Blackcurrant varieties and aphids.

[Brack]

In the garden I have lots of currants. We've been in the house 3 years, so they've all been planted recently.
Specifically there are:
Jostaberry
2 X blackcurrant titania
Blackcurrant Ben Lomond
Redcurrant Rolan
Redcurrant X3 rooted cuttings 'borrowed' from community garden.
Gooseberry hinnomaki red
King Edward flowering currant.

In spite of all this variety, both last year and at present, Ben Lomond is covered with aphids. Last year I bought 50 ladybird larvae to fix them, I'm hoping their descendants are still about, although the only ladybird I've seen this year was a 7 spot (the larvae were 2 spot).
The harvests are fine, and it seems that the aphids* get out and reproduce before their predators are active.

My question is: what is so different about Ben Lomond that it gets hammered by aphids but none of the others get touched? Has anyone else noticed this?



*Aphids can choose to reproduce either sexually or asexually. When the female asexual clones are born they have their own clones already forming inside them! Hence 1 aphid quickly becomes hundreds. As a biologist they're very impressive beasts.

[nickdub]

I'd say the aphids prefer soft growth - so its probable the the blackcurrant you have is growing strongly at the time when the aphids are looking for food. I wouldn't worry too much about the problem - bit of soapy water used to wash them off, if it looks bad again this year would be my first thought .

I'd definitely add takes some cuttings from the Ben Lomond - if it does pick up a virus, then the cuttings are an insurance policy.

[Brack]

Thanks nick, what puzzles me is that they're all at similar stages of growth, if anything the jostaberry is growing more strongly and one of the titanias is going pretty well too (the others are younger).
Perhaps Ben Lomond is softer than the others. I could more readily understand it if the aphids were on all of them but more heavily infesting one or two, but to have boycotted all the others in favour of one single bush surprises me. I had a decent poke around the others and nothing! The Ben Lomond is probably in the sunnier spot, but not by too much.

A cutting or two is a decent idea though. Free plants and all that (which reminds me, I need to get down the community garden and accidentally snip off a whitecurrant branch or two...).

[nickdub]

Jostaberry seems to me to be quite tough - I think you'd have to analyse the new growth on an almost microscopic level to see the differences - also there may be some natural chemical deterrents at play in the different plants - the arms race between pests and plants has a chemical weapons element to it - humans have used this with drugs like digitalis and taxol.

[Jungle Jane]

If you stopped taking cuttings from the community gardens,would there be more fruit for the community? What if everyone in the community did that,there’d be no garden...

[Brack]

If you stopped taking cuttings from the community gardens,would there be more fruit for the community? What if everyone in the community did that,there’d be no garden...

There's over a dozen very well established bushes, and it's getting difficult to walk between the beds as they grow over the path. Certainly no shortage of fruit. They were trimmed back to their place with shears the other year in a big tidy up. I just found 3 thin 6-8" branches that were growing back across the path and snipped them, then put them in my pocket instead of shredding it for the compost heap.
One of the gentlemen who run it has told me to help myself to offsets/cuttings in the past. But usually when I go up there isn't anybody else there to ask.

[Jungle Jane]

Alright words like accidentally snip off & borrowed sounds like theft but if they’ve told you to take cuttings for home that’s different & you don’t need to accidentally snip anything.

[Brack]

Whilst the guy in charge is happy, not everybody else is privy to our conversation, so it's easier to snip when nobody's there rather than explain. When I filled our new pond I took 4 litres of water from their pond as a 'starter culture' for little invertebrates/algae to speed establishment of ours. Again I'd asked and was told it wasn't a problem from the man in charge, but when I turned up to fill my bottles there were 3 other people there, and it was a bit awkward trying to explain why on earth I was 'stealing' milk bottles full of dirty pond water and that I had permission (and that the rain would easily refill/replace what I'd taken)

Anyway, back to Ben Lomond. In between digging out a hefty Rosa rugosa and bending the shaft of my spade I went on a ladybird hunt. Found 5 7 spot ladybirds around the garden and moved them onto the blackcurrant. Hopefully one or two fall in love over their nice meal (there must be at least a couple of potential male/female pairs) and lay a bunch of eggs on it...

[Jungle Jane]

Hopefully the ladybirds should help. Maybe that’s the sweetest variety which is attracting the aphids. The aphids preferred my plum tree over my apple,I thought it’s to do with sweetness because when the Victoria plum went,I had the aphids on the apple,they moved along...

[Losos]

For what it's worth I found the aphids always go for the softest 'new growth' at the tips of shoots, mine are mainly Ebony, the new growth had an aphid attack on all of them but the worst was the ones closer to my wifes rose garden, not sure if that's relevant but you do need to watch the ends of the shoots from now until end of June.

[Brack]

If it's of any interest our aphids have spread to the other blackcurrants and the whitecurrant I put in the other day, plus they've hammered the hellebores in the back.

For the forces of righteousness, I saw two ladybirds mating today, lots more emerging and wandering about and we have hoverflies holding territory over the lawn again.

[Losos]

Since the aphids seem to go for the soft juicy growth at the ends of the shoots I'm thinking about using a soapy water mixture and brushing it on, could do the same with an insecticide too, since the area is well away from the flowers then no harm should come to the bees.

Does anyone use this technique :?:

[nickdub]

I sometimes brush stuff on if I see a localised problem - as I'm lazy it in the case of aphids I'd probably just pincjh the soft tips off the new growth with my finger and thumb as being easier.