One of the most important rules growing strong and healthy seedlings- presence of the “correct” soil mixture. Typically, gardeners use two options for growing seedlings: either a purchased soil mixture or one made independently from several components. In both cases, the fertility of the soil for seedlings is, to put it mildly, questionable. This means that the seedlings will require from you additional food. In this article we will talk about simple and effective fertilizers for seedlings.
After a decade of dominating the catalogs of the original motley and bright varieties tulip trends began to change. At exhibitions best designers around the world offer to remember the classics and pay homage to the charming white tulips. Sparkling under the warm rays of the spring sun, they look especially festive in the garden. Welcoming spring after a long wait, tulips seem to remind us that white is not only the color of snow, but also the joyful celebration of flowering.
Despite the fact that cabbage is one of the most popular vegetables, not all summer residents, especially beginners, can grow its seedlings. In apartment conditions they are hot and dark. In this case, it is impossible to obtain high-quality seedlings. And without strong, healthy seedlings it is difficult to count on a good harvest. Experienced gardeners know that it is better to sow cabbage seedlings in greenhouses or greenhouses. And some even grow cabbage by direct sowing seeds in the ground.
Flower growers tirelessly discover new indoor plants, replacing some with others. And here the conditions of a particular room are of no small importance, because plants have different requirements for their maintenance. Lovers of beauty often face difficulties flowering plants. After all, for flowering to be long and abundant, such specimens require special care. Unpretentious plants There are not very many flowers blooming in rooms, and one of them is streptocarpus.
Calendula (marigold) is a flower that stands out among others with its bright color. Low bushes with delicate orange inflorescences can be found on the side of the road, in the meadow, in the front garden next to the house or even in vegetable beds. Calendula is so widespread in our area that it seems like it has always grown here. About interesting decorative varieties calendula, as well as about the use of calendula in cooking and medicine, read our article.
I think many will agree that the wind is perceived well by us only in a romantic aspect: we are sitting in a cozy warm home, and the wind is raging outside the window... In fact, the wind blowing through our areas is a problem and there is nothing good about it. By creating windbreaks with plants, we break strong wind into several weak streams and significantly weaken its destructive power. How to protect a site from the wind will be discussed in this article.
Making a shrimp and avocado sandwich for breakfast or dinner couldn't be easier! This breakfast contains almost all the necessary products that will recharge you with energy so that you won’t want to eat until lunch, and no extra centimeters will appear on your waist. This is the most delicious and light sandwich, after, perhaps, the classic cucumber sandwich. This breakfast contains almost all the necessary products that will recharge you with energy so that you won’t want to eat until lunch.
Modern ferns are those rare plants antiquities, which, despite the passage of time and all kinds of cataclysms, not only survived, but were also largely able to preserve their former appearance. Of course, it is not possible to grow any of the fern representatives indoors, but some species have successfully adapted to life indoors. They look great as single plants or decorate a group of decorative foliage flowers.
Pilaf with pumpkin and meat is Azerbaijani pilaf, which differs in the method of preparation from traditional oriental pilaf. All ingredients for this recipe are prepared separately. Rice is boiled with ghee, saffron and turmeric. The meat is fried separately until golden brown, and pumpkin slices as well. Separately prepare the onions and carrots. Then everything is placed in layers in a cauldron or thick-walled pan, a little water or broth is poured in and simmered over low heat for about half an hour.
Basil is wonderful all-purpose seasoning for meat, fish, soups and fresh salads- well known to all lovers of Caucasian and Italian cuisine. However, upon closer inspection, basil turns out to be a surprisingly versatile plant. For several seasons now, our family has been happily drinking aromatic basil tea. In a flowerbed with perennials and in flowerpots with annual flowers, bright spice plant a worthy place was also found.
Thuja or juniper - which is better? This question can sometimes be heard in garden centers and in the market where these plants are sold. It is, of course, not entirely correct and correct. Well, it’s the same as asking what is better - night or day? Coffee or tea? Woman or man? Surely, everyone will have their own answer and opinion. And yet... What if you approach with an open mind and try to compare juniper and thuja according to certain objective parameters? Let's try it.
Brown Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Crispy Smoked Bacon is a delicious, smooth and creamy soup that both adults and children will love. If you are preparing a dish for the whole family, including kids, then do not add a lot of spices, although many modern children are not at all against spicy flavors. Bacon for serving can be prepared in different ways - fry in a frying pan, as in this recipe, or bake in the oven on parchment for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees.
For some, the time of sowing seeds for seedlings is a long-awaited and nice chores, for some it is a difficult necessity, while others are wondering whether it would be easier to buy ready seedlings at the market or with friends? Be that as it may, even if you gave up growing vegetable crops, for sure, you will still have to sow something. These are flowers and perennials, conifers and much more. A seedling is still a seedling, no matter what you sow.
Lover of humid air and one of the most compact and rare orchids pafinia is a real star for most orchid growers. Its flowering rarely lasts longer than a week, but it can be an unforgettable sight. You want to look at the unusual striped patterns on the huge flowers of a modest orchid endlessly. IN indoor culture pafinia is rightly ranked among the difficult-to-grow species. It became fashionable only with the spread of interior terrariums.
Pumpkin ginger marmalade is a warming sweet that can be prepared almost all year round. Pumpkin keeps for a long time - sometimes I manage to save a few vegetables until summer, fresh ginger and lemons are always available these days. Lemon can be replaced with lime or orange to create different flavors - variety in sweets is always nice. The finished marmalade is placed in dry jars; it can be stored at room temperature, but it is always healthier to prepare fresh products.
In 2014, the Japanese company Takii seed introduced petunia with a striking petal color - salmon-orange. By association with bright colors southern sunset sky, the unique hybrid is called African Sunset. Needless to say, this petunia instantly won the hearts of gardeners and was in great demand. But in the last two years, the curiosity has suddenly disappeared from store windows. Where did the orange petunia go?
From the first days of spring, not only nature comes to life. Show their activity various types pests that waited out the winter by burrowing deep into the soil or hiding under fallen leaves. hungry, thereby causing great damage garden trees and bushes. The gooseberry bush suffers greatly from them. As a result of damage to the stems and leaves of the plant, the yield is reduced. For this reason, many gardeners and summer residents are concerned about how to deal with caterpillars on gooseberries. To get an answer to this question, you need to figure out which insects pose a threat to the gooseberry bush.
Types of pests and measures to combat them
Let's look at the most common gooseberry pests that can cause serious damage to the bush. The butterfly insects themselves do not pose a significant threat; the threat is posed by the caterpillar on the gooseberry.
Sawfly
One of the most voracious and dangerous pests gooseberries. It also attacks black and red currant bushes. This is a flying insect, it can even be called beautiful due to the combination of a black head with bright yellow legs. It endures winter in the pupal stage, and early spring adult insects fly out of them, whose task is to lay eggs on the underside of the leaves. After 1-2 weeks, caterpillars emerge from them. They damage the buds and leaves, leaving holes in them.
Leaves eaten by caterpillars are not only a ruined crop. On next year the bushes may not bear fruit because they do not produce growth and growth buds do not form.
If the green caterpillars on the gooseberries are in large quantities, within two days a gooseberry or currant bush can become completely bare. After a hearty lunch, when the pests have already eaten the leaves, they calmly crawl into the soil and pupate there. After 2 weeks, the insect appears again, it lays eggs again and the process repeats. In areas where summer period quite large, gooseberry pest caterpillars can produce at least 3 generations. Gooseberry bushes, left without a single leaf, dry out and may die.
I was visiting my friend. She has gorgeous gooseberry bushes: large berries, beautiful green leaves are pleasing to the eye. How surprised I was when I visited her again 5 days later. There are no leaves left on the branches, only berries hanging. According to a friend, such a metamorphosis occurred literally in one or two nights. She went to pick the berries and saw that the caterpillars had eaten the gooseberry leaves. After experiencing a slight shock, she realized that it was necessary to take preventive measures in the future.
Angelina, Kuban
How to deal with sawfly
The fight against caterpillars on gooseberries should be comprehensive:
- In autumn, all foliage should be collected and burned.
- The soil under the gooseberry bushes must be dug well. The larvae of insects that have gone to winter will be destroyed as a result of such actions.
- Old branches should be pruned.
- It is recommended to mulch the soil.
- In early spring, when buds have not yet appeared on the bushes, pour 1 tbsp of mixture prepared from two glasses of ash onto the ground. spoons of dry mustard and ground black pepper, and cover with film. In this way you can get rid of pests.
- It will help you get rid of thermal method. As soon as the soil at the roots of the gooseberry bushes warms up, you need to treat it with boiling water.
- It is necessary to regularly inspect the bushes for the presence of caterpillars. If they have already settled there, the larvae are collected by hand and destroyed.
Note!
It is recommended to plant tansy between gooseberry bushes or elderberries next to them. These plants repel insects with their scent. They also cannot tolerate the aroma of tomatoes, turpentine, diesel fuel and other substances with a strong odor.
Ognevka
Gooseberry moth – dangerous insect, capable of destroying almost half the crop. Small sizes the butterfly is distinguished by its front wings gray, which have brown stripes. The female lays her eggs in unopened buds and ovaries. The caterpillars that emerge from them begin to eat the flowers.
Note!
Small caterpillars are also frequent guests in gooseberries. Their favorite food is the core of fruits; they literally gnaw everything inside them. As a result, the fruits change color and dry out.
With their web, caterpillars entwine not only foliage, but also berries and flower stalks. If caterpillars eat gooseberries, what to do in this case: use accessible ways to destroy them.
How to deal with moth
Moths can be used to kill caterpillars agricultural methods. Because winter time The insect spends time in the soil directly under the gooseberry bush; be sure to dig up the soil regularly. As soon as autumn comes, it is recommended to carry out hilling at a depth of 10-12 cm. The following measures also need to be taken:
- Plant mint and tomatoes around or next to the plants.
- A reasonable solution is to attract to the site natural pests– ground beetles. These beetles happily eat sawfly and moth larvae. To attract them, it is enough to place roofing felt or roofing felt under the bushes, which serve as shelter for them.
- When planting gooseberry bushes, it is necessary to leave enough space between them for good air exchange. We should not forget that gooseberries love the sun.
It is good to treat gooseberries against caterpillars using old proven methods. They are as follows:
- Spraying wood ash. You need to take 3 kg of it, sift it and fill it with 10 liters of water. Leave the prepared solution for 48 hours, after which it is filtered and sprayed on the gooseberry bushes.
- 12% dust solution. They use it to cultivate the soil near bushes. After a week, dust (50 g) is scattered in powder form, it will help consolidate the effect.
- Infusion from tomato tops. Every 7 days they should spray the gooseberries against caterpillars.
- Coniferous branches. You should collect them in an amount of 200 grams, pour two liters hot water and leave for a week. Before spraying, the mixture is diluted with water, maintaining a ratio of 1:10.
- Mustard tincture. 100 grams of powder are diluted in a standard bucket of water and infused for two days. After this, the resulting solution is filtered, diluted in a ratio of 1 to 2 and the spraying process begins.
Note!
Shoot aphid
Refers to a common type of pest. Her eggs remain on the shoots in winter. With the onset of spring, larvae appear and feed on the sap of young leaves. As soon as insects fly out of them, they settle on the top of young shoots, slowing down their growth. The leaves become deformed, resulting in a lump of them forming at the tops. Thus, the aphid creates a “house for living” for itself. Gooseberries affected by aphids grow poorly and buds appear late.
How to deal with aphids
If this type of insect is found on a gooseberry bush, it is recommended to use boiling water and pour it over the plant. The following methods help in the fight:
- Garlic. It needs to be crushed in the amount of 300 grams, poured with 10 liters of water, let it brew for a while, strain and process the bushes.
- Onion peel. Leave onion peels (200g) in 10 liters of water for 5 days, then spray the plants.
- Burdock. The leaves are crushed, left for 2-3 days and the bushes are treated.
My gooseberry bushes were infested with aphids. I used garlic. I made a solution as written above and sprayed the bushes with it. It helps a lot. In the fall, I sprinkle ash under the gooseberries.
Olga, Vitebsk
Moth
The caterpillars of this insect completely infect gooseberry foliage. They spend the winter under fallen leaves, and in the spring they emerge from cocoons and eat them. Only cuttings remain on the bush. After flowering ends, they pupate and are attached to the leaves by a web. After 3-4 weeks, butterflies appear and lay their eggs with inside leaves. New larvae soon emerge from them, and the process is repeated, after which they go to winter.
How to deal with moth:
- Just as with other insects, you should remove and burn the leaves and dig up the soil.
- For processing, decoctions of shag and chamomile tinctures are used.
- To destroy them, it is recommended to spray them with karbofos twice. The first time, as soon as they appear on the bushes, the second time – 20-30 days before harvesting.
Chemicals
The most effective drugs are considered insecticides. Treatment of gooseberry bushes should be carried out 2 times per season. The first time is as soon as the buds open, the second time is after flowering. If the larvae appear after harvesting, the spraying procedure must be repeated. To do this you need to use the following recipes:
- Dissolve 20 g of 50% trichlorometaphos-3 in 10 liters of water. Treatment is carried out at the moment of bud opening and after flowering. If new pests appear, the procedure is repeated.
- A solution of 10% karbofos. 75 grams of the composition are dissolved in 10 liters. Treatment is carried out during the formation of buds.
- Ready-made products: Karate, Iskra, Fufanon, Decis, Gardona and others. They should be used in early spring, before the plant blooms.
Note!
A product called “Bitoxibacillin” has proven itself well. The drug is excellent against all types of pests. He is somewhat aggressive, but correct use perfectly destroys caterpillars. It does not harm plants and does not affect productivity.
I have 5 gooseberry bushes at my dacha. Delicious, juicy fruits and no pests. But how surprised I was when I noticed the caterpillars after I had already picked the berries. They destroyed the leaves with such fury that I became scared. I bought the following products: Commander and Iskra. First I treated with one, and after 2 weeks with the second. She poured ash under the bushes.
Valentina, Izhevsk
Now you know how to get rid of caterpillars on gooseberries using accessible methods, without special financial costs and effort.
Almost everyone has at least one gooseberry bush. summer cottage. To receive good harvest this berry, you should be especially careful about pests, of which gooseberries have a lot. Let's take a look at the signs of pests on gooseberries and select safe ways fight them.
Gooseberry pests and their control (photo)
To prevent damage to the plant, and to respond in time to emerging harmful insects, it is necessary to inspect the bush almost daily for their appearance. Not only the leaves, where the pest can settle and lay its larvae, should be inspected, but also the fruits themselves, ovaries, and bark. The most common gooseberry pests are:
- Gooseberry moth;
- Sawfly;
- Currant gall midge;
- Gooseberry moth;
- Gooseberry shoot aphid;
- Currant glass;
- Spider mite.
It’s worth talking about these pests separately, as well as methods to combat each of them.
Gooseberry moth and methods of combating it
Ognevka ( Zophodia convalutella)- a pest that begins to act during the flowering period of gooseberries. In winter, the moth pupates in the ground under the bushes of the plant, and in the spring its butterflies can be seen. The peculiarity of the moth is that it lays its eggs directly into the gooseberry flower, and the caterpillar then eats the ovaries. Moving from one berry to another, the caterpillars, through their web, capture up to 6 pieces of fruit. Accordingly, in the future, the berries simply dry out in the web, and no harvest can be expected.
Carefully inspecting the bushes for moths, you can see spider nests that need to be removed as soon as possible. After the gooseberries have faded, it is worth spraying the bush. For this purpose, biological products such as Bicol, Bitoxibacillin And Lepidocide. In cases mass destruction – Fitoverm.
If mass attack If the fire was carried out last year, then you should not hope for chance, and take preventive measures at the beginning of this season, spraying with the above-mentioned drugs in advance. But this procedure must be carried out before flowering, in early spring.
One way is to carefully cover the soil around the bush with dense material (tar paper, for example) in early spring, and remove this covering 2-3 weeks after flowering.
It is also worth paying attention to the fact that the moth loves thickened bushes, which means it is necessary to prune them in a timely manner, remove unnecessary, diseased branches and leaves.
In the fall, to prevent the appearance of the pest, pour the tree trunk directly under the mulch. Anthonema-F so that predatory nematodes find the pest’s cocoons. Later, fallen gooseberry leaves should be shed Fitosporin-M. When adding peat or compost to the soil in the fall, water the resulting mulch with compost tea or EMKs in the spring.
Sawfly - disposal, control methods and prevention
Sawflies (yellow) (Pteronidea ribesii) and palefoot (Pristiphora pallipes)) are the most terrible pests of gooseberries. They are almost omnipresent, so it is very difficult to fight them. It is enough that they breed up to 3 generations per season. It is the sawfly that destroys the gooseberry crop in record short terms- You can be left without berries in a week.
The sawfly begins the process of sabotage in the spring, when it lays its eggs on the leaves (from the inside), and after 2 weeks false caterpillars appear from them. The latter quickly devour the leaves and smoothly move into the soil to breed the second generation there. The sawfly also overwinters in the soil.
The fight against them begins in early spring with preventive measures. To do this, spray with the following solution: approximately 30 g of tar and a few shavings are diluted in a bucket of water laundry soap(so that the solution sticks to the leaves, and does not just run off them). Or use a solution of tar soap.
If a small gooseberry ovary is detected, it is worth carrying out another treatment, this time using pine extract(4 tbsp per bucket of water).
To destroy the sawfly, two sprayings with insecticides are also carried out - before and after flowering. If larvae are found, then this spraying must be repeated after the crop is harvested.
Prevention against pests in the soil is the same - predatory nematodes Anthony-F, mulching and pruning.
Currant gall midge – types, features, how to protect
Currant gall midge in appearance it looks like a small mosquito. Its peculiarity is that, having several varieties that affect the bush differently, it is not easy to keep track of it. Types and characteristics of gall midges:
- Floral (Dasyneura ribis). It is active during the period of bud formation - it is in them that this type of gall midge lays its eggs, and, accordingly, the bud becomes sluggish, turns yellow, and falls off.
- Pobegovaya ( Thomasiniana ribis). This type of gall midge begins to actively cause harm when the bush blooms. They lay eggs on damaged places - either branches with any defects, or in the bark. Soon after this, spots appear on the branches, which develop into large cracks, after which the branch dries out.
- Leafy (Dasyneura tetensi). This gall midge is dangerous in the period before the gooseberries begin to bloom. It is the young, barely blossomed (and sometimes not yet blossomed) leaves that are her goal. But not just young leaves, but the last leaves on the shoots. She lays her larvae there, which feed on the leaf, gnawing holes in it. Black spots on the greenery of the bush are also a sign of leaf gall midge. Accordingly, the leaves begin to dry out and fall off, but the shoots, after such exposure to them, begin to slow down in growth and develop incorrectly.
It is difficult to fight the gall midge, which operates almost throughout the entire season. It is best to carry out prevention: carefully monitor the gooseberry bush for damage to the bushes. If any mechanical actions are performed on the gooseberries - pruning, for example, then this must be done as carefully as possible, trying not to damage the branches. It is necessary to inspect almost all the leaves on which larvae may be located. They also make sure to mulch the soil and trim the bushes, getting rid of thickening (which all pests love so much, by the way).
If the shoot gall midge does damage the branches, then they are pruned in the first half of September. But pruning is done, as they say, “at the root,” that is, there should not be any stumps left from the branch, the cut should go all the way to the trunk.
As for spraying, the spraying scheme used for the gooseberry moth is quite suitable. But to combat the caterpillars and larvae laid by gall midges, you can use several traditional methods:
- Spraying with infusion using tomato tops. To do this, you will need 4 kg of fresh tops and a few shavings of laundry soap per bucket of water. Let it sit for a day, then strain and sprinkle.
- Planting mint under a bush. Mint is the enemy of all larvae. If you plant it under a gooseberry bush in advance, the gall midge will be afraid to lay its eggs nearby.
Gooseberry moth and how to deal with it
The targets of this pest are leaves. On the underside there is a moth (Abraxas grossulariata) lays its larvae, which eat it down to the veins. Moth caterpillars also take a fancy to a leaf, gnaw a hole in it, entwine it with a web, and then fall off with it.
The time when the moth is active is June and July; it is during these months that you should be on your guard - inspect the gooseberry leaves and remove all fallen leaves. If the pest is small, you can simply remove it from the plant and destroy it mechanically. If there is enough of it, then you should spray with the same bioinsecticides as for the moth - strictly twice in time: when the buds open and immediately after the gooseberries have bloomed. If gooseberry moth detected after harvesting, it is better to carry out another, third, spraying.
Gooseberry shoot aphid - how to protect the plant?
A special feature of the gooseberry aphid is its abundance. Laying larvae on the bark of the bush, in a place next to the buds, in the spring it breeds entire colonies of aphids that can easily destroy the entire crop. They begin to wreck as soon as the first leaves bloom, which soon fall off due to severe damage, and the shoots begin to lag behind in development, branch, etc.
There are several safe methods of protection against gooseberry shoot aphids:
- Spraying with tobacco-garlic solution. It is worth carrying out such spraying as soon as the appearance of aphids is detected. You can spray every evening until the colony disappears.
- Spraying with a folk remedy using white mustard. Take 10 g of white mustard powder per liter of water, dilute it well and wait two days. Next, strain, and the resulting infusion is re-diluted with water in proportions of 1/5.
- Breeding insects in the garden - enemies of aphids. For example, they use aphelinus ( Aphelinus), which lay their eggs in the eggs of aphids, thereby destroying the entire brood.
Currant glass: what damage it causes and how to deal with it
Glass beetle pest ( Synanthedon tipuliformis) especially loves currant bushes, but also does not disdain raspberries and gooseberries. It appears at the end of June and the area of its sabotage is the branches of fertile bushes. The glass beetle lays its eggs in any cracks in the bark, and the hatched caterpillars begin to gnaw at the branch itself, making a long move through it without appearing on the surface. After wintering in a branch, they come to the surface in the spring. Naturally, after such damage, the branches begin to dry out irrevocably. This happens after the gooseberries bloom.
As a control, spraying with insecticides and timely removal of all damaged branches, both from the bush and from the site, are suitable. In autumn, the soil around the bushes is shed Anthonema-F, so that predatory nematodes neutralize wintering pupae.
Spider mites: features and control methods
Many plants suffer from a pest such as spider mites. This is very small insect, which is not so easy to see. And the larvae can only be seen with a magnifying glass. Spider mites feed on leaves and also lay larvae on their lower parts. Due to the first, light spots can first be seen on the leaves, which flow into large spots, then the leaf becomes transparent and falls off. As a result, not only the yield suffers, which is rapidly falling, but also the overall resistance of the bush to weather conditions, in particular for winter.
First absence condition spider mite- This humid air, so in hot weather it is useful to spray plants. You can even use plain water. But in order not to waste time, you can combine spraying with foliar feeding.
The peak breeding season for ticks is July-August, especially in dry and hot weather. At this time, frequently inspect gooseberry bushes and other similar plants.
When spraying, do not forget to take into account the ability of spider mites to develop “immunity” to chemicals, so alternate them. But this is not such an invincible pest that it would pour chemicals. But here's the infusion onion peel you can safely process the bush every week. The husk is placed in a container with water (½), left for 2 days, strained and diluted with the same amount of water.
We hope that now you can easily recognize gooseberry pests by photos of the larvae and the damage they cause, and select safe ways to combat them in your garden.
Caterpillars do not cause much damage to gooseberries only if there are no more than two or three of them. But when the invasion becomes massive, the damage caused by them is impressive. One category of caterpillars gnaws off the foliage of gooseberries, while another eats up all the berries from the inside. In both cases, control of these pests is necessary. As a result of their vital activity, the gooseberry process of photosynthesis is disrupted, and the entire bush may die.
Chapter 1. What caterpillars infect gooseberry leaves?
The foliage of gooseberries is eaten by sawfly and moth caterpillars.
Yellow gooseberry sawfly looks like a large fly. The body is black, with yellow stripes and red spots. The larvae are greenish or bluish in color, strewn with convex black dots. Adults do not harm the plant itself. They are dangerous because they lay eggs. Caterpillars emerging from eggs feed on leaves.
The larvae appear within a week. First, they gnaw small, inconspicuous holes in the leaves. If there are a lot of larvae, they begin to gnaw off the entire green part of the leaves, leaving only hard veins. The most dangerous larvae second generation, they can eat all the foliage in 1–2 days.
If sawfly caterpillars are frightened or sense danger, they curl up into a tight ring and fall to the ground.
The caterpillars overwinter in the top layer of soil, at a depth of 5–7 cm. They are wrapped in a dense, shiny cocoon of brown-red color. In spring, butterflies emerge from their cocoons.
Gooseberry moth is a 4 cm butterfly. It is white or yellowish in color. The wings are strewn with black dots. On the upper wings you can see two yellow stripes. The caterpillar is grayish, the sides are yellowish. The body is covered with black spots. Moves by arching the back and pulling the back of the body towards the head.
The butterfly lays eggs in July or August on the undersides of leaves. The caterpillars appear after two weeks. Chaotic holes are gnawed in gooseberry leaves.
For the winter, the caterpillars wrap themselves in a cocoon of cobwebs and hibernate on the ground under fallen leaves. In the spring, when leaf buds begin to burst, the caterpillars awaken and eat young, fresh leaves.
Chapter 2. The gooseberry moth is a caterpillar that damages buds and berries
Gooseberry moth - this pest is most often found in middle lane Russia.
This is an inconspicuous butterfly, no more than 3 cm in size. The color of its wings is gray, with fuzzy stripes on the upper wings brown. Caterpillars saturated green, stand out black head. The length of the caterpillar is 1.5–2 cm.
Butterflies lay eggs inside buds and flowers, on young leaves. The next generation is in berry production. They are dangerous because the larvae that emerge from the eggs eat away all inner part flowers and berries. The affected areas are covered with cobwebs.
The caterpillars pupate and overwinter in the soil. In the spring, when the buds form, the butterflies fly out. They begin laying eggs almost immediately.
Despite the fact that pest caterpillars damage gooseberries in different ways, the methods of dealing with them are the same.
Chapter 3. How to treat gooseberries against caterpillars
How to treat gooseberries against caterpillars depends on the period when they were discovered. If pests attack in early spring, then chemical insecticides can be used. Decay will occur before the harvest ripens. harmful substances, and the berries can be eaten.
- "Inta-Vir" - treated at the moment of swelling of the buds. Repeated treatment is carried out only when pests are detected again. Spray no more than three times per season.
- "Decis" - the effect of the drug begins an hour after treatment. Protection against caterpillars lasts up to two weeks if there is no precipitation. The frequency of treatments is no more than 2 times in one season.
- "Kinmiks" - acts in an hour, the duration of exposure in dry weather is up to 3 weeks. During one growing season, apply only 2 times.
- “Iskra-M” is a drug designed specifically to combat caterpillars of various types.
It should be remembered that these pesticides are dangerous for bees; gooseberries cannot be treated during flowering. Berries can be eaten no earlier than 30 days after processing.
If pests attacked gooseberries when the berries had already formed, biological products should be used. These are “Lipidocid”, “Bitoxibacillin”, “Fitoverm”.
The caterpillars are damaged during treatment, but the substance acts slowly. The result is not noticeable immediately, but after 5-6 days. The preparation of solutions and processing of gooseberries should be carried out strictly according to the instructions. Active substances, included in their composition, are effective at a certain temperature.
Chapter 4. Folk remedies for fighting caterpillars on gooseberries
To prevent pests from laying eggs and caterpillars from gnawing on leaves, you can dust the entire bush with ash. First, the gooseberries are generously moistened and the wet bush is sprinkled with ash. This procedure should be repeated several times as the ash is washed away by rain.
Tobacco dust is infused in a bucket of water for a day. 1 kg of dust will require 10 liters of water. Spraying is carried out after filtering.
An infusion of dry mustard repels pests. Dilute 3 tablespoons of mustard in 5 liters of water and leave for 1-2 days. After this, filter, add water to 10 liters. For adhesion, you need to pour a little liquid soap into the solution.
These products must be used several times, with an interval of 7-10 days. With a single use, there may be no effect.
Caterpillars can be shaken off the bush. To do this, unnecessary fabric is spread on the tree trunk circle. The gooseberries are shaken several times. Caterpillars chewing leaves will fall. They must be burned along with the fabric.
If the gooseberry is damaged by the moth, then this method will not help. Damaged berries will have to be picked manually. This is necessary because caterpillars can move from one berry to another, damaging a significant part of the crop.
Chapter 5. Prevention
In autumn, all fallen leaves and plant debris should be raked from under the gooseberries and destroyed. The earth needs to be loosened. In some cases, if pest damage was widespread, top layer soil should be replaced to a depth of 10 cm.
Tree trunk circle in the fall you can cover it with dense black agrofibre. Pests left to overwinter in the soil will not be able to get out in the spring.
In early spring, the soil under the bush is shed very hot water. Larvae overwintering in the ground die.
Dry, diseased and old branches must be removed in a timely manner. It is recommended to loosen the soil near the gooseberries after watering and remove weeds. The tree trunk circle can be mulched.
It has been noticed that in a well-kept garden, gooseberries suffer less from pests and diseases.
Chapter 6. Video
This article took a long time to write, and I haven’t returned to it even once. Gooseberry pests in the garden - what are they? The list could go on for a long time - there are probably a lot of them... But when I started writing this article, I didn’t know what kind of pest had visited my friend’s property. I was not ready for such a turn... Garden practice did not throw such problems at me. But the readers of our group on the social network Odnoklassniki helped me. I hope these tips will help anyone who encounters sawfly caterpillars on their plants in the garden.
All that was left of the leaves on the gooseberry were veins...
Who eats gooseberry leaves
So, one fine day I came to my friend and gasped! I visited her five days ago - I admired the gooseberry bushes: the berries are large, clean, and the bushes are beautiful, well-ordered. We agreed that in the fall she would give me several shoots. And yesterday I received a slight shock: all the gooseberry bushes stand without leaves, only some berries on the branches. The leaves on the gooseberry have been eaten, what should I do?
If you watch this video, you will understand my emotions about gooseberry bushes with eaten leaves:
A friend says it happened literally in one night or one day. I visited her on Monday evening, and on Wednesday morning she went to the gooseberry tree to pick berries for compote... and also received a slight shock from what she saw. Moreover, all the leaves of only the gooseberries were eaten.
She has three bushes: two grow nearby (they are in the picture above), and one in another corner of the plot. All three gooseberry bushes, regardless of their location, stand without leaves, but with berries. Black currants and grapes grow nearby - all the leaves are whole. We walked around the entire area with her - we did not find any traces of such an impudent, voracious pest on any plant. Only gooseberries without leaves. All that was left of the leaves were veins.
This can be seen especially clearly in the lower right part of the photo. The photo isn't very good, of course. good quality Sorry, I was filming on my phone, I didn’t take my camera with me.
Purely theoretically, I can assume that these are caterpillars. Only they can handle it short period With a large number leaves. But where did the caterpillars go? And what are their names? Upon closer inspection, we did not find anyone on the gooseberry bushes or under them...
Maybe someone has encountered this?
Do you know a pest that loves gooseberry leaves?
I am finishing the article a month after the problem was discovered. I asked similar questions to colleagues from our groups on Odnoklassniki and VKontakte. The answer has been received.
Pest - yellow gooseberry sawfly - caterpillar
There are many varieties of sawfly, or more precisely, more than 5.5 thousand species. The yellow gooseberry sawfly harms not only gooseberries, but also red and white currants.
The sawfly is a flying insect. If you look closely, it’s even beautiful - the head is black, the legs are yellow. The sawfly overwinters in the pupal state. In early spring, it flies out of the pupae at the time when gooseberries and currants bloom. Adult flying insects are practically harmless to our garden, they even decorate it. Their main life task is to lay eggs on the underside of plant leaves. After this they die.
After 7-12 days, young sawflies—caterpillars—emerge from the testicles. So they harm the garden, gnawing into the buds, leaving holes in the leaves. Growing up, caterpillar sawflies can eat all the leaves on the plant - all that remains are hard veins. If there are a lot of pests, then due to their gluttony the bush can become completely bare in 1-2 days. This, by the way, happened to my friend’s gooseberries.
After such a sumptuous dinner, the sawfly caterpillars crawl into the soil and pupate there. After two weeks, adults emerge from the pupae and lay eggs. After another two weeks, the eggs hatch into caterpillars. And everything repeats itself.
Under the conditions of the long Kuban summer, at least three generations of caterpillar sawflies can develop.
Gooseberry or currant bushes, left without a single leaf, can dry out and die, as the process of photosynthesis is disrupted.
Measures to combat sawfly
Caterpillars on gooseberries have eaten leaves, how to fight? There are mechanical, biological and chemical measures combating sawfly on gooseberries or currants.
The mechanical method of control is simple and quite effective if carried out on time. Spread a piece of cloth under the branches and shake the bush thoroughly several times. This is enough for all the tracks to fall down. Carefully roll up the fabric and burn it along with the caterpillars.
There are many biological methods. One of the most harmless, but effective, is this. Spray the gooseberry and currant bush with water, and then dust it with finely sifted wood ash. Having settled on the leaves, the ash will make them inedible - the pest will die.
How to spray gooseberries against caterpillars? Sawfly caterpillars will also not eat leaves sprayed with bitter infusions. Infusions of mustard, wormwood, tansy, yarrow, and celandine will make them this way. After each rain, spraying must be renewed.
There's another one interesting way fight against the sawyer. But it is more suitable for controlling pests in the pupal stage; it would be better to use it in early spring. Regular sludge will help. As soon as the snow melts, dilute river or pond silt to a creamy mass and pour it into the center of the bush. The silt will spread under the bush, dry out and form a dense crust from under which insects will not escape from the pupae.
From biological drugs To protect gooseberries or currants, experts recommend using lepodocid and bitoxybacillin against young sawfly caterpillars. When preparing solutions, follow the instructions in the instructions. I want to focus only on the following point: these solutions should be sprayed on plants in cloudy weather or after sunset, since ultraviolet rays have a destructive effect on the biological components of the preparations. By the way, don't expect the caterpillar sawyers to be gone that same day or the next. There will, of course, be fewer of them, but mass death of insects usually occurs within 2-3 days.
Chemicals should be used only if absolutely necessary, if other means have not helped. There are many such drugs. Those intended for leaf-eating insects - Iskra, INTA-VIR, Decis and many others - act against the caterpillar sawfly.