Fruit harvest

[burnie]

Had the last of this years black currents, any tips on pruning for young shrubs?

[nickdub]

Depends on how well they are growing - a photo would help to decide it.

Generally as blackcurrants fruit next year will be mostly on growth they make this year, any old shoots can be cut out. As yours are new, this doesn't apply - so aim to keep the centers open to let in light and air, and cut out any weak or unhealthy looking shoots, then have another look and if the bush still looks crowded, take out one or two more shoots, cut at ground level.

[burnie]

I have grown pretty much every thing over the years, but never blackcurrant and they are one of my favourites for juice and jam, autumn prune?

[nickdub]

If you do decide to prune, then best after the leaves have fallen. If you want to increase them, put cuttings of newish wood about 9 inches long from the prunings in a slit trench in a damp, shady place eg behind the shed. Should root up after 9 months, similar for gooseberries. Wellington XXX is my favourite for taste - I'm highly disorganised when it comes to netting though, so the birds get most of them :-)

[burnie]

Just picked my first crop of Cambridge Favourite, took a load of leaf and stems off to let the light in.

[burnie]

I have a rather sick looking Howgate Wonder apple tree, a great cooker/eater, that is providing great fruit despite having a bad dose of canker. I always remove a few early fruits just to take the load off the tree, so too early for blackberries up here, but a plain apple crumble will be just fine.

[burnie]

Nice basket of Strawberries this morning, getting to the end of the Cambridge favourites now, getting a few of those lumpy looking ones we used to call "jam strawbs". The Mara Des Bois are also coming to their end too, I've let a few runners go to get a few new plants for next year, not too many as it's their first year. I think the growing under glass experiment was good, not a massive crop, but nice tasty and quite early fruit, so will be repeated.

[BUFFS]

I have never pruned my blackcurrants after OH chopped the lot down to three foot after they grew to nine foot in the area previously used as a chickens outside area. They are now back to just over eight foot tall, which makes picking easy with most of the fruit at just below head height, and this year has been a bumper crop of blackcurrants, goosegogs, and still picking bowls full of raspberries, so all the rain does some good, but some sunshine would be welcome..