Moving Fruit Plants

[johninblackpool]

Hi folks

Its been a while but was wondering is it too late to move Blackcurrant and Gooseberry bushes
They are about 3 years old and were in their current position when i first got my allotment 18 months ago
Their current position is in shade for most of the day against a north facing low fence so would like to move them to a south facing fence

Any Info would be great

[bazzaboy]

hmmmm.... always worries me when no one immediate answers a question.... I hope there's some experts about to appear.... I am not such but I have fruit bushes so am thinking simply "What would I do?"

In my head there's both pluses and minuses to what you're proposing.... Overall I think you'll probably be OK if you can do it soon and they should be better off for a bit of sun (neither need baking sun) but some other points to consider are:
* essential to move whilst dormant but both these plants start, and crop, relatively early in the season so they need to be re-settled soon (I think the truth is probably would have been better done earlier than now....)
* the ground round here is frozen at the moment so if you're the same you'll need to wait until it's workable.
* gooseberries have fairly shallow roots that won't appreciate dry or baking conditions so you'll need to ensure they are well situated; blackcurrants are deeper but both like quite a rich damp situation.
* if 3 years old you'll probably have some trouble getting them out without snapping roots etc so although I'm sure you'll move the biggest earthball you can, feed and settle/water etc they will be "disturbed"!
* have you pruned them end of last season...? the pluses on some pruning now will be less demand on the roots, the minus that the bush has to adjust to two differences....!

They are both pretty tough customers and will certainly make an effort to go along with your plan! I think if it was me and I wanted to try it I would do it..... And if it doesn't work, well it's not the end of the world (I have to say that about most of my gardening exploits...)

An alternative might be that you get new bushes for the new situation (coz still available just now), let the older shaded ones do their best this year and possibly next while the new ones establishing and then make a decision about their future.... On a longer term strategy both are fairly easy to propagate by cuttings.

Hope that's some help to be pondering meantime....

[veggiechicken]

If it was me, I'd go ahead and move them, as soon as the ground is workable. Mine still look dormant.
I garden when the fancy takes me, not when the books say I should - but that's me and I'm not a brilliant gardener!
Of course, you could hedge your bets by moving half of them now, and leaving the others where they are for the remainder of the year. Then move those in the Autumn!

[FB.]

It is still OK to move them - they can be moved at any time before the buds start to grow. At the moment the buds are probably just swelling up.

Just be sympathetic to them; make sure their damaged roots don't go short of water during the 2012 growing season.

I had some various bare-root fruit trees/bushes arrive a few weeks ago but only just about managed to get them - plus some others which I was moving - "heeled-in" (basically piled loose soil over their roots) before the world froze.
I've never in all my life known such a prolonged and cold spell in this area at this time of year.
We're still deep frozen, having been down to about -15'C last night, still being about -5'C at lunchtime today and well below -10'C again when I looked about an hour ago (and the mercury is still dropping!).

I expect that it will be several more days before the ground has thawed, so my bare-root fruit plants will just have to wait another week before they get into their final planting position.

[johninblackpool]

Thanks for the replies
Up to now i have had 2 seasons from them and from 3 Gooseberry bushes i have had 6 gooseberries and as for the 3 currents only just enough for me and my wife to have them with a bit of cream half a searving each so really the bushes are struggling where they are and the space could be better used
Here in blackpool apart from a little groung frost the ground is ok....a little cold but not totally frozen... thats the joy of living by the coast up here.. I will probably give it a try i have nothing to lose
Cheers

[WendyC]

I'm about to move plot and will be moving fruit with me. It sounds like in their present position are not cropping well so what have you got to lose? Hope the soil defrosts soon.

[FB.]

john

If your plants aren't growing or fruiting, it may be that your coastal location has infertile sandy soil (sandy/gravelly soils tend to easily leach-out nutrients when it rains as there's not much organic matter to bind the nutrients into the soil). You may have enough rainfall to keep them alive but not enough nutrients in sandy soil to give the nutrients they need to grow.

Try giving them a good thick mulch of manure to add nutrients to the soil. At planting time you might want to dig-in some manure/compost too, to add nutrients to the soil.
This digging-in manure to the soil is not usually practical (nor desirable) for fruit TREES but is manageable for fruit bushes.

[johninblackpool]

Cheers Lads & Lasses

Will Definately be moving them and will add extra compost in the hole before i put bush in and backfill

Cheers