Blackcurrant growing advice please

[Mitzi]

I've just bought three scrawny little blackcurrant plants from the pound shop. I'd like to do my best for them in the hope they will return the favour in future. What sort of conditions do they like? Sun/shade/well drained/moist/acid/alkaline? Should I just dig a hole and backfill it with compost? Or do they need anything else e.g. BFB? Do you prune them and, if so, when?

I doubt they will fruit this year (no sign of flowers) so I'd rather just build them up for next year.

[I've searched previous blackcurrant threads but they mostly seem to be about moving established plants, cuttings, or what to do with the fruits.]

Any & all advice appreciated. Assume I know nothing about growing fruit bushes.

[Eric44]

Hi Mitzi, you got a bargain - cost me £2 in B&Q! Plant them deep in any medium. My bushes are in heavy clay and they are quite happy. Pick off any flowers that may form this year and just let the bush develop. You can harvest the fruit next year. In the 3rd year you will notice that the oldest wood will be a greyish brown as apposed to a much reddish brown f the newer wood. Cut out all the three year old wood and new growth will replace it. Cut out the three year old wood every year. Good luck.

[nickdub]

Full sun to partial shade - rich deep soil, acid OK - top dress with stable manure after planting if you can - like plenty of water when growing, but won't do well in ground which water logs in the Winter.

[veggiechicken]

Growing Blackcurrants | How To Grow | Grow Your Own

[Mitzi]

I can get some manure but it would be fresh, not well-rotted, so probably too hot. I don't have a big enough garden to have a big pile of horse manure sitting around rotting.

Would they be OK in MFBs at least for the time being or should I get them in the ground straight away?

[Mitzi]

Growing Blackcurrants | How To Grow | Grow Your Own

VC that's great, thank you!

[veggiechicken]

Glad it helped, Mitzi.
There are lots of Growing Guides - link at the top of the Forum page How To Grow Vegetables & Fruit | Growing Guides & Tips | Grow Your Own Magazine but I don't think many people realise they're there!

[nickdub]

I can get some manure but it would be fresh, not well-rotted, so probably too hot. I don't have a big enough garden to have a big pile of horse manure sitting around rotting.

Would they be OK in MFBs at least for the time being or should I get them in the ground straight away?

I'd give 'em a soak in a bucket of water for a few hours, then get them in the ground, as long as have somewhere suitable.

Fresh manure will be fine as long as a) its used as a top-dressing and b) not in contact with the young shoots etc ie just used as a mulch.

[Jimny14]

So basically follow the advice on the link. Our bush is in partial shade on acidic clay soil on the top side of a frost pocket (but it doesn't seem to bother it too much) in dry spells (they do occasionally happen) I water it well and that's about it apart from pruning out anything dead, broken, crossing or particularly old. Winter before last when I was pruning I decided to see if I could a cutting to root. So I cut up some of my pruning to maybe 15" lengths and shoved em in the ground. All six have rooted and come back all guns blazing. In my opinion they're a great and easy fruit to grow. If it were me I'd improve the ground any way you like really to give em a good start, plant them out, keep them well watered and don't let them set fruit this year. If I was feeling particularly careful I might take off some off the flowers next year just to let em have a good go at growing a bit more then that's it. Some people say their black currants are plagued by birds, I find my black and white currants are fine but the red currants are basically all for the birds and I'm fine with that.

[veggiechicken]

I put all prunings in a bucket of water and ignore them for a few months. Blackcurrants and jostaberries root so easily. Since most of the cuttings are last year's new wood, they even fruit in the bucket if I forget about them long enough.
Same here about the birds - redcurrants go first, then white, but black are ignored.

[Derbydal]

I put all prunings in a bucket of water and ignore them for a few months. Blackcurrants and jostaberries root so easily. Since most of the cuttings are last year's new wood, they even fruit in the bucket if I forget about them long enough.
Same here about the birds - redcurrants go first, then white, but black are ignored.

VC. I find Gooseberries the same !when I harvest them I cut the branches off and take the fruit off and any branches that have a good shape get shoved into a bucket of compost and put out of the way and left to get on with it with the odd bit of watering ! easey peasey. atb Dal.

[veggiechicken]

I don't do much with gooseberries as I don't like the prickles.
The bucket of water has all sort of offcuts shoved in it. Its easy to monitor the roots just by hoicking them out of the water. Cheaper than using compost too.

[muck lover]

Agree with all of above. You can plant them a bit deeper than the old soil line and they should grow easily. They love a good nutritious mulch.
The fruit are supposed to be better antioxidants than blueberries!
Yields are great and as above you won’t be fighting the birds. Plus no thorns!
What’s not to like!
They don’t get much space on the likes of YouTube because they aren’t grown much in USA. In fact they were banned. They were supposed to transmit some disease to trees I think.
Anyway for an Easy to grow superfood they can hardly be beaten.

[Kirk]

Fairly robust plants. Dig a hole mix extracted soil with a bit of compost and I suggest a bit of fertiliser and plant blackcurrant in hole, then fill, water.

Bury them a bit deeper and water. If the soil is reasonable they will do OK. A mulch over will help retain moisture.

They fruit on old wood, so plan any pruning accordingly, but let them get to a reasonable size first.

As VC say they grow pretty easily from a bit of a pruned branch on a jar of water. Where I am they have sort of "help yourself raised beds" so I got myself a few cutting of their balckcurrants. I now have 5 blackcurrants.

[Scarlet]

What’s not to like! .

My one bug bear....they are so time consuming to top and tail!

...but blackcurrant jam is delicious!