Pruing Blackcurrants And Gooseberries

[Storm]

We have got some mature blackcurrant and gooseberry plants on our allotment. The plot had been abandoned for many years and the plants had quite a lot of old growth on them when we took it on.

I have attached some (not very good) pictures - the first is the blackcurrant and the second the gooseberry.

My question is, do I prune out all of the thick old growth - visible in the pictures from both lots of plants and if so, is January a good time to do it?

The blackcurrant bush already has buds on it, on the old growth and the new from last year that (hopefully) will give us a good crop this year!

Any help appreciated.

Cheers!

[SarzWix]

Not sure about gooseberries, but I'm pretty sure that blackcurrants fruit on 1 year old wood. So the branches and sideshoots which grew last year will have fruit on them this year. So, if you take out the oldest, thickest branches out, and any which look dead or diseased, you shouldn't go too far wrong. Try not to take off more than a third of the total branches, unless you really have to, then it's not too much of a shock.

[Duronal]

i keep reading that you ought to try and prune the bushes into a goblet shape to encourage ait flow and prevent disease. From the look of yours i'd chop out the middle trim out any overlapping branches and snick the tops of the branches to an outward facing bud if you want to encourage the shape.

More advice can be found here
Blackcurrant care, cultivation and planting, blackcurrants how to grow - page 2

[Lavenderblue]

thanks for the replies and for the link.

the bushes were in a terrible state when we took them on and we pruned them back a bit and left them to it for last year.

cheers.

Simon (accidentally logged in as my partner Lavenderblue!!!)

[Flummery]

I usually give my blackcurrants a trim when I harvest them. Cut back the fruiting branches (you can then take the fruit off in comfort!) gooseberries - well there's some sort of formula but I haven't ever pruned mine except to remove stuff that's congested. I tend to do that at the end of the season too - with thick gloves on - they bite back!

[Adrastea]

I would take out the oldest wood, any congested/diseased branches (about a third as mentioned before) and give a good feed in spring, but perhaps see it as a three year pruning plan! So the year after I'd remove more of the oldest wood and some of the fruited wood so that by year three I would just be cutting out the fruited branches. If it's kept up to it can actually keep the bush quite compact. The bush looks to have quite a bit of young wood on it so I think it should still be productive.

I grow my gooseberries as a standard. I shorten the side shoots to about 2" in winter. I make sure to keep the centre of the bush open to improve air flow by trimming off any inward growing shoots. Maybe you could saw out that big branch in the middle! If you've time you can also shorten the shoots of this year's growth in the summer to encourage fruiting for next year. Hope that helps and keep an eye out for goosebery sawfly (look like caterpillars) they can strip a plant in a day or two.

[Storm]

Thanks for the advice. the bushes look a good deal better now and with far fewer random branches spurting out all over the place!

I have covered the ground around them with weedtex fabric to keep the weeds at bay so hopefully we will have a good crop this year. we didn't do too well with them last year. the birds seemed to enjoy most of the fruit that did form

[Mcbee]

Try this link

Chris Bowers & Sons - Cultivation Guide - Gooseberries

[Storm]

Try this link

Chris Bowers & Sons - Cultivation Guide - Gooseberries

Very useful. thanks!!