To Prune or Not to Prune my Blackcurrant

[Muriel]

I brought my blackcurrant last year,however i don't know how old it is.So I'm unsure as to whether or not I should prune it this year,or should i wait until next year

[Lesley Jay]

Start pruning 2 years after planting to remove weak branches. Then from 3 to 4 years remove some old wood each year. Cut out about 1/4 of the fruited branches to make room for new shoots. Don't keep wood which is older than 4 years.

[Muriel]

not to prune

I would like to say thankyou for the advice.I'm glad I asked the question now,otherwise I would have gone ahead and pruned it.I'm glad I didn't.

[BUFFS]

just cut out the older dark wood that stops producing after a few years, the lighter coloured wood is always the younger. I planted some of mine where my chooks used to spend their days lying in the occasional sun and they grew the other year to nearly 9ft, that's the canes , not the chooks, I trimmed them low as it was awkward trying to pick them, this year they have gone to around 7ft, so getting more manageable, I think I will give them handfuls of chicken manure pellets in the spring and see what happens with their height, the original 2 stems came as a pound shop buy, so I think I have had my money's worth....

[happyhumph]

Interesting thing about blackcurrants is they're about the only fruit bush that can cope with fresh chicken poo - to strong for everything else.

[Alison]

just cut out the older dark wood that stops producing after a few years, the lighter coloured wood is always the younger. I planted some of mine where my chooks used to spend their days lying in the occasional sun and they grew the other year to nearly 9ft, that's the canes , not the chooks, I trimmed them low as it was awkward trying to pick them, this year they have gone to around 7ft, so getting more manageable, I think I will give them handfuls of chicken manure pellets in the spring and see what happens with their height, the original 2 stems came as a pound shop buy, so I think I have had my money's worth....

The OP was 2006 so theirs may well now be a similar size

[vixylix]

aaw Buffs... 10 years too late!!

[BUFFS]

aaw Buffs... 10 years too late!!

I never thought to check the date....I will now...

[scarey55]

I never thought to check the date....I will now...

Glad you didn't Buffs, I missed it the first time around but I have been thinking about pruning my blackcurrant bush so this is particularly helpful (and timely)

[BUFFS]

I am still trying to figure out how a 2006 item came up on my fruit page, that's even slower than me and snails leave scorch marks as they pass me...

[MarkPelican]

Wouldn't it be an idea for the "system" to delete threads that haven't had a response for a number of years. Information does go out of date eventually.

[veggiechicken]

How does "How to prune your blackcurrant" go out of date?

[happyhumph]

I've been re-educating someone who used to cut the fruiting stems each year to make it easy to pick the fruit (his father had always done that) & was wondering why his blackcurrant bush never got very big......

[Jay-ell]

Well it was useful for me for this thread to pop up as I was wondering about my bushes so thanks Buffs.

[vixylix]

I think its great to revive an old thread... and even if something had changed, I'm sure it would rapidly be corrected