Insect egg ID?

[FitzKreiner]

These small yellow things have covered up my currant on the underside of the leaves. I assume they're eggs of some kind but can anyone tell me what kind? Thanks

 

[FitzKreiner]

Update: could this be rust fungus?

 

[DirtMechanic]

That is what I would be thinking. Do you know what to do about it?

 

[FitzKreiner]

That is what I would be thinking. Do you know what to do about it?

Ive seen a couple different suggestions. Do you think I should take off all effected foliage? I also saw some people suggesting a neem oil solution

 

[DirtMechanic]

Will you eat from the plant?

This link was interesting to me.

 

[FitzKreiner]

Probably won't eat from it anytime soon. It's a young plant so hardly any fruit on it at the moment

Interesting link! I'm in Southern California so white pine isn't really a concern, but I'm always interested in those sorts of interactions

 

[DirtMechanic]

Probably won't eat from it anytime soon. It's a young plant so hardly any fruit on it at the moment

Interesting link! I'm in Southern California so white pine isn't really a concern, but I'm always interested in those sorts of interactions

I was thinking of a systemic fungicide because the fungus gets inside between the plant cells and takes over the nutrient supply. That makes it tough. Some of the white papers I read spoke of neem oil as relatively ineffective, but only in the context of neem being a commonly referred remedy. There are other oils that are more aggressive for garden variety fungus such as thyme and garlic oils. I imagine that somewhere, somebody has tested them agains rust as rust is a agricultural pathogen for some crops, even tree crops. But back to the idea of eating from the plant, I saw a suggesstion of using Serenade, a biological bacterial control called bacillus subtilis, not to be confused with the insecticide bT. There are products like actinovate (streptomycin) and mycostop (also streptomycin but different strain). This is a good idea, where you hire some bio-thugs to eat the rust fungi. There is cornmeal, which will attract that greenish grey mold called trichoderma. Tricho eats everything but does not hurt the plant. How to get it up the leaves is my question, but once on scene it is potent. Maybe use them all. You need very little, as there are billions of live particles in the smallest pinch of these type products.

The only other thing I can think of is called an iodophor. The plant will take up some iodine, which wont hurt you, but some plants do not like it, where others prosper with it, and I am not far enough along in my experience to tell you about currants as I do not grow them or study them, But I have not killed anything yet. I make mine with 10% betadine mixed into water. 2 tbsp per gallon at this point. If you use the iodophor, kiss all the bio agents goodbye, so let it be the last thing.

 

[Marck]

Greetings, welcome to the Forums.

White Pine Blister Rust (Cronartium ribicola) is a rust fungus native to China and invasive in North America since 1900. This species consists of two alternating generations that use different plant hosts. A sexual generation that infects various species of mostly five-needled white Pines (Pinus, subgenus Strobus), and an asexual generation that infects Currants and Gooseberries (Ribes spp., Grossulariaceae)

There are White Pine species in southern California, both native and planted, so they can be a concern in the spread of this disease. However, if the plant in the OP was recently purchased after being grown in another region, this could also explain the introduction of the disease.

There are rust-resistant cultivars of Ribes available. Cultivar selection and distance separation of the two plant hosts is usually the best solution for growing Ribes crops in areas where Cronartium ribicola is endemic.