i have lost of large buds on my blackcurrent bushes. I have heard that you should pick them off and burn them. But how do i know which are big bud virus and which are going to form leaves or next years wood. I have some blackcurrents clearly developing but not a bumper crop. Shoudl i scrap these bushes and start again.
Pick off and burn any buds which are conspicuously large. If this is a significant proportion of the whole, you're probably better to burn the plants, and start again.
The normal buds are definitely oval in form, whereas those infected are larger and essentially circular. They are easier to spot earlier in the year, before the buds start to open.
Careful here! its probably ok !!!
There are big buds and there are big buds!
Round buds are normally the ones that produce flowers, and slimmer buds are normally vegetative, i.e. they grow more stems and leaves.
The very large buds that people talk about in relation to virus, are not caused by a virus, but by a mite. The mite will be inside the bud, and causes it to swell.
The mite is a carrier of blackcurrant reversion virus - but if you have ther mite, you don't necessarily have the virus.
A link to a paper I wrote in the Wiki is here and tells more:
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/components/com_mambowiki/index.php/Blackcurrent_reversion_virus
I'll have a look, thank you. i picked off loads of over sized buds yesterday after reading an article in KG or GYO - one of those anyway. i hope i have done the right thing. thank you for your advice. Alit