Dividing a Red Currant

[Benacre]

I have just been given a Redcurrant bush and it looks as though I can divide it into three plants. It has not been pruned so there will be plenty of cuttings.

Is it ok to divide the plant and will the cuttings be strong enough to plant out in Autumn?

[pigletwillie]

Red currants, indeed all currants are propogated via cuttings and not by division.

The root ball may have several stems coming out of it but it is only one plant. Aim to cut out the old dead and diseased wood and then take a third of the new growth out by pruning. These can be used for your cuttings

[Alison]

Agree with what Piglet has said - they're pretty easy to grow from cuttings though and will establish fairly rapidly so you'll soon have more plants than you need.

[Snadger]

I think Redcurrants,Whitecurants and Gooseberries all grow on a single stem, in fact they can all be made into standards I believe?

Blackcurrants I think are the exception growing from multiple stems off one plant!

I would have thought that if your redcurrant had multiple stems coming from below ground it could be divided with a bit of root on each section instead of taking cuttings without any root?
If the branches all emanate from above ground then it will have to be cuttings, but if you take these now you will have no fruit as they fruit on old wood I think? I think pruning is best in September?

It's my first year of growing soft fruit for a while so maybe I've got it wrong though!

[nick the grief]

I wouldn't have thought that the root system would be able to support it if you tried to split it. Plus you run the risk of infection getting in. So it wouldn't be worth the hassle.

Take cuttings now & they should be OK by spring.

[Benacre]

Thanks will do that and take cuttings from the one parent plant.

[pigletwillie]

Are cuttings from one parent plants more likely to get an ASBO?