The fight against the grapnel aphids - the advice of an experienced gardener

On my site grows about a dozen bushes of red and black currant, which require constant attention to themselves. In any case, the pests of this culture are not bored during the whole season. And the most intrusive of them is aphid.

If on the bushes of black currant I could easily detect these insects, then with her redneck sister it was different. On black currant, the activity of common aphids is noticeable on folded wrinkled young leaves on the tips of shoots, and the pest itself is clearly visible to the naked eye. On the red currant, such aphids also periodically appeared, but leaves with strange, bubbly swellings of red color caused much more concern.

When inspecting such leaf plates, I did not detect any insects. I thought that the bushes do not have enough phosphorus, and heavily fed the plants, but did not notice the effect of such feeding.

Moreover, the red spots, initially appearing on the upper young leaves, gradually spread to the remaining leaf plates. Eventually, the affected leaves withered and fell. This story lasted two years, and during the harvesting period, I noticed that the berries on the red currant bushes have become much smaller, and the yield has greatly decreased. It became clear: the reason is hidden in these red leaves. And I decided to immediately find out what kind of attack, and take drastic measures in the fight against it.

For a long time I surfed the Internet in search of an answer to my question. At first I was looking for signs of mineral starvation of currants, but then I accidentally stumbled upon a note on gall aphids and recognized my currants from a photograph - exactly the same red swelling appeared on its leaves!

I trust the Soviets from the Internet a little: they all seem to be one person, and there is a feeling that they are written by people far from gardening. In addition, in that note for the control of gallic aphids, it was recommended that chemical preparations be carried out, which I do not accept.

I think that since I myself am growing fruits for myself and my loved ones, they should be environmentally friendly. And for what then do you need a summer residence? Dried fruits and berries are also available on the market.

But still I was glad to find out what kind of pest damaged my shrubs. The gall aphid has a very small size and is not visible to the naked eye. In addition, it settles exclusively on the underside of the leaves. Females lay eggs on the currant shoots in the fall, and the new generation begins to hatch immediately with the arrival of heat, at the same time as young leaves begin to bloom on the bushes - they become its food.

Later, insects grow wings, and they begin to fly to other plants, such as weeds. But in the fall they return to the currant again. And over the season there are several new generations of this pest. It is not for nothing that my currant began to bear fruit worse - these insects, when massively distributed, cause very significant damage to the plantations and can even cause their death.

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See also:  Fighting aphids - my way

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Four Successful Attacks

So, I decided to do without insecticides this time and try to bring out the gall bladder with the so-called folk remedies.

The struggle was successful: in the first season, when I started to process, the number of red leaves was halved, in the second year, red blisters on the leaf blades were already single, and in the summer I did not find a single blister sheet! Currant came to life in full view and eventually returned its former yield.

In the early spring during the bud blossoming, I treated the bushes with infusion of tobacco dust. For this 0,5 kg of powder flooded 4-5 l of warm water, covered the lid and left for two days. The contents were stirred intermittently. Then he filtered it through several layers of gauze, brought the volume of infusion to 10 l, added 4 art. l. Liquid soap (used garden green soap) and mixed well. Liquid sprayed the sprayer and abundantly, "from the heart" processed shrubs.

After 10-12 days, he repeated the treatment - by this time young leaves were already on the shoots. But now he used baking soda as a remedy. 1 cup of powder was diluted in 10 l of water, added soap to stick the solution and processed the bushes, paying particular attention to the underside of the leaf plates.

Immediately after the end of flowering sprayed bushes infusion of wormwood.

For this, he grazed the grass in the vicinity, crushed it, filled it with a third of the bucket and filled it with warm water. Wormwood insisted under the lid for a day. Then, the solution was filtered, brought its quantity to 10 l, added soap and processed the plants.

And the last, fourth treatment - with the infusion of tomato tops - was carried out after harvesting on the currant. I used stepchildren remaining after the formation of tomatoes. Infusion prepared similarly to wormwood. In addition, throughout the season he carefully monitored the cleanliness around the bushes, weeding out all the weeds.

Such treatment was conducted every season and I will continue to do this every year, despite the fact that I do not observe signs of gallic aphid on my plantings any more. Because prevention is better than cure.

Gallic aphid can be naughty and on black currant, and for me it remains a mystery why she chose only red on my site, although black-berry grows very close? In general, if one of the readers found such signs on their bushes, I advise you to take immediate action. For this I send my photo of the affected currant, made two years ago, for a good example.

© Author: Igor Valerievich KOSOV. Voronezh

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