Every gardener wants to have a rich and healthy harvest of fruits and berries every year. However, on the path to achieving the cherished desire can arise diseases or pests. Sometimes you have to notice how various spots appear on the leaves of a plant. So, there are frequent cases of the formation of red spots on the leaves of red currants - what it is and how to treat this disease, let's understand together.
- Description and photo damage
- Causes of
- Anthracnose
- Gallic aphid
- Fight and treatment
- How to deal with aphids
- Spraying against redness
- Prevention
Description and photo damage
As a rule, spots appear in the summer. They can be dark red, burgundy, brown. At first they are small and may increase in size over time. Sometimes they resemble bloating. They can appear on both red and white currants, less often on black. 
Such a phenomenon is not the only trouble accompanying the plant and its owners. As a rule, he is accompanied by a change in the taste of the berries - for a more sour and chopping fruit. If you do not pay attention to the problem in time and do not begin to deal with it, it will spread to a wider area - entire branches can grow and dry up, and soon the whole bush.
Causes of
There are two reasons for the appearance of red spots on currant leaves:
- anthracnose fungal disease;
- pest called gallic aphid.
Anthracnose
Anthracnose is raised by the mushroom Colletotrichum orbiculare. Its spores are spread by sediment, insects and wind. Favorable factors for the spread of the disease are warm, wet weather, high acidity levels in the soil, and potassium and phosphorus deficiency in the plant.
The first symptom of the disease is the appearance of small dark red spots all over the leaf. As the disease progresses, the spots increase, they become more and more, and they merge into one huge spot.The leaf curls and dries. 
With a strong infection spots can also be observed on the shoots. Later, cracks appear on them, they become brittle, and the plant eventually dies. Sometimes the fungus can even affect the fruit.
The manifestation of the disease occurs in the summer, starting in June. It reaches its peak in the second half of summer.
With what this red currant disease looks like, you had the opportunity to look at the photo, and how to carry out its treatment, consider below.
Gallic aphid
Gallic or red-headed aphid is a sucking insect of miniature size - 2.2-2.5 mm in length. May have a different color - from yellow to brown. Like all other types of aphids, lives on the bottom of the leaf plate. 
Autumn lays eggs for wintering in the cracks of currant bark. Winged females fly out in the first weeks of summer. For the season they take up to eight generations. In July, aphid goes from currants to weeds, and by the autumn it returns to berry shrubs for egg-laying.
Symptoms of plant infection are galls - formations in the form of blisters on the upper part of the leaf plate. Since the aphids drink juice from the bushes with useful substances, in order to heal the wounds, special tissues begin to form in the plant.Therefore, growths are formed in the injury site.
The most serious damage to aphids inflicts young shrubs. Favorable conditions for its active life are warm winters and hot summers without precipitations. 
Fight and treatment
As in the case of the appearance of most other diseases or parasites in plants, anthracnose and aphids can be fought with preventive measures, sparing folk remedies (decoctions and infusions of insecticidal plants, soap solutions) and chemical treatments. Consider those and other measures to combat red leaves on currants.
How to deal with aphids
Among the popular recipes to combat gall aphids the most effective are the following:
- Infusion of marigolds. Dry and chop the marigolds so that the raw material is about half a bucket (5 liters). Pour the flowers with a bucket of hot boiled water and leave them to infuse for 48 hours. Then add a 50 gram bar of laundry soap. Use for spraying leaves.
- Infusion of tomato tops with onion peel. 2 kg of tomato tops pour five liters of boiling water. Infuse the solution for two hours, then boil for three hours. Pass through cheesecloth. Dilute with water in a ratio of one to two. A pound of husk pour two liters of boiling water, insist 48 hours. Then add 2 liters of water and liquid soap as an adhesive. Infusion tops and infusion husk mix and use for spraying.
- A decoction of tobacco dust. Half a cup of dust pour in a liter of water and boil for about 30 minutes. After removal from the stove, add water to the original volume. Insist in a dark place for 24 hours. Then pass the broth through gauze to filter and add liquid soap (one teaspoon) or laundry soap (10-15 g). Use for spraying.
- Infusion of laundry soap. 300-400 g of soap diluted in 400 ml of water. Use for spraying or wiping leaves, paying particular attention to the bottom and the stems.
- Infusion of white mustard powder. The powder (10 g) is diluted with a liter of water and infused for 48 hours. Filter out. For spraying, take 200 ml of infusion and dilute with 800 ml of water.
- Infusion of red pepper. Cut a pound of pepper pods and place in an enamel container. Add a bucket of water and boil for one hour. Insist two or three days. Strain. For spraying use 150 ml of infusion, diluting them with a bucket of water.
Spraying against redness
With a slight defeat by harmful insects, biopreparations will help: “Fitoverm”, “Biotlin”, “Agravertin”. The advantages of using these insecticides are that they do the least harm to the environment and are safe for humans.
If the strong spread of aphids could not be avoided, you will have to use chemistry. Today, the drugs that most effectively recommended themselves in the fight against this insect are: Aktellik, Inta-vir, Konfidor, Calypso, Kinmiks, Aliot.
It must be remembered that the use of chemicals before harvesting is strictly prohibited. Carefully read the instructions to the drug, which indicates the minimum interval that must be maintained between the processing chemicals and harvesting berries. 
Currant leaves, on which brown spots appeared as a result of anthracnose, must be removed and burned before treating plants with fungicides. If there is a strong infection, it is better to destroy the shrub.
For the treatment of anthracnose used: Oxyhom, Home, Abiga-Pik, Skor, Fundazol, Ridomil Gold MT, Profit Gold, etc.
Since mushrooms and insects can get used to the drugs, they should be alternated or changed. So prevention and control will be more effective.
Prevention
To prevent gall aphids, the following activities should be carried out:
- regularly remove weeds;
- conduct early spring preventive spraying Bordeaux liquid (3%) or other drugs of similar action;
- carry out insecticidal sprays before bud break, for example, using the Sparkle Double Effect, Prophylactin, Nitrafen preparations;
- plant in close proximity to currant bushes dill, parsley, cumin, cilantro, mustard in order to attract beneficial insects (ladybugs, earwigs, golden-eyed, hoverlings) that feed on pests
- plant near currants strongly smelling plants that are able to scare away aphids, for example, chamomile, calendula, marigolds;
- destroy ant hills and destroy garden ants that are aphid vectors;
- Drain the plant and the tree circle with hot water (+ 80-90 °) before sap flow, this will kill the parasites after wintering.
To avoid anthracnose infection, you need:- early spring spraying Bordeaux liquid, Nitrafen, copper sulfate;
- before flowering, to process immunostimulating preparations according to the “Epin”, “Zircon”, “Immunocytophyte” type;
- to properly fertilize shrubs, thereby increasing the sustainability of the culture;
- conduct sanitary pruning of shoots;
- in the fall, carefully remove plant residues and carry out a deep digging of the trunk circle;
- after harvesting spray Bordeaux liquid;
- timely remove weeds;
- thin out thickened landing;
- choose varieties of currants that are resistant to this disease, for example, Victoria, Dutch red, Firstborn.
