Tasty, healthy berry currants easily cope with cold and heat, drought and humidity. But with all its unpretentiousness, unfortunately, it is still susceptible to infection by pests and diseases. Most often the visual indicator of the health of the shrub is leaf blades, if the crown is green with even leaves, then the crop is not in danger, however, if the leaves are visibly deformed, dried and twisted, it is urgent to find out the reasons so as not to lose the green mass, which will negatively affect the future the crop.

Why currants are curled leaves, reasons

At the time of the full maturation of the shrub, in the middle of summer, gardeners can expect an unpleasant moment: suddenly twisted among healthy leaves appear, while all the same green. A large number of insects feed on the wood juice of currants and berries, and their attention is attracted only by the most delicate, juicy, young leaves, at this moment harmful insects infect them, pest larvae settle on the inside of the twisted leaf, and when deployed, you can determine which insect is there.

Also, in addition to infection, one of the many pests, the cause of twisting can be a viral or fungal disease. It is important to establish the cause of twisting in a timely and correct manner, otherwise the foliage will quickly begin to dry out and lose half of its green mass, which will significantly slow down its development and significantly reduce yield. The time of occurrence of the lesion also helps to identify the disease.

You can identify the problem by a thorough inspection of the plant, you need to pay attention to the following symptoms and visually detectable nuances:

• how old the leaves twisted;
• the presence of a small cobweb or white coating;
• what color are the spots, if any (for example, brown spots indicate anthracnose or sferoteka disease, orange spots are a sign of columnar rust);
• folding nature: inward or outward;
• whether there are tubercles or growths.

Viral diseases of the bush are not treatable, therefore it is recommended to dig it up and completely destroy it, otherwise the virus will continue to spread the infection.

Pest

A number of insect pests can infect currant foliage. In order to determine the type of insect, just expand the leaf tube. The main ones are aphids and leafworms.

Did you know? Previously, currants were called the “monastery berry” due to the fact that it was grown in almost all monasteries and was widely used by monks for medicinal purposes.

The aphid feeds on the sweet juice of the plant and lives on the top of the bush on young shoots. First, the damaged leaves become tuberous from the mass of aphids that accumulated under the leaf, soon the leaf changes color to yellow or red, due to the suction of the juice from it. The main carriers of these insects are ants, they graze aphids and feed on the sweet juice that aphids carry.

If new young shoots appear in the vicinity, ants quickly transfer aphid colonies there. Therefore, it is necessary to fight not only with aphids, but also necessarily with ants. Aphid leaves blackcurrant in summer in July, but returns in autumn.

Leaflet - a small two-centimeter butterfly of brown color, wings with a dark pattern, folded on the back. But the harm is not caused by a butterfly, but by yellow larvae, which it lays in very large quantities on a leaf for a month.

Caterpillars emerge from the larvae and cause harm in the form of nibbling the leaf, after which they are twisted into a leaf for wintering, producing a cobweb around them, and feed on the juice of the leaf. In autumn, the leaf falls and after wintering in the spring, the caterpillar pupates and a butterfly appears again and the cycle repeats.

Leaf-twisting diseases

The cause of twisting, in addition to damage by insects, can be viral, fungal diseases. It is important to pay attention to the symptoms again in order to begin the correct treatment. Two types of disease are anthracnose and powdery mildew.

The first signs of anthracnose are small brown dots on the leaf, which increase in diameter over time and can merge with each other, from which the leaf is already completely brown, dries out, blackens and spreads these islet spots on the trunk and berries. All foliage turns brown and the crown falls ahead of time.

As anthracnose is a fungal disease, it is easily tolerated by the wind, and insects, and rain, so when identifying symptoms, it is urgent to treat the entire garden. In the affected shrub, winter hardiness decreases and the next crop will be in jeopardy. High humidity contributes to the rapid development of this fungus. Often found on non-chernozemic soils.

Powdery mildew develops in early spring due to excess light, nitrogen in the soil, lack of calcium. In the upper buds of the bush, a microscopic apical fungus winters, which resumes its life cycle in early spring. The mushroom is attached to the leaf and parasitizes. Covers the plant with a web of plaque, which subsequently becomes powdery and deforms the leaves and shoots, thereby slowing the growth of currants. Favorable conditions for the fungus are rainy weather.

What to process

Aphids are resistant to chemicals during egg planting, so they must be treated every 2 weeks, resulting in the destruction of more than 70% of young larvae that are most harmful to currants.

Did you know? Leaflovers do not like the smell of yarrow and ordinary chamomile, therefore, for prevention, you can plant these plants next to the currant bushes.

To combat the leaflet, two sprayings are needed - before the dissolution of the foliage and a month before harvesting. Leafworm damages only individual leaves and is not contagious. Therefore, they need to be collected and burned.

For treatment of anthracnose, it is necessary to use the spraying method with Bordeaux liquid in early spring. A method of controlling powdery mildew can be considered spraying with a urea solution in a weak concentration. Also suitable is spraying with sulfur. The frequency of processing should be 10 days.

Chemicals

Before using a chemical agent for pest control, you need to understand that it is very toxic and think about whether there really is a need for it. Chemicals have a very high efficiency, lead to complete death due to physiological disturbances. Processing must necessarily take place in two stages, re-spraying is carried out after 14 days.

Popular remedies:

1. Aktara - a wide spectrum of action, belongs to the group of neonicotinoids. Effective against aphids.
2. Apollo - affects larvae and eggs, contact acaricide, sterilizes adults. Safe for humans.
3. Actellik - against insects that gnaw leaves, intestinal contact action. Recommended for processing in early spring.

Processing is necessary not only shrubs, but also the nearest trees.

Biological additives

Less toxic to the plant will be biological additives, which are most often made from bacteria. Biological additives increase the immunity of the soil than destroy insects.

Most popular remedies:

1. Agravertin - against larvae, contact-intestinal action.
2. Fitoverm - against leaf-eating caterpillars, contact-intestinal action.
3. Actofit - a wide range of actions, protection against aphids, larvae and other pests.

To enhance the effect, it is necessary to carry out repeated treatments with an interval of two weeks.

Folk remedies

There are many preventive and therapeutic folk remedies for the protection of currants. Every two weeks, it is necessary to carry out processing by the following means:

• garlic solution (100 g of garlic in 10 liters of water, strain);
• onion infusion (200 g of onion husks in 10 l of water, insist 10 days);
• dandelion infusion (400 g of dandelion per 10 liters of warm water, leave for 2 hours);
• wormwood solution (1 kg of wormwood per 10 l of water boil, cool);
• potato infusion (chop the tops of potatoes, add water, strain).

Preventive measures

To prevent the use of chemical treatment methods, it is necessary to resort to preventive actions. The most popular tips are:

• when planting seedlings, it is necessary to observe the distance between the bushes at 3 m from each other;
• often loosen the soil and be sure to mulch with ash;
• pour spring trunks with boiling water or vinegar;
• sprinkle with tobacco dust and wood ash;
• pruned in spring and autumn, always burn old leaves and branches.

Dusting and spraying should be carried out only in dry, calm weather. Watering after the procedure is necessary after 6 hours.

Timely treatment will help to save the shrub, and timely preventive measures taken - to prevent a recurrence of the situation in the next season.