Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi,

I have a problem with a red currant bush that I wondered if someone could shed some light on. I have a red currant and black currant bush in a large planter which have been growing well for the last two summers. The black currant one is currently doing fine, plenty of black currants growing on it. However the red one has been stripped, leaving only the skeleton of the leaves and a couple of berries. I haven't seen any insects on it and there is no sign of any type of creatures. Does anyone know what could have happened to it and why its not affected the black currant? Do I need to spray it with something to get rid of the invisible invaders? Any help would be much appreciated as I don't want to lose my black currant one too.

Thank you!

Julie

It sounds like gooseberry saw fly which also attacks red and white currants so your blackcurrant will be alright I guess. My gooseberry was stripped in the same way you described almost overnight by tiny green caterpillars. The advice from the RHS is:

Regularly check the plants from mid-April onwards for sawflies and pick off the larvae by hand.

Alternatively, spray when young larvae are seen with an insecticide approved for use on gooseberry/currants. Suitable insecticides are thiacloprid (Provado Ultimate Bug Killer Ready To Use) or an organic pesticide such as rotenone* (Bio Liquid Derris Plus*) or pyrethrum (Py Garden Insect Killer, Scotts Bug Clear Gun for Fruit & Veg, Gem Stop Bugs or Doff All in One Bug Spray).

Your currant should survive but will be weakened and if it grows more leaves look out for more of the pesky critters.

Meg

Almost certainly sawfly caterpillars - surprisingly difficult to see until you spray the bush and they start to drop like rain!! Having said that, I grow 4 currants and 2 gooseberries and only the gooseberries are ever affected.
There is a chance that it is leaf-cutter bees (fascinating creatures - please try to tolerate them), but the damage sounds far too severe.

Yup, me too, my red current dosn't sound as bad as yours, but i've been hand picking little green caterpillars of for weeks now.. my gold fish love them, don't despair its only one season and it will grow next year.. and you'll know what to look for then.. its still not a nice thing to happen though, Good Luck for next season

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Thanks for the replies I'll get some bug spray and do both bushes just in case. In the meantime I'll keep a close eye on them for unwanted visitors!

if you don't pick off the caterpillars, they will drop to the ground and pupate in the soil, to re-infest your plants next year

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~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkt82aeOCFo~

~ my allotment photos ~

All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.

There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments." -- Janet Kilburn Phillips

Hi

I spotted some stripped leaves on a currant yesterday and ended up picking off 40 odd little green caterpillars. The clue was the gravel on lower leaves which I presume was caterpillar poo!

morris

Mmmm, frass. Especially tasty in a pea

__________________
~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkt82aeOCFo~

~ my allotment photos ~

All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.

There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments." -- Janet Kilburn Phillips

I'm not a fan of spraying anything we eat with insecticide. It's probably too late for this year, but at the first sign, I chuck a handful of peanuts under the bush(es). It usually coincides with birds looking for food for their chicks. They find the peanuts, and while they are at it, they clear the bushes of caterpillars.

valmarg

Just wondered whether the soapy water treatment would have worked (to late now!)
I've sprayed soapy water over my blackcurrant tips which were being attacked by white and fly .............and it got rid of them!

__________________
My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable(Snadge)

By the time you've got the hoe from the shed at the end of the garden, you could have hand weeded the area! (Geoff Hamiltom-ish)

I have two fabulous redcurrant bushes which my little boy treats as his own personal snack bar. Each summer, after fruiting, the bushes are stripped by a sawfly (presumably the gooseberry sawfly) and are left looking embarrassingly naked. Visitors to my garden are often surprised that I do nothing about this, but my son and I don't just love the plants our garden, we love the bugs too! So far the currants are still going strong, and when you can buy a new plant for less than a spray bottle of insecticide I am happy to live and let live. Out of interest, does anyone know if birds eat sawfly maggots?

Chickens will! I've also heard of people putting a little wild bird food under fruit bushed to attract the wild birds who then demolish the larvae.

__________________
Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated September 1st - Great Givendale - and some Sungold offspring

www.henheaven.blogspot.com - August 21st - Digging!

And the redcurrants!

__________________
My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable(Snadge)

By the time you've got the hoe from the shed at the end of the garden, you could have hand weeded the area! (Geoff Hamiltom-ish)

I have a bird table in my soft fruit area Snadger. Keep it well stocked with bird goodies and actually get minimum damage to my berries. It's an old idea but for us it works.

__________________
Why didn't Noah just swat those 2 greenflies?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?
>
>If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Quite! I didn't say I do it!

__________________
Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated September 1st - Great Givendale - and some Sungold offspring

www.henheaven.blogspot.com - August 21st - Digging!

Thanks for the bird-feeding idea. I will try it seeing as the berries haven't been touched by birds so far. It would be quite nice if the birds ate our blackcurrants - I planted them then realised that none of the family actually likes them....

Then you definitely need chickens. I have one prized bush in the garden and the chickens stripped it before the fruits were even ripe last year. Fortunately I have 4 on my new allotment - so black-currant jam for us and under-ripe stolen fruit for the chicks this year!

__________________
Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated September 1st - Great Givendale - and some Sungold offspring

www.henheaven.blogspot.com - August 21st - Digging!

I have to fight off the blackbirds to get a crop from mine. They jump up and down like Tigger trying to get the fruit.

Note to self: I just found a good link about redcurrants

__________________
~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkt82aeOCFo~

~ my allotment photos ~

All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.

There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments." -- Janet Kilburn Phillips

Does Tigger like blackcurrants then TS?

__________________
Why didn't Noah just swat those 2 greenflies?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?
>
>If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

No, but he jumps up & down

__________________
~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkt82aeOCFo~

~ my allotment photos ~

All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.

There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments." -- Janet Kilburn Phillips