The gooseberry is one of the easiest berries to grow both in the garden and in professional cultivation, you can also keep this plant in a pot.
These bushes are quite hardy and little affected by diseases and insects, so they are ideal in organic farming contexts, or as an experiment for those who have no experience but want to plant a fruit crop in the garden.
However, it is necessary to pay attention to certain pests that can ruin the seedlings. We see in this article that the main antagonists of currants among insects, are threats that can affect all varieties, affecting red currants, white currants, currants and currant plants.
Contents
yellow canvas
The red spider mite is a small mite that attacks various fruit plants, just as the gooseberry is known as the enemy of the vine and the bone. This spider spreads rapidly when temperatures rise, so in summer.
Damage caused by the yellow mite. The yellow spider damages the leaves, feeding on the sap they contain, it mainly affects the lower page. Small orange spots can be seen on the leaf and then wilting of the leaves can be seen which may cause the affected leaves to drop.
How to defend yourself. It is not easy to eliminate this mite, because for the red spider the best system is to control the plant, intervening immediately with the elimination of the affected leaves. You can try to deter the spider with macerated nettle That is garlic decoction . Ladybugs are the most efficient predator, so it is very useful to attract them to the garden.
Currant$0027s Synanthedon tipuliformis
It is an insect of the Lepidoptera family which, in the larval stage, is very dangerous for the gooseberry, because it burrows inside the stem and feeds on the sap of the plant. The moth larva spends its entire development phase in the trunk of the gooseberry, the chrysalis emerges the following year.
Damage caused by sesia. It’s hard to spot the threat in time and that’s what makes it deadly: when the branches are just starting to grow and the leaves are wilting, it’s too late to intervene. The tunnels built by the larvae deprive the gooseberry of food, and the lesions in the bark are an easy vehicle for fungal diseases that lead to the death of the plant.
How to prevent black currant borer Pruning is useful to rejuvenate the plant, reducing the risk of sesia attacks, insects can also be controlled with traps made from bottles. Traps should contain sweet bait (eg water and sugar), blackcurrant syrup and vinegar. The tap trap plug is very useful for biological defense against clearwing.
Woodlouse
Scale insects are small, aphid-like insects that can infest currant plants. The honeydew released by the cochineal is problematic because it easily carries disease and soils the berries. In the Orto Da Coltivare you can find an article dedicated to the defense against cochineal .