Red Currant vs Blackcurrants

ok_go

Hi,

I have some currant bushes on my inherrited allotment that don't look if they have been pruned for a while. I don't know what type they are, red, black or both. My reseach suggests that you prune them both differenty (i.e. different years growth is pruned )

Should I wait till they fruit next year (hopefully) and prune next autumn or shoud I go ahead and prune harshly now??

Regards

Go

Lotus-eater

Atm my blackcurrant bushes have green leaves and the redcurrant ones, yellow leaves.
But, just leave it, some people never prune their currant bushes until they get too big.

Gently raises hand in the air... like me

greenfingeredsteve

hi blackcyrrant likes to fruit on new wood so cut it back and you should have new wood and more fruit next year .
redcurrant fruits on old wood so either leave it or only trim a small amount i.e thinning out.
both will do better if they are give lots of manure as they are greedy feeders especially blackcurrant .hope this helps steve

ok_go

Greenfingeredsteve

Thanks for that, but my problem is that I don't know whether thay are red or black as I have only recently inherrited the allotment so I was seeing if there were any clever ways of working out how to prune them given the fact that pruning should be different for each type. As I say I could wait till next year to find out what they are but I was hoping to prune to get a better crop next year??

Regards

Go

greenfingeredsteve

well in that case its upto you ,if you prune them back now you will not get redcurrants till 2010 but you may get a bumper crop of blackcurrants if you do .let us know how you get on ,oh and if you prune take cuttings
cheerio steve

Fortyfoot

ok_go wrote: »

Hi,

I have some currant bushes on my inherrited allotment that don't look if they have been pruned for a while. I don't know what type they are, red, black or both. My reseach suggests that you prune them both differenty (i.e. different years growth is pruned )

Should I wait till they fruit next year (hopefully) and prune next autumn or shoud I go ahead and prune harshly now??

Regards

Go

For this year only I suggest you take out 1/3 of the stems/branches as close to the ground as possible and try and open up the bushes and then reduce the remaining stems/branches by about 1/3.

Fortyfoot

avinabacca

Just butting in here.......

I've just picked up a couple of redcurrant bushes, reduced to a pound each - thought I'd give them a go, not a lot lost if it doesn't work out. They seem to be a clump of roots and soil wrapped in plastic at the bottom, and about four inches of oldish-looking, woody growth at the top.

If I get these in the ground this week - I'm told I need to bury them pretty much all the way into the soil, as the new growth'll spring from the part underground - is it the case that I'll see new canes growing next year, but no real fruiting until these canes have achieved some maturity the year after?

If anyone can help here - in any way connected really, as the instructions on the packaging aren't actually in English - I'd be super-grateful.......

Primrose

If you wait until all the leaves have dropped off, you'll find that blackcurrant bushes will develop little stumpy green buds on the bare stems where next year's growth will be. Redcurrant stems will be very smooth and plain. If the bushes are very unwieldy, I suggest a very light pruning of them. Next year when they fruit you'll know better which is which. A good dressing of well rotted manure around the roots will also help increase yield next year.

rubiales

Don't know if it's just me but I have both red and blackurrant bushes and noticed that when I pruned the blackcurrants, there was a noticeable 'ribena' smell, but not with the redcurrants. Maybe that would help you identify which is which?

evilgoose

I've got a couple of blackcurrent plants in the garden, they were there when I bought the house, which had been empty for over a year. I had a couple of pounds of fruit of them. I gave them a light prune back at the end of the summer. as said above they've got the remnants of leaves and big green buds on them. Good tip - I'll have to give them a good feed.

Gebo26

I would check out the big green buds in case it's a sign of big bud mite, which you don't want.

More information here:- http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0107/bigbud.asp