Pruning blackcurrants and gooseberries

[steff]

Hello,
I have some three year old blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes which have just finishing fruiting. do I need to prune them? If so when and how? Read up on them but seem to have conflicting advice! Can you help?
Thanks
Steff

[TonyF]

It's in this months GYO Mag that this is the time to prune them and to use some of the prunings as softwood cuttings - that's what I did last year and ended up with a dozen or more of each, baby plants.

[Hilary B]

No idea about gooseberries, but with blackcurrants, ONLY prune branches that have fruited. Branches that grew this year are where next year's crop will form. Some people prune blackcurrants right down alternate years (some bushes this year, some next) and find it works for them.
Blackcurrant prunings, just pushed into the ground, a fair proportion will root. I used prunings for peasticks one year, and 3 out of every 4 grew into bushes (and the others might have been put in upside down).

[Tam]

Prune your gooseberries each year or they get into a right mess. You want to keep the centre open, ideally on a leg as keeping the fruit bearing branches off the ground lessens the chances of American mildew. Cut out any crossing stems and shorten the new growth on the side shoots by about a half. Don't be afraid to be fairly brutal if you think it's needed. You can use some of your prunings for propagation of new plants and then you can replace old plants when you think the time is right. Gooseberries can go on for many years if pruned properly, but sometimes you feel it is time to replace an old one with a youngster.

As Hilary says, blackcurrants give the best yields on one year old wood. This is why it is best planting them deeply, with the growth point below the surface - this gives lots of new growth from ground level. Again you want to think of the shape of the plant, but I always remove as much of the fruiting wood as possible. I wait until the currants are almost all ripe (you always seem to get a small, unripe one at the end of the bunch
which I think is produced as a "spare" in case anything happens to the main crop) and remove the fruiting shoot before taking off the currants. Blackcurrants can go on for many years, but again are easily multiplies by cuttings.

[southlondongardener]

My black currant bush is new but one branch produced fruit - should I prune that branch to ground level ?

[Tam]

SLG If you planted your blackcurrant deeply, I should cut it to the ground, but if not I would prune it immediately above an outward facing shoot.

[Flummery]

My dad used to cut the fruiting shoots of his blackcurrant to bring them indoors and take the fruit off at his leisure. Turned out he was doing exactly the right thing!