Blackcurrant Looking Worse For Wear :(

[darloboy]

Hi

Some of my blackcurrant bushes are looking a little tired on the leaves - some are yellow, some are turning slightly brown at the edge of the leaves.

I have 7 blackcurrant bushes in my patch and I would say 5 of them are affected on differing levels. I have 2 purple chokeberries and 5 redcurrant bushes in the same patch and these all look perfectly healthy.

We had a few days of heavy rain about a week ago, and pretty a much a week of sunshine since then.

During this season I tend to water them 4 or 5 days a week if sunny, not sure if this is right or wrong or if this is contributing to the problem? It's my second year growing them, but last year they did virtually nothing as they were planted in heavy clay. Late last year we dug the whole fruit bush patch up and replanted them on mounds in effect about a foot tall to give them decent root space and it seems to have worked as they are all producing fruit.

I have attached a couple of pics if this is of any use? By the way the white flowers in the background on one picture are the chokeberry, didn't realise when I bought it but they look beautiful during the growing season!!

Hoping for some advice to help remedy before its too late!!

Thanks

[Scarlet]

I'm probably not much help because I've only got a couple of blackberries but I can honestly say I've never watered mine. I would leave off the water for a couple of weeks.

[rustylady]

A picture of the whole patch would be helpful. And whole bush pictures, as well as close-ups of the leaves.

You certainly shouldn't be watering that often, if at all, if the bushes are in the ground.

How old are your bushes?

[darloboy]

I can upload a picture of the plot later today when I get home from work, no problem at all.

We have had the bushes 18 months and i'm guessing they were a year old when we bought them, as they were by no means large.

[Scarlet]

RL, I think they are only 2 years?? So this should be the first year to fruit.

[darloboy]

They did have a few berries last year, albeit maybe 10 berries to a bush, I would not say they really fruited last year though. However we weren't sure if that was due to the ground or the age of the bushes.

The site we are on is new allotments, and basically when the council created the space the dug out a load of clay to make a circular road and ended up raising our plots up by about 2 foot of clay by discarding the clay between the new plots. More than helpful!! So pretty much nothing grew for anyone last year, hence the raising up of the crops.

[FB.]

My guess would be that the lower leaves are being shaded by the upper leaves, so the plant is discarding inefficient use of resources. The leaves are turning yellow as the plant salvages useful materials from the unproductive leaves, then the materials will be shipped further up the stem to where there is sufficient light.

The other (unlikely) possibility is lack of water causing the plant to scrap the least productive leaves. I can't imagine many of us have drought-stressed plants this early in the year after such a wet preceeding year.

[darloboy]

Here are some pictures rustylady of the patch, the whole bushes and a close up of the leaves, hope these are of some use.

Thanks to all for your replies so far

[boundtothesoil]

Here are some pictures

The leaves in the background of the third photo show symptoms of interveinal chlorosis (i.e. the regions between the veins on the leaf are pale green/yellow). In many species this would be a sign of iron deficiency. When iron is translocated up to the leaves from the roots it does its stuff in the cells immediately adjacent to the veins, but if there isn't sufficient it doesn't get transported further into the leaf tissue - hence the dark green veins and pale hinterland. Raspberries often show this very clearly. You could try a top dressing of chelated iron (e.g.sequestrene) worked into the soil (although it takes a long time to have an effect and won't 'cure' the mature leaves you have now). Otherwise, the general paleness of many of the leaves could suggest nitrogen deficiency. Have you checked the pH of the rooting medium?

[darloboy]

Thanks for that, I haven't checked the pH but will do when I am down the plot later - is there a recommended pH for blackcurrants that I need to aim for?

[rustylady]

Site and Soil For Blackcurrants
Blackcurrants are more tolerant than many fruits of their site and soil conditions. What they do like though is a moist soil, but not water logged. They need the moisture for the fruits to develop. This is one reason why they do well in less dry parts of the UK.

Their ideal site is in full sun, but the effect of partial shade does them little harm. Avoid frost-pockets, their flowers can be damaged by a late frost which will of course result in a lower yield of fruit.

Their ideal soil is a rich well-drained soil which will not dry out. They prefer a slightly acidic soil - around pH 6 to 6.5 (click here for more details on soil acidity). They will grow well however on most normal soils. taken from this site How to grow blackcurrants with lots of hints, tips, pictures and advice

As a matter of interest, you say your blackcurrants are growing on a mound - a mound of what?