Question about raspberries and blackcurrants in January

[ChocClare]

Hello chaps - just waded out into the vegetable garden for the first time since about August. Pony and chickens have munched on everything, so I'm just clearing the remaining debris. We've had no frost, and the blackcurrants and raspberries are budding like mad things.

My question is: is it too late to lop a few branches off and stick 'em in the (still very wet but no longer flooded) ground? I need to prune them anyway, but I don't especially want a load of dead sticks in the ground later in the year if it's too late/early for them to root.

Thank you

[sugar]

I don't have experience with raspberries. But blackcurrants root really easily, it should not pose a problem. I pruned mine last year in january and recuperated cuttings in March from the compost pile ..

[Aberdeenplotter]

I was working among my currant bushes the other day and took a few cuttings and bunged them in the ground. My ground is quite heavy and my cuttings seem to take hold without any problems

[FB.]

I once trialled taking cuttings from currants and gooseberries at various times in autumn (when the leaves are yellow and falling), in winter (when the plants are bare) and in spring (when the buds were beginning to open).

The best rooting and best plant growth in the first season was from cuttings taken in autumn.
Cuttings taken later did mostly root, but the plants were only about half as well-grown by the end of the season.
Better propagation from autumn cuttings was no doubt due to the amount of time to lay down roots; root growth of most plants will continue all winter when the soil temperature is above about five degrees Celsius.