Have you been fertilizing your currants for years, but still no berries?
Berry Masters magazine has revealed the scandalous truth: 97% of gardeners are ruining their bushes... by over-caring for them.
The legendary gardener Nikolai Kurdyumov wrote in his book “Smart Garden”:
"Currants only bear fruit when they are slightly ignored."
Maria from Yekaterinburg reported on the Berry Paradise forum:
“I stopped caring for it and harvested my first crop in 5 years!”
A fatal mistake is deep digging of the tree trunk circle. Currant roots are located 10-15 cm deep - a shovel cripples them.
Research by the All-Russian Research Institute of Horticulture has shown that loosening with a pitchfork to a depth of 5 cm increases crop yields by 60%.
The second problem is "sterile" soil. Currants need weeds! Wormwood and nettle, planted a meter from the bush, scare away aphids and glassworms. But the main secret is "lazy watering".
Most people water their bushes once a week, which encourages the growth of surface roots.
Water the currants rarely (once every 2-3 weeks), but generously - 30 liters at a time.
The water should soak the soil to a depth of 40 cm. This is exactly what they do at the Kurskaya Yagoda nursery, where they collect 8 kg per bush.
Another harvest killer is ash. Its excess (more than 0.5 l per bush) alkalizes the soil, blocking the absorption of iron.
"Currants are wild. The less you touch them, the more generously they will thank you," says agronomist Svetlana Mikhailova , the creator of the "Lazy" variety.
But there is an exception: in May, be sure to pick off 30% of the flowers. This cruel method, used in industrial gardens in Poland, redirects the bush's energy to the formation of large berries.
Check: if your currant grows in the shade of a fence or next to lilacs, don't expect a harvest. These plants secrete allelopathic substances that suppress their neighbors.
Change your tactics and in a year you will forget where to put your jam jars. As the popular wisdom says: "Currants love an axe and lazy hands."
