Redcurrant Cuttings

On January 3rd of this year I took a couple of redcurrant cuttings while I was pruning the existing one.  For some reason I doubted that they would actually work.  Maybe it's because I'd never tried it before or maybe I think the wood looks too hard to make little tiny roots.  I though that maybe they would get blown over or dried out but much to my amazement they are now both happily growing away, showing all the promise of turning into a mature bush in years to come. 

Taking a cutting from a redcurrant bush is basically the same as for a blackcurrant but with three important differences.  1) Do not cut anything off the top of the cutting.  Leave all the little buds intact there.
2) Remove the buds on the bottom of the cutting.  You do this by simply rubbing the bud off.  I have read conflicting accounts on how many to take off, but the idea is that once the cutting is in the ground there should be at least 15cm between the ground and the next bud.  Some books have recomended taking more off, but to be honest I think this kind of thing is not an exact science.

For some reason I didn't take a picture of the cutting when I put it into the pot but but I'm sure you can imagine what it looked like.  Here is the best cutting of the two as it is today, four months later. I think that the spring in general seems to be a little bit behind last year's one so it may get to this stage a little earlier in better years.  There are still more buds to open up and I'm keeping an eye on them closely, making sure they are alright.  You can just barely see that this bud is starting to grow.  The little green bit of life is squeezing out slowly from it's protective covering.   A bud further up the stem has already turned into a fully fledged branch although though it is still green and tender.

I learnt two valuable lessons during this first  experiment with redcurrant cuttings.  The first one is to be patient.  I found a redcurrant branch that had been pruned off in January that I had obviously just tossed in the grass.  It was in late March when I cutting the grass that I notice a little branch with leaves on it tucked away in the damp longish grass.  Even though it was not in soil and obviously had no roots it had in fact grown new leaves.  So I knew not to disturb the one guy in the pot that was already growing leaves.  In case I had been having any thoughts of transplanting it already I was reminded that all may not be what it seems.  I will not be transplanting this little bush until next Autumn when it is absolutely clear that it has a good strong set of roots.  The second lesson that I learnt was....em...patience.  One of the cuttings that I took had not grown any leaves by mid April.  I had moved it into the dead zone where all pots are eventually emptied in order to be re-used again.  But suddenly I noticed that there were little leaves growing and that I was too quick to give up.  This guy is certainly not the recommended shape for a cutting but I just  put it in anyway as an experiment.  You can see that it is way behind the other cutting but I'm sure it will all even up eventually.  Overall  the most important thing with cuttings is to just leave them alone for at least 6 months and just wait and see what happens.  Make sure they don't dry out  and don't transplant them prematurely.

We now have three redcurrant bushes and I don't see why I won't be taking more cutting next year.  It's fascinating to watch them come to life and to slowly grow and take shape.  Even if I never got fruit off them I would still enjoy it.  We like to give away plants when we can so I always try to have a few spare ones if a friend happens to say they are interested in growing something new.

The blackcurrant cutting is also a success and so I'll be trying it on some of our new fruit varieties in autumn.  There will be lots of plants given as Christmas presents this year :)

Comments

[Steph]

Hiya, I loved that entry. I found you from beansprouts (she's also my sister) and it made me think of something she told me about taking cuttings. She said to choose an adolescent stem. By that she meant that adolescents are full of hormones, and are growing all over the shop. If I cut the finger off my 14 year old cousin and planted it, I bet it'd grow. Babies and toddlers are a bit weak and tender so don't take cuttings of tiny shoots, and 20's and 30 yr olds are putting their energy into having sex (flowers)and babies (fruit) so don't cut them. Also, older people (no offence) are more dormant in their growth hormones, so don't take as a cutting an old stem. How this all applies to specific plants varies a lot, but I hope you get the gist.