Recommendations for growing currants

Place and soil

Despite its seasonality, currants remain one of the most demanded berries in our country. And the business of growing it in your own dacha can be easily turned into a small profitable business. Since currants have always been appreciated by consumers for their excellent taste and medicinal properties.

It is also good for business and the moment that the berry has an early ripening period, which allows you to harvest faster. Currant is also a frost and cold tolerant crop, making it a profitable business even in harsh climates. And after harvesting, you can keep the berries frozen for a long time. At the same time, they will not lose their appearance and taste, which is also good for their own business.

Before you start growing currants in your country house, you should decide on a planting site. This berry grows well on different types of soil and gives good yields for 12 years or more. But weakly acidic, weakly and moderately podzolized, sandy loam and loamy soils with good moisture capacity are best suited for it. Before planting currants in the country, it is recommended to drain the soil well, prepare drainage ditches, the depth of which is planned to be about 40 - 60 cm, with a branch to the central channel (which is clearly visible in the video). You should also dig up or plow the land in the fall, beforehand, organic fertilizers are laid out on the site. This is manure, rotted peat or compost, lime or dolomite flour, phosphate rock, potassium chloride.

It is advised to dig up the ground for currants to a depth of 30 cm. Also, the seat should be well lit and protected from the wind. For red and white currant species, it is best to choose a sunny area on the south side with a flat surface. And for black, it is preferable to land slightly in shade, located obliquely on the north side. If an autumn planting of a crop is planned, then the soil must be prepared several weeks in advance so that it can settle. Subject to spring planting, the land is left in clods for the winter. When preparing the land, remove the rhizomes of perennial weeds. The following video will tell you how to prepare a site for planting.

Selection of seedlings

When starting to grow these berries as a business, take care of the right choice of seedlings. Before purchasing, carefully inspect the root system of each and evaluate its quality. The length of the shoots is not so important here, since they will be removed before planting. You can ask the seller to make a cut on the shoot. If after that you find blackness, then the seedling is sick with glass. The roots must be strong, viable and free of breakage. An optimal root system can consist of several main roots about half a meter long and many adventitious ones.

A prerequisite is their freshness and moisture. The bark on the branches and trunk should ideally be flat. For the dough, you can pinch off a small piece and check if the bottom is green. If you buy seedlings in the fall, the leaves on the branches must be removed.When transporting, the roots must be wrapped in a damp cloth and wrapped in a plastic bag.

After purchasing, seedlings with open roots should be dug in a shaded place and watered well. To do this, a shallow hole is dug, which has a slope to the south and a slightly elongated shape. The seedling is placed there and covered with earth. So they can stay from a week to three, the main thing is to land until the kidneys appear. Before planting, it will be necessary to remove diseased, dried and broken roots, as well as aerial parts of the seedling. In order to avoid drying out, its roots are advised to be dipped in a clay chatterbox. All these manipulations can be seen in our video.

Video "Reproduction of seedlings"

Landing

The most famous method of propagation of currants, which can also be used when growing it as your own business, is propagation by cuttings. You will need annual shoots harvested from viable bushes. They need to be cut into cuttings up to 20 cm. The upper part of the shoot is not useful for cutting. Hand-made cuttings are planted in fertile soil with a loose structure. It is better to plant the cuttings in early autumn. For red currants this will be the second half of August, for black currants - early September. Planting at other late dates can reduce the number of rooted cuttings.

The technology of planting currant cuttings looks like this - along the cord in rows in one or two lines. In this case, the distance between the rows should be 40 cm, between the lines - 20 cm, in the row between the crops - about 15 cm. The cuttings should be planted at an angle so that a couple of buds remain above the surface. Then the soil is watered, mulched with peat or humus - the layer should be 3 - 5 cm. A film is also suitable as mulch, where holes are cut for planting cuttings. All this is shown in the video. It is recommended to harvest shoots for green currant cuttings in warm weather in the morning, and in cloudy weather you can do it all day. The length of the cuttings is 8 - 12 cm, 3 - 4 leaves are left on them, in several of the lower ones the leaf blade is shortened. For better rooting, cuttings tied in bundles are dipped in a solution of growth substance for a day, covered with a damp cloth.

After acquiring seedlings, you also need to decide what will be the scheme for placing them on the site. Weak varieties of seedlings can be planted a little closer, and strong varieties can be placed farther from each other.

The planting distance for the tall ones is usually about half a meter, and the undersized ones - a meter. If you plan to grow several varieties of currants in your country house, then it is better to leave about 2.5 meters between them. This technology will allow in the future to easily cultivate the soil in the aisles, pruning and harvesting. The depth and width of the planting pit depends on the size of the plant's root system. The roots should be loose in the hole. On fertile black soil, you do not need to make additional fertilizing, and on poor soils you will need a bucket of humus, about 200 grams of wood ash and 80 grams of superphosphate.

All this mixes with the soil. Then they make a mound and pour a bucket of water over each hole. The seedling is placed in a hole at an angle of 45 degrees, the roots are straightened, covered with soil so that the root collar is deepened by 5 cm. All this is shown in the video. After another watering of the upper layer, the soil is mulched with peat, humus or dry soil. Shoots are also pruned so that growths with 3 - 4 buds remain on the surface. All this is needed in order to correctly form the bush later. It is these cut off shoots that are cut into cuttings, as already mentioned above. The technology of planting seedlings is shown in detail in the video.

Thus, in Russia, as in Ukraine or other countries, the cultivation of currants is not so difficult to turn into a small or medium-sized business.

Care

Taking proper care of your shrubs will become an important part of your business and generate a good income.The basic rules of care include not only loosening the earth, destroying weeds, fertilizing the soil, but also cutting off dried branches of bushes, protecting against diseases and pests, and renewing old bushes with new ones. Let's dwell on the main stages of care in more detail.

After planting currants, caring for it involves loosening the soil around the plants to a depth of 6 - 8 cm. In row spacings, it is necessary to do this to a depth of 12 cm. Competent full care includes three to four procedures of loosening with weeding in the summer. If spring is dry, plants should be watered abundantly. During the growing season, as part of the care of the crop, two are considered the best time for watering during the growth period, as well as the ripening of the fruits and after harvest. The video will tell you how to properly water and loosen the soil.

To replenish the removal of nutrients from the soil, in the first couple of years in the spring, it is necessary to apply up to 15 kg of manure, 30 g of ammonium nitrate to the soil for plowing. In autumn, about 50 g of superphosphate and 30 g of potassium chloride are introduced. In the fourth year, caring for currants involves feeding 100 g of ammonium nitrate and superphosphate, as well as 90 g of potassium salt and 20 kg of rotted organic compounds. If a lag in the development of the bushes is noticed, a bucket of diluted slurry or 10 g of ammonium nitrate should be added, after which the bush should be watered.

The pruning procedure, without which full-fledged care of currants is impossible, allows you to increase the crop yield in the first year. It also makes it possible for the bushes to bear fruit for several years more. To do this, old growths that interfere with the normal development of new ones are removed to the ground. After pruning, new shoots can receive more sunlight. At the same time, the berries ripen large, tasty and rich in vitamins. Harvesting is also facilitated, since the bush is not thickened with dry branches. The pruning of different varieties of berries is almost the same. How to do it correctly, the following video will tell.

To protect against diseases and pests of currants, one correct choice of variety and competent planting is not enough. Even if you comply with all the requirements for planting crops in the country, your bushes will still be able to attack such pests as aphids, gooseberry moths, sawflies, kidney mites, currant glass. Of the diseases, currants most often, even with normal care, are affected by anthracnose or powdery mildew. In the fight against all these troubles, you will be helped not only by folk methods proven over the years, but also by spraying with modern drugs. From all of the above, we can conclude that today it is profitable not only to grow currants for their own needs. You can try to organize your own business, which will allow you to receive additional income.

Video "How to grow black currant"

The video provides helpful tips on how to get the best black currant crop at home.