Blackcurrant permaculture - without chemicals and fertilizers
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BLACKCURRANT BY PERMACULTURE TECHNOLOGY: WITHOUT FERTILIZERS AND CHEMICALS
I will be happy to share with you my history, my knowledge and experience - how I introduced the principles of permaculture (without chemicals and fertilizers) when planting and growing black currants in my small garden.
For fifteen years, a lot of things have been tried on sandy soil to make it fertile and the surrounding area environmentally friendly. The most effective were TGR (warm beds of Rozum). Taking care of them, I can say that minimal effort is needed to achieve the maximum effect. Judge for yourself: no need to dig, weed weeds (there are almost none), watering is minimal, organics are utilized on the spot. Result? Maximum yield with annual soil improvement.
V. N. Rozum has developed three options for the schemes of the beds, which I introduced at my dacha in 2016 and have been successfully growing all kinds of plants on them for more than five years. For fundamental inventions and assistance in their implementation, I express my deepest gratitude and gratitude to Vladimir Nikitovich!
In my understanding, creating a permaculture garden and vegetable garden means creating a modern, environmentally friendly site, cooperating with nature, taking care of all living creatures - terrestrial and soil. And don't forget about the people, of course.
The main tool of permaculture is the functional organization of space - permadi-zayn. The main principle is to create sustainable systems that meet their own needs and recycle their own waste.
Attempts to grow blackcurrant using traditional methods did not lead to the desired result. In search of an answer on how to grow good vegetables, fruits and berries on sandy soils, I often attended lectures at the KOZ (Organic Farming Club).
I remember that before the first lecture it snowed all night, and by the morning the roads in the city had not yet been cleared, and a lecturer from the Ternopil region came to visit us in the KOZ. A friendly atmosphere quickly reigned in the hall, five hours flew by in one breath. The lecture was capacious in content, informative and interesting. A patented technology was presented - TGR for the restoration of poor and degraded soils in the shortest possible time. Most importantly, there was a lot of practical advice on various specific situations.
The TGR technology meets all the principles of permaculture and is acceptable for implementation in small areas - therefore, on 6 acres of my dacha. At the lecture, Vladimir Nikitovich presented many interesting slides, among them photographs of luxurious blackcurrant bushes, on the branches of which garlands of large black berries hung from top to bottom.
V. N. Rozum developed and tested a method for growing cultivated plants densely planted in separate narrow strips on fodder beds-paths: strips 30-40 cm wide, on which garden and horticultural crops grow, and next to them free illuminated places - lawn and organic paths (trenches filled with organic matter) with an excess of nutrients and light.
Reference by topic: Do-it-yourself Rozum garden - design
PERMACULTURE - FROM WORDS TO ACTION
After everything I heard and saw at the lecture, I, theoretically savvy, went as soon as the snow melted to the country house to introduce new knowledge into practice - to prepare a trench for planting currants. On the way, we stopped near a willow damaged by a windbreak, and gathered willow branches of various thicknesses to fill the trench.
Instead of planting currants, I chose a hedge between young trees. My husband, thanks to him, out of inexperience, dug a trench deeper than I first wanted, and it turned out to be 60 cm wide, 50 m long, XNUMX cm deep, with a rounded bottom.
Then I filled this trench with organic matter: at the bottom I laid thick willow branches that act as drainage, thin ones on them, and last year's leaves on the topmost layer. Each layer was watered with solutions of EM preparations: they process organic matter and displace pathogenic microorganisms from the soil. The trench was replenished with various organic matter all summer.
Some time later, when spring announced its arrival and the time was right for planting currants, I set to work. On the crest along the edge of the trench, I made holes every 60 cm, spilled it with water and, when it was absorbed, planted two cuttings in each hole. Cuttings 20 cm each, the lower cut is under the kidney at an angle, the upper one is even above the kidney. The upper cut was smeared with garden pitch so that moisture would not evaporate. The cuttings were buried in the ground to the upper kidney at an angle of 45 °. Only one kidney remained above the ground. I covered the bushes (two cuttings each) with halves of five-liter plastic bottles so that no one would eat, break, and the moisture would not evaporate. After three weeks, she removed the plastic bottles, the cuttings actively began to grow.
During the season, wonderful bushes grew and looked quite healthy, and the next year they were pleased with the first harvest! By this time, we framed the currant bushes along with the trench with flat slate - it turned out to be a box that I fill with organic matter, while mulching the bushes.
Every year I leave in the bushes two annuals, two biennials, two three-year-old shoots, and cut the rest. I cut out three-year branches immediately after harvesting. No more than six branches remain in the bush annually.
Thanks to anti-aging pruning, the currant bush is not affected by pests, the root system grows in a trench, where it receives all the necessary nutrients. With such care, you can get excellent currant crops in one place for 25 years, and for the first five years it has been pleasing me every year with excellent berries!
Pay attention to the photo where the berries are already ripe, and the leaves remain juicy, green, healthy.
At the ends of the box with currants, aromatic, medicinal herbs are planted. They attract beneficial insects and repel pests, are used to make green smoothies, salads and teas, increase biodiversity, fill the garden with fragrance and beauty. The space created in my garden for growing currants not only benefits in the form of environmentally friendly, healthy berries and the utilization of organic matter in the trenches, but also decorates the summer cottage for the whole season. What could be more beautiful than a bright sunny day filled with the buzzing of bees and the exciting aroma of flowering currant bushes!
Reference by topic: Natural agriculture in the garden from A to Z + VIDEO
PERMACULTURE TECHNOLOGY - CLOSED CYCLE
The introduction of the principles of permaculture in the small areas of our dachas is an example of cyclical farming: growing food, using, processing and disposing of waste.
Organic waste - the so-called weeds - is a useful resource given to us by nature itself. I ferment them in a barrel to prepare a natural fertilizer or immediately put them under the plants, water them with EM preparations and cover them with dry organic matter on top to protect effective microorganisms from direct sunlight and to make everything look aesthetically pleasing.
Plants that have completed their growing season immediately put into circulation - put in trenches. I chop the cut branches of tree bushes and mulch the bushes with them or put them in organic TGR trenches, which are a kind of organic waste processing workshop. In the trenches, soil biota converts them into plant nutrients. In the TGR, a constant circulation of nutrients is debugged, where all the energy of fertility returns to the earth.
To design space in harmony with nature, to live and create in it - this is the purpose of man on planet Earth.
Reference by topic: Growing raspberries in the warm beds of Rozuma - my reviews, planting and care
CURRANT GROWING BY NATURAL - VIDEO
© Author: Valentina PASHCHENKO, member of the KOZ. permaculture consultant
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- Care of the currant - reproduction and pruning
- Red currant, varieties, diseases, properties, care
- Golden currant, the best varieties, planting and care (Moscow region)
- Care for black currant: pruning, processing boiling water pr (Vladimir region)
- Caring for black currants after picking berries
- Blackcurrant planting scheme
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- Growing blackcurrant in Tatarstan - pruning and suitable varieties
- Blackcurrant without seeds - name, description and reviews of varieties
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As soon as I pick currants, I will certainly mark the bush that fully justified my hopes for the harvest, and I cut woody cuttings from it for propagation.
And I’ll pick berries - I’ll immediately feed the currant bushes with a small amount of nitrogen (20-30 g of ammonium nitrate per bush), or with a mullein solution diluted four times with water. Indeed, at this time, the currant is expending nutrients with might and main on laying the kidneys, and in addition, it stores food for overwintering. Oh, and don't forget to water the currant bushes!
Then I carefully examine the currants and remove the shoots damaged by the stem gall midge (they are easy to see by the withering leaves), as well as the branches, the core of which the glass has gnawed through. Unfortunately, they cannot be distinguished from healthy ones, only when cut off are the dark holes of the caterpillar's course visible. Although sometimes damaged branches suddenly wither along with the berries.
From American powdery mildew, I treat bushes with thiovit, jet and topaz preparations; from anthracnose, septoria and columnar rust - vectra, topaz, foundationazole, strobi. I also remove gall midges, aphids, sawflies, leaf-eating aphids with the help of appropriate preparations, and with a weak lesion - with infusions of mustard, ash or a decoction of tomato tops.