Currants make love in vain. This is really a storehouse of vitamins, minerals and nutrients. The berry enhances immunity and strengthens the cardiovascular system. And finally, this is just a wonderful treat with a delicate sourness and indescribable aroma. Therefore, it can be seen in every garden plot. But not everyone can boast a high yield. How to plant blackcurrant so that it bears fruit? What should be considered when choosing a place and time for landing?
When to plant blackcurrant
There is an opinion that currants are unpretentious plants, take root in any conditions, and you can plant it at any time of the year. This is partly true, but taking root and bearing fruit are two different things. In order for the plant to give a good harvest, it is necessary to observe simple, but mandatory conditions.
The first of them: it is better to plant a bush in the fall. Landing times vary by region. The best option: the end of September - mid-October. It is important that the seedlings in stock have 3-3 weeks before the onset of frost. During this time, the plant will restore the root system and will be ready to winter. By spring, the soil at the roots will be compacted, which will give them the opportunity to receive nutrition in full.
Spring planting will require more trouble, and the berry itself is slightly worse tolerated. In the spring, it is advisable to plant in places where the snow cover is not deep, and there is a danger of freezing the roots. Currants are planted in April, as soon as the snow melts. The layer of thawed soil should be 20 cm. The wetter the soil during spring planting, the better the seedling will take root. Currants wake up early, it is necessary to plant it before the buds open.
Where to plant a seedling
When choosing a permanent location, the following parameters are taken into account:
- soil composition
- a place,
- illumination,
- predecessors and neighbors.
Soil composition
Currant prefers fertile chernozem, grows well and bears fruit on sandy or medium loamy soils. The soil can be improved to meet the requirements of the bush. Organic is added to the sandy loam, organic and mineral fertilizers are added to the loamy. The acidic soil is lime. To do this, in the autumn during digging, slaked lime is calculated at the rate of 40 kg per hundred square meters. Moreover, it is important to know that excess lime is harmful to the soil. If the land is not dug, then local cultivation is carried out: they make wide landing pits and fill them with fertile soil with humus and add 200 g of ground limestone.
A place
For berries, light and windproof areas are preferred. Avoid areas where groundwater is more than one and a half meters from the surface of the soil. A suitable site or a gentle slope with a slope to the west or northwest will suit her. The lowlands for blackcurrant are not good.
Illumination
Blackcurrant is a photophilous plant. It can grow in light partial shade. At the same time, the berries will be larger than on bushes growing in sunny areas, but noticeably more acidic in taste.
Predecessors and neighbors
To avoid infection, the berry is not planted in areas previously occupied by raspberries, gooseberries or currants. Other fruit, berry, or vegetable crops can be good predecessors.
Avoid neighborhood with sea buckthorn, raspberries, gooseberries and cherries. The roots of sea buckthorn sprawl 10 meters and are located shallow, on the same level as the roots, so sea buckthorn and currants will fight for moisture and nutrition. Raspberries and cherries grow very quickly and drown the bush. With gooseberries, they have a common enemy, gooseberry fire, so for the prevention of infection it is better to plant the berry away. Do not plant currants in the immediate vicinity of trees, especially pine or walnut. The fact is that pine acidifies the soil. Walnut depresses all the vegetation nearby.
It is good to plant several varieties nearby: inter-pollination increases productivity. Due to cross-pollination, the number of ovaries increases, and the berries become larger.
Blackcurrant bush: planting and care, scheme, distance
The main rule when placing bushes on the site is simple: it is necessary to plant so that the plant is comfortable, and at the same time it is convenient to pick berries.
Currants need room. Remember that it should be separated from fruit trees by at least 2.5 m. When planting in rows, leave a row spacing of 2 to 3 meters, in a row leave at least one and a half meters between the bushes. At shorter distances, the bushes will interfere with each other, and productivity will noticeably decrease. In addition, the life expectancy of the bushes is also reduced. If you planned to plant currants along the fence, do not save space, step back one and a half to two meters from the fence.
Blackcurrant planting pattern in rows
What to plant next to
Three neighborhood rules are universal for everyone in the garden:
- Do not plant crops nearby if they belong to the same species or eat the same nutrients.
- For multi-level plantings, consider whether low-growing plants are shade-loving. If a stunted plant is photophilous, do not plant it under a tall one.
- Take into account the depth of the location of the roots and keep in mind that the roots are able to protect their territory with the help of phytotoxins.
Guided by these rules, we determine which neighborhood is useful and which will oppress the plant.
Invalid neighborhood
For blackcurrant, the proximity to sea buckthorn, raspberries, apple trees, and cherries is unacceptable. Neighborhood is bad for pear and cherry. Red currants should also be planted away from black.
Can be planted nearby
Good neighbors would be honeysuckle and hops. Get along with the berry garlic, calendula, Jerusalem artichoke. The ideal neighbor is a bow. They do not interfere with each other, and onions protect currants from a tick. You need to plant onions in the fall, this will provide protection for young shoots in the spring.
Onion protects young currants from a kidney tick
How to plant
Each gardener has his own secrets to success. But everyone agrees that success is determined by a number of factors, such as:
- quality of seedlings,
- proper landing
- subsequent care.
How to choose planting material?
First, choose better zoned varieties. They are better adapted to the conditions of your region and with proper care will give a good harvest.
Secondly, you should choose high-quality planting material. For currants, these are annual or biennial seedlings. Seedlings should be without leaves, strong. Decisive when choosing is the absence of diseases and the good condition of the roots. A healthy seedling has well-developed fibrous roots and 3-4 woody skeletal roots with a length of 15-20 cm. For a quality seedling, two or three shoots 40 cm long are sufficient. In a healthy seedling, the kidneys are adjacent to the trunk, there are no spots.
If the kidney looks swollen, rounded, most likely a kidney tick has settled there.
During transportation, do not allow the roots to dry out. To protect the roots, they need to be wrapped with a damp cloth or wrapped in a film.
Healthy annual blackcurrant seedling
Proper fit
Planting pits can be dug up immediately before planting, but it is better to prepare them in advance, a couple of weeks before planting, so that the earth can settle and the chlorine introduced with manure has evaporated. Pit preparation:
- Choose a suitable bright place.
- Dig holes at a distance of 2 m from each other. The landing pit should be approximately 60 cm in diameter and about half a meter deep.
- At the bottom of the landing pit, pour humus into the hill, filling the landing pit by a third. Add a glass of wood ash, mix.
Planting seedlings:
- Inspect the roots. If there are any damaged, cut them off with a pruner.
- If you use mineral fertilizers, cover them on top with fertile soil so as not to burn the roots with fertilizers.
- Place the seedling in the pit, carefully spreading the roots. The seedling should not be located vertically in the pit, but at an angle of 45 ˚.
- Pay attention to the fact that the root neck should be located 6 cm below the edge of the pit. An in-depth landing with a slope contributes to the formation of a powerful bush: new roots will appear and the bush will grow in width due to new shoots.
- Sprinkle the seedling with earth, trying to fill the space between the roots. It is more convenient to plant together: one holds a sapling, the second pours earth.
- Lightly compact the soil.
- Water: half a bucket per hole. Thus, the earth is compacted at the roots. For currants, this is important. She does not like voids at the roots.
- Fill the hole completely with earth.
- Form a hole around the bush and water abundantly.
- Trim the freshly planted bush. They cut it like this: 4-5 kidneys are counted from the ground, a pruner is cut off above the fifth one. This will allow the seedling to grow new roots and give a lot of healthy strong shoots in spring.
Cut pieces can be cut into cuttings and root. It will be a good planting material.
- Mulch the fit to avoid crusting.
- When planting in the autumn for the winter, the bushes should be spudded to a height of 12-15 cm to close the roots and protect them from freezing. In the spring to catch up.
The correct position of the seedling when planting
Video: How to plant blackcurrant correctly
Change to a new place
Sometimes you need to transplant currant bushes to a new place. Such a need arises if
- you are moving to a new place
- tall trees sprouted in the neighborhood
- the land is exhausted
- you are planning construction on the site.
Transplanting a bush is slightly different from planting a seedling, but there is only one principle: to ensure root survival. Therefore, you need to do this in the fall. And take into account that bushes older than 4 years are not suitable for transplantation. Procedure:
- Find a convenient place: bright, sheltered from the wind.
- Free land from weeds, dig.
- Cook the pit. To immediately give the currant more supply of fertile land, the pit should be dug wider, at least 70 cm in diameter and two bayonets in depth. The pit is prepared 2 weeks before transplantation.
- Prepare nutritious soil: pour fertilizer, humus, ash into the pit.
- Prepare the bush for transplanting. Cut old branches with secateurs at the very base. Young shoots cut in half. Thanks to pruning, the bush in a new place will give strength to restore and build up the root system and will not hurt.
- Dig a bush in two bayonets in depth and carefully remove it from the ground, being careful not to damage the roots.
- Pour water into a prepared pit. The nutrient soil must be liquid in consistency.
- If the bush was sick, examine carefully and remove diseased roots, pests. Rinse the roots and hold in a strong solution of potassium permanganate.
- Lower the bush into a pit with liquid nutrient soil. Make sure that the root neck of the bush is 6-8 cm below the edge of the pit and fall asleep with soil.
- Water well and mulch. Watering will compact the soil at the roots, and mulch will prevent drying of the soil and the formation of a crust on the surface.
Then they take care of them as usual: they water them abundantly, feed them and cut them on time.
Video: How to transplant currants to a new place
In order for blackcurrant to really bear fruit, you need to correctly choose the time and place of planting, choose high-quality planting material and prepare the soil. These simple planting rules will help you get a high yield of blackcurrant in the future.
