How much water for gooseberries and blackcurrents ?

[Losos]

Greetings everyone

Yes I have books that tell me when to water but mostly leave out the amount. Some say a watering can per day, lots say keep the soil moist.

I am trying to make a simple watering system from my 300 litre water butt, need to know in litres how much per day.

Any idea welcome, thanks

[veggiechicken]

Doesn't it depend on how hot it is?
I don't water fruit bushes except when they're newly planted.

[devonuk]

Are they in the ground? Unless they are in pots I wouldn't water daily and I wouldn't try to maintain constantly moist soil. Say 10 litres per plant once a week in dry spells in their first year?

[nickdub]

Depends on the time of year and the weather. Most of the benefit of watering for established plants is when the flowers have set and they have small fruit. If the ground is dry at this time, then 5 L of water per bush every 3 days, would be a rough estimate.

[Losos]

Thanks guys for responses, has given me something to think about

[Losos]

Doesn't it depend on how hot it is?
I don't water fruit bushes except when they're newly planted.

Haha, yes I suppose you are right. We've had some hot weather and these bushes were all in pots for two years up to March. Once we'd cleared a space OH wanted to get them in the ground and for once I agreed with her

If you don't water your established bushes do you still get decent size fruit :?: Do you have plenty of rainfall. We are in the second driest county in UK (Suffolk)

[Losos]

Are they in the ground? Unless they are in pots I wouldn't water daily and I wouldn't try to maintain constantly moist soil. Say 10 litres per plant once a week in dry spells in their first year?

Yes they are in the ground now (They were in pots last year) I was thinking 10 litres every two days but think I'll cut that back, we are getting low on our rainwater anyway haha have had no rain for almost a month now.

[Losos]

Depends on the time of year and the weather. Most of the benefit of watering for established plants is when the flowers have set and they have small fruit. If the ground is dry at this time, then 5 L of water per bush every 3 days, would be a rough estimate.

Yes the gooseberry flowers all set and quite lot of small fruit on the bush now.

From the replies of all above it seems I was aiming for too much water

I have run a pipe from the 300 litre water butt so if I fill a 5 litre watering can and go round every 3 to 4 days then I should be OK.

I was getting a tad worried because when we took them out of the pots and planted in the ground we didn't fully prepare the ground with compost etc. so the soil is not perfect for fruit bushes.

But I am adding a few spades of compost from time to time, and now I feel I don't need to water as much as I thought I would have too ('cos of the poor soil !)

[veggiechicken]

We haven't had rain for weeks either and some of the waterbutts are empty.
Most of the fruit bushes are shaded for part of the day (trees) and I lose a lot to the birds & chickens but there's always more than I need.

[nickdub]

Haha, yes I suppose you are right. We've had some hot weather and these bushes were all in pots for two years up to March. Once we'd cleared a space OH wanted to get them in the ground and for once I agreed with her

If you don't water your established bushes do you still get decent size fruit :?: Do you have plenty of rainfall. We are in the second driest county in UK (Suffolk)

Again a bit of "how long does the piece of string need to be ?" answer I'm afraid. Not all bushes, ground, situations or years are equal. An old established gooseberry bush with not a huge crop on it, in a slightly shaded place will hardly ever need much water - whereas a 2 year old blackcurrant carrying a big crop in full sun, in dry weather will need a lot of water.

Another factor to bear in mend is that some fruit like gooseberries, if they don't get enough water when the fruit are swelling - say a dry period of 2 weeks - will often then burst their fruit when it starts to ripen, as the skins will be insufficiently elastic to stretch if you do then get a lot of rain at that stage. Burst fruit is not a disaster, but it does have to be picked more or less immediately as it soon starts to go mouldy.

[Jungle Jane]

The base of some of my fruit trees/bushes are shaded too,if I do water the gooseberries they have 5litre or 8litres a time a good deep watering is better than little & often because they’re deep rooted & sometimes it can be bone dry 12” down. Ive watered mine once,if we have rain that’ll do,waters being pulled from all the land,it’s only about once a month I water them (during summer) & I don’t feed mine,I read ages ago to avoid sawfly neglect them so that’s what I do.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Doesn't it depend on how hot it is?
I don't water fruit bushes except when they're newly planted.

me Neither

[Losos]

Not all bushes, ground, situations or years are equal. An old established gooseberry bush with not a huge crop on it, in a slightly shaded place will hardly ever need much water - whereas a 2 year old blackcurrant carrying a big crop in full sun, in dry weather will need a lot of water.

Good point, my only gooseberry is 3 years old (2 years in a pot) no shade, lots of berries now.
Have 4 blackcurrent 3 years old (also 2 years in a pot) not a big crop (Hoping for more next year)

Just putting the finishing touches to the 'system' and for starters think it will be 2 litres per plant on Monday/Wednesday/Friday so total of 6 litres per plant per week.

See how that goes, and as you say "Adjust according to weather"

Thanks again everyone above for your thoughts.

[nickdub]

You're very welcome - blackcurrants, unlike gooseberries, will respond well to strong feeding, so if you can get some stable manure then that will promote growth which is needed for the best crops.

[ESBkevin]

My Bushes are in the ground and established. They have a mulch to conserve moisture and they are left to thier own devices with no watering. I tend to think if you mollycoddle plants they won't dive thier roots down like they should, established plants should be able to survive all but the worst drought conditions. Of course annual vegetables and flowers don't have the time to get thier roots down deep although mulch and leaving them to it can help. Pots/planters are thier own rule.