My newish allotment has two blackcurrant bushes that seem to be suffering from very bad big bud mites :( Books say to dig up and burn them but if i were to do that what (if anything) could I put in their place? Could I plant new fruit bushes or is the ground infected and unusable!
Is there anything I could do with them??
Please could someone help me as It would be tricky to redesign the whole plot lay out, cause I like it the way it is, but I suppose I would, if I had too ::)
we pick the big buds off and burn them but only had a few, depends how bad it is, could cut the branches down to renew it :)
the best way to be totally rid of the mites is to............................
cut the bushes down to the ground, and burn all of the 'wood'
then apply a good dollop of Farm Yard Manure to the rootstock (they'll regenerate) you will be harvesting after 1 season.
rgds, Tony
I thought that the problem is not just the mites but the fact that they carry reversion virus, so after a while the plants get narrow strappy leaves and small tasteless fruit. Does cutting them right back get rid of this problem.
Not if the plant has this problem, but you don't know yet. Cut them down and give them a chance. Aphids carry viruses as well, but if we assumed virus every time we saw an aphid, we'd never grow anything!