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  • From: Clifford Cain <cc_syorks@yahoo.co.uk>
  • To: nafex <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Pruning a Currant bush
  • Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:48:47 +0100 (BST)

Hello John
The advice is as practised here in the UK, so seasonal allowances may be necessary.
Blackcurrants fruit on the previous years wood (though they do fruit on older wood for a few years then decline) so the system of pruning is a renewal system. In the UK we prune in the autumn but I guess this could be delayed and done before the plants come into bud in the spring. The method involves removing one third of the older wood down to the ground. In removing the old wood, you inevitablly remove new wood, but it is a question of balance. If the amount of new wood on a branch exceeds the old wood, the leave it be. Conversely if new growth is weak, then remove it – so long as you do not remove more than one third of the bush. In terms of shape. You want to be looking for an open centred bush.  Commercially, one of the practices they employ is to plant three rows and cut them down in alternate years.  Reduces the labour input which makes up for the loss in yield.

Redcurrant bushes are pruned in a similar manner to gooseberry bushes. The aim is for the red currant or gooseberry to be on a central leg, which has 4 -6 inches of clear stem. Why – to aid air movement around the bush. (At RHS Garden Harlow Carr there where 4 examples of redcurrant bushes grown as stool bushes and they fruited fine – just a question of air movement around and through the whole bush). Again you are looking for a goblet shape as the finished article. The new seasons growth is pruned by half to an inward facing bud (as they tend to have a weeping habit, trying to keep them upright). The usual applies - dead diseased crossing branches are removed.
A couple of web links...
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0600/cane_bush.asp
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/todo_now/archive/nov/fruit_gard_now.php
Regards




Clifford Cain
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, UK


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  • [NAFEX] Pruning a Currant bush, Clifford Cain, 07/25/2007

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