Blackcurrants in bud now,and only december

[lottie dolly]

and they still have a few leaves not yet droped of,
Have had a look in the archives,but no luck,
The way am thinking is,
A, surely the winter will kill them of,

B, if i were to rub of the buds,as you can do with potatoes that chit to early,are they likely to re-bud next year,in either case,

C,are they are dommed for next years fruit,
am sure others have got the same,the gooseberries are as they should be,
what do you fruit experts think or am i talking dribble,all comments welcome

[FB.]

The seasons were seriously messed-up in 2011.

Most plants are controlled by temperature change. When temperature falls for weeks on end, the plants prepare for winter. When temperatures rise they prepare for spring.
The drop in temperature from the hot springtime weather to the cool, dull summer made plants prepare for winter (the weather cooled so much from spring to summer that my MM111 fruit trees - a rootstock known to be hardy - panicked with the cool summer and dropped their leaves in August). But suddenly temperatures picked up again in the autumn and that triggers many plants to think it is spring.

A neighbour has some hyacinths in full bloom at the moment, as if it was spring!
We have some "winter rose" (Helleborus) which flowered a month ago. Our winter-flowering Jasmine (Jasuminum) has already finished flowering.
Our daffodil bulbs have broken the soil soil surface.

Things are seriously messed up.

It is unlikely that bud-rubbing will help (but it won't do much harm, so you could try). The plant will not generally be able to form any new fruit buds until late next summer (flower buds usually form July-September, to flower the following spring).
There's not much we can do about next year's crop (of flower displays), other than prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

[SarzWix]

My blackcurrants have buds swelling too. They're going to get a shock tonight cos it's freezing (literally) already!

[chris]

Same here. I'm going to give mine a hard prune, as they're seriosuly overgrown (taken on from the plot I took on). If that doesn't shock them more than the frost, then *shrug*

[lottie dolly]

thankyou for the repies peeps,i did think along your lines,as i have 3 plants i might give bud rubbing a go on a few stems of each,then mark which one i do,and well,wait and see,nothing ventured,nothing gained,if this silly season games continue,it shold give a little indication weather to leave alone,or de-bud lol,WELL we have to have something garden related to think about,twill soon be onion seed time lol,

[BarleySugar]

Mine are new plants from cutting last year,and I've been very pleased with how well they grew. The leaves have only just dropped, but the buds are looking quite swollen. I'm going to just leave mine, and see what happens.

[Ananke]

I have 6 cuttings from a neighbour's bush and the buds are swelling on that. I've never grown them so i'm not sure what to do.

[Aberdeenplotter]

have you done anything with the cuttings at all yet?

[Ananke]

Just pushed them into pots of compost. They have been in there for almost 3 weeks now.

[BarleySugar]

When I took my cuttings last year I just pushed them in deeply to a pot of used compost and left them outside, making sure they didn't dry out. They shot out in the spring, and when I checked the pot in May 5 out of 6 had rooted. Then I planted them, even deeper, in their final places. The idea of planting deep it to encourage shoots from underground to form the final bush. Mine have done 5-7 new stems now, which, weather permitting, should fruit in the coming year.

[lottie dolly]

today i rubbed buds of off and marked,3 stems on 3 plants,now we wait and see what happens next,anything is worth an experiment,must make a note now,

[Piggle]

Funnily enough mine are budding too but being the eternal optimisic I don't believe that we are going to get any frost in Warrington ! We've had none so far apart from a bit of a pathetic attempt at 1 degree about a month ago.

Watch it turn arctic now!

[starloc]

In Liverpool , a couple of my plum trees had very early plums this year , the leaves came off in august, and they flowered again in september ,
i now have 1 inch plums on my victoria plum tree , they stayed on the one branch after it flowered and i now have leaves as well

The autumn bliss raspberries are still producing about 20 every few days, there are loads of unripe ones , and they are still flowering here and there as well

[Piggle]

Funnily enough mine are budding too but being the eternal optimisic I don't believe that we are going to get any frost in Warrington ! We've had none so far apart from a bit of a pathetic attempt at 1 degree about a month ago.

Watch it turn arctic now!

Didn't it snow the next day ..... why do I say these things!

[starloc]

Over the winter, trees have been flowering at strange times, the plums i had in December about an inch long on a victoria had grown slowly till this week when i pulled them off the tree, as it was starting to flower again and they looked frost damaged.

in December all down a few roads in Liverpool flowering cherries on central reservations were flowering

last week i thought i saw blossom on some of the trees in Runcorn , i stopped to look on thursday and all the sloe trees are now flowering, patches of them in places here and there, i had a look at a big patch of about 200 foot of trees and every one is in full flower, and there were plenty of bees pollinating them

In the UK all my plum trees ( opel, blue-tit, victoria, czar, marjories seedling,golden gauge and some others) buds are swelling

A couple of wild cherry plums i know of are just starting to open there buds with flowers here and there

My peaches `red haven` pink buds just starting to open, Peregrine peach just starting to swell ,

the apricots, 3 trees , on each a few buds are starting to open, all buds swollen ready to open

my pears and apples all have big green buds on them

Everything is a bit earlier , but the rhubarb is only just starting to sprout a tiny bit , so its later than last year , but everything is more at the same time than usual, normally all the varietys are spread out