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Currants with green fly

tomhumftomhumf Posts: 65
in Fruit & veg
We have some currants that I've netted to stop birds eating. It's seems they are getting eaten by greenfly or something. I don't want to spray any chemicals on them, would we be best to just uncover? Maybe larger flies and insects would eat some of the greenfly? 

Posts

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    Over the last few years I've found the best way to keep birds away from my soft fruits are to hang CDs on a single bit of string (which allows them to spin and reflect light in the slightest breeze).
    I used to lose a lot to the birds, but not since I started hanging the CDs.
    Even on a cloudy they flash enough light around to keep the birds away.
    On a sunny day it looks like a disco going on at the end of my garden.

    I no longer cover my blackcurrants, raspberries, blackberry or strawberries.
    I keep my blueberries in a cage though as they're in a different area.

    My blackcurrants often get smothered in blackfly, but eventually the ladybird larva arrive and within a few days they're completely clear of them. So it's ladybirds that you want to have access to your bushes.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    Useful advice @Pete.8  I will be looking out the old CDs for my strawberry patch.
    And does "Currants with Green Fly" sound like something from a posh restaurant menu?
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I wouldn’t net them until after the fruit is beginning to form … blackcurrants need insects such as bees to pollinate them … that mesh looks way too fine for them to access the flowers, let alone access for the ladybirds to harvest the aphids. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Slow-wormSlow-worm Posts: 1,630
    I have aphids on one hypericum, but not the blackcurrants, nor do the birds eat them - which is a shame because we don't eat many. 😄
    I spray the hypericum with dilute washing up liquid and mint essential oil. They do come back, but it saves the plant getting chomped. It's not ideal putting soap on your food plants I know, but it's better than a harsh chemical alternative. Or you could try just water and essential oils.
  • tomhumftomhumf Posts: 65
    Ok thanks all. I've taken nets off and used hose pipe to spray most of them off. I'll get some CDs hung up. Strawberries are netted too so I'll uncover them as well. 
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