter of the crown of the bush, away from its center.

What to do if the currants dry out and the reason has not been established

Very often it is difficult to understand why currants dry out and to use specific preparations to solve the problem. There is only one way out: cut out the diseased shoots, and if the bush is old, it is better to uproot it completely. Otherwise, the disease will spread throughout the entire area. Then treat the soil with thick potassium permanganate, add fresh soil and fertilizer to the hole and plant a new plant. If possible, do not plant currants here for 1-2 years.

Anti-aging pruning in some cases helps save currants from diseases and pests so that they do not dry out

Traditional methods for eliminating yellow leaves

Along with chemicals, homemade preparations are used for the treatment and prevention of currants. They are harmless, but no less effective. Infusions are used throughout the growing season.

Pests cannot tolerate strong odors, so homemade decoctions are prepared from aromatic herbs and spices.

Mustard

A solution with this ingredient is prepared as follows: dissolve 2 tablespoons of dry mustard in 10 liters of boiling water. After complete cooling, the product is ready for use. It is advisable to spray the bushes in the morning or evening. Helps cope with fungal diseases.

To prevent the appearance of parasites, sprinkle the currant bush with mustard powder, always after flowering.

Garlic

If the number of insects is small, then you can get rid of them using this product. To prepare, chop a medium head of garlic. Fill it with 1 liter of boiled water. Infuse for a week. Before spraying the bushes, dilute 50 ml of garlic infusion in a bucket of water. Suitable for eliminating whiteflies, scale insects, mites and scale insects.

Wood ash

The product saves currants from powdery mildew.
To prepare, dissolve 1 kg of wood ash in 10 liters of warm water. Infuse this mixture for 4 days. Then add 50 g of laundry soap. The spraying procedure is carried out twice a month. In early spring, the plant is sprinkled with ashes.

Serum

Whey helps fight fungal diseases. However, before use it must be diluted: 1 liter of fermented milk product per 9 liters of water.

Terms and rules of preventive work

A set of preventive measures helps prevent yellowing of the currant bush in spring and summer:

1. Correct choice of growing location. The area should be bright, protected from drafts, with loose, nutritious soil.
2. Selection of a zoned variety. Breeders have developed varieties for each climate zone, so before purchasing a seedling, you should check this data with the seller or in the reference literature.
3. Removing fallen leaves and digging up tree trunks in the fall. Insect larvae and pathogens are preserved in plant debris and upper layers of soil. In spring, pathogens move onto the bush and begin to develop, causing yellowing of the foliage.
4. Timely sanitary and formative pruning

Yellowing of currants in spring and summer requires immediate identification of the causes and implementation of treatment measures. Without timely help, the bushes may die.

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