It often happens that on the site grow beautiful bushes of gooseberry or currant, but the harvest from them is going to be minimal. Why does this happen? Among all berry crops, currants and gooseberries are the most capricious in terms of soil fertility, since it determines how much the plants will live, and what will be the harvest from them.
His first harvest of gooseberries gives only the third year after planting, but the currant begins to bear fruit for the second year. In the future, the yield of these shrubs will increase as they grow. In this case, plants need more and more nutrients, because only young shoots bear fruit, and old ones are cut out. Therefore, if you want to get good harvests of currants and gooseberries, they must be fertilized. And care about the future of the harvest should begin already in the autumn.
How to feed the currant and gooseberries in the fall after pruning?
Beginners of gardeners may have questions about whether you need to feed currants and gooseberries in the fall, and how to do it correctly. In the fall, on the 2nd year after planting, under both varieties of shrubs it is necessary to make compost, an average of 3-5 kg per bush. You can also feed shrubbery in the proportion of 1 bucket of manure to 8 buckets of water.
From mineral fertilizing after autumn pruning, only potassium and phosphate are introduced. It is enough to do this in a year. Thanks to the autumn application of phosphorus and potassium, the winter hardiness of plants noticeably increases. These fertilizers are applied at the rate of 50 g of superphosphate, 30 g of potassium sulphate or 100 g of wood ash per 1 sq. Km. m of soil.
On sandy or sandy loam soils, some of the fertilizer may be washed out from the upper layer of the soil. This is especially true for currants, whose roots are very close to the surface of the earth. Therefore, if the soil on the site is light, then the dose of potassium fertilizer should be increased to 30%.
Experts recommend that in autumn not only mineral fertilizers, but also organic fertilizers be introduced. All of them are usually closed to a depth of about 10-12 centimeters. In addition, it is advisable to use also substances that dissolve slowly: phosphorite flour, cement dust containing potassium, or complex fertilizer "AVA".