It is important never to summer prune the leaders or end growths of a branch. It is better to brutt than to cut with a knife, as neat pruning with a sharp blade may encourage secondary growths, which are just a waste of sap. Summer prunings may always be placed on the compost heap and be sprinkled with an activator like poultry droppings or fish manure. Winter prunings are too woody, so should be burnt, and the wood ashes sprinkled around the bushes afterwards.
The Big Bud Mite, which causes the buds of the blackcurrants to swell out three and four times the size, will attack red and white currants, but in this case the buds are killed-they do not swell out. If, therefore, you have bushes which do not fruit or which have buds which do not open, then an attack of Big Bud Mite must be suspected. The only thing to do in this case is to use a lime sulphur spray, dissolving I pint in 49 pints of water for this purpose. It will be seen that only a weak solution is needed.
I had grown redcurrants on the straw mulching system but in private gardens, where straw is not desired, there is no reason at all why the mulching should not be done with sedge peat an inch deep all over the ground. Under either system there would be no need to fork or hoe. There seems no reason why redcurrants should not be grassed down, especially with a very fine-bladed grass like Chewing's Fescue. This grass could be sown in the spring following planting and once it was established it would be kept mown regularly, the grass clippings being allowed to return to the ground naturally.
In cases where it is seen that the leaves are punctured with numerous holes giving a brown spotted appearance, and where the shoots are also punctured with the growth thus reduced, a Capsid Bug attack may be suspected. In this case, instead of using a tar-oil wash in December for a winter spray, it is better to apply a DNC wash early in February so as to smother the eggs.
The caterpillar of the Currant Clearwing Moth appears in August, as a rule, and burrows into the branches, tunnelling up the centres. Affected branches usually snap off easily, or the top leaves of a branch start to wilt. Cut off an affected branch below the point of tunnelling and burn it so as to kill the caterpillar. To do this, the branch can be cut back inch by inch, if desired, until a healthy part is reached.
If Coral Red raised spots are found on the old wood of the bushes the gardener knows he has the Coral Spot disease. There is no cure for this, other than to cut off the affected branch immediately and burn it and put back the ashes around the tree concerned. - 16035
The Big Bud Mite, which causes the buds of the blackcurrants to swell out three and four times the size, will attack red and white currants, but in this case the buds are killed-they do not swell out. If, therefore, you have bushes which do not fruit or which have buds which do not open, then an attack of Big Bud Mite must be suspected. The only thing to do in this case is to use a lime sulphur spray, dissolving I pint in 49 pints of water for this purpose. It will be seen that only a weak solution is needed.
I had grown redcurrants on the straw mulching system but in private gardens, where straw is not desired, there is no reason at all why the mulching should not be done with sedge peat an inch deep all over the ground. Under either system there would be no need to fork or hoe. There seems no reason why redcurrants should not be grassed down, especially with a very fine-bladed grass like Chewing's Fescue. This grass could be sown in the spring following planting and once it was established it would be kept mown regularly, the grass clippings being allowed to return to the ground naturally.
In cases where it is seen that the leaves are punctured with numerous holes giving a brown spotted appearance, and where the shoots are also punctured with the growth thus reduced, a Capsid Bug attack may be suspected. In this case, instead of using a tar-oil wash in December for a winter spray, it is better to apply a DNC wash early in February so as to smother the eggs.
The caterpillar of the Currant Clearwing Moth appears in August, as a rule, and burrows into the branches, tunnelling up the centres. Affected branches usually snap off easily, or the top leaves of a branch start to wilt. Cut off an affected branch below the point of tunnelling and burn it so as to kill the caterpillar. To do this, the branch can be cut back inch by inch, if desired, until a healthy part is reached.
If Coral Red raised spots are found on the old wood of the bushes the gardener knows he has the Coral Spot disease. There is no cure for this, other than to cut off the affected branch immediately and burn it and put back the ashes around the tree concerned. - 16035
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Fruit trees are common existing features and they can often incorporated into the new design of your garden.
