Pots of Fruit

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 :)

Redcurrant Pruning - Year one and Two

In general I find pruning different bushes confusing and it seems to take ages of comparing photos and diagrams to decide which branches to cut.  But I've figured out the red currant for now so here goes.

I bought this bush in mid 2006 and here it is the following spring(2007) just as it started to bud.  When I got the bush the two long(main) branches you can see above were longer.  The norm might be to get one with three or four main branches.  Anyway, what I should have done was prune it immediately as this encourages growth.  I didn't and the thing did not grow at all.  There were a few measly leaves on it all through the year and that was it.  So in its second winter I pruned it so that it looked like it does in the picture on the left.  I cut the two branches by one half of their length.

The difference this made was incredible!  This is it (right)  in May of 2007 with loads of new shoots and leaves.  If it hadn't suffered from wind damage it would have gotton a lot bigger.   So pruning actually does promote more vigorous growth on redcurrants anyway.

Here is the same bush about 8 months later in January 2008

(You can see that the some of the branches are all wiggly on this bush because it suffered from wind damage when this years shoots were still very young.  They almost snapped at the join and I staked them upright again hoping they would survive.  Most of them did but the had already gone a bit funny as they weren't sure which way they were supposed to be growing.)

I have read that you should mainly prune red currant bushes in late winter.  If you have a problem with birds eating the young buds then hold off for as long as possible so as to decide which branches to take off etc.  I suppose if all the buds have been eaten off you should just take this one out, giving more space to other branches.

PRUNING THIS BUSH....

The first branch to go was the right most branch you can see above...the large one that starts at the bottom of the plant.  All branches that are within about 10cms of the ground should be removed so as to encourage a good framework.  Each type of fruit bush seems to need a different shape in order to help the fruit flourish.

At the start of the life of the bush you want to start choosing upright branches to keep.  You want four good strong ones to start things off.  There are two obvious contenders here and so I thought about those first.  You chop half of your chosen branch off.  You can see the before and after shots for the middle branch above.  Remember to cut a slightly slanting cut so as to prevent a build up of water on top of the branch.

I then did the same with the three other branches than looked sort of like main upright stems.  Compare this to the bush before I pruned it.....You will notice that there are two side ways branches unaccounted for.  Well, if you look closely you will see two very short "spurs" on the left most branch nearly half way up.  These were pruned differently because they were off shoots of my chosen main stem.  Any side shoots should be cut back so that there is only one bud left on them.  These will be the fruiting spurs for this spring.  I have only two :(

This is not unusual and it will be next year before the fruit is set up for fruiting.  There is now a good frame work on the plant which you develop from year to year, basically repeating the same process.

I hope this is helpful...it may all sound confusing but I have found that if you keep comparing the before and after photos and just start having a go that you will get the hang of it.

Remember to stake any new growth so as to protect against the strong winds.  Putting your pot in a sheltered position would help.  One of the advantages of keeping fruit in pots is that you can move them around depending on the seasonal requirements.

Here are a couple of photos from the book that I have been consulting about this.  They might help.

Good luck!

Redcurrants - Year 1, Spring/Summer

Redcurrants are not as sweet as other soft fruits but they still have plenty of uses. They can be added to other fruit to make a lovely juice or fruit salad and they can also be used in tarts and jams.  They have a high pectin content and so make a good addition to other jams as the pectin helps them to set.

They can be grown well in containers and if you have more than one you can gradually move them into the sun so as to obtain a long succession of fruit over the season.  They will grow in partial shade but will be sweeter if they ripen in full sun. 

Redcurrants are usually bought as one year old plants that will fruit in the second year after planting as they need to build up a suitable framework upon which the fruit will grow.  The fruits grow at the base of one year old laterals.

PLANTING

Late autumn would be the best time to plant a redcurrant but it can be done any time of year really. Prepare a large pot with a humus rich soil and place the redcurrant in so as it is slightly deeper than in originally was in its old pot.  At the moment our one is in an 20cm (8in) pot but I may put it into a bigger one next autumn.

The redcurrant we bought was a bit of a funny shape but I'm sure it will be fine.  Here is is shortly after it's first pruning.

THE PRUNING on a redcurrant seems to be very important in order to promote good fruiting.  Ideally, if you buy your plant before spring then you should prune it when you plant it up.  I didn't do this and the redcurrant literally did not grow at all.  When I pruned it the following year it suddenly transformed into a hugely vigorous plant.

For advice on pruning the redcurrant have a look at this post.

Here she is a month later with plenty of new growth.  I have deliberately allowed another plant to cover the base of the plant as the roots of a redcurrant don't like getting too hot and a little shade might prevent this.

PROTECTION FROM THE WIND...

Here she is again, about 3 weeks later having suffered some wind damage.   So far this year there has been about 1.5 feet of new growth and this was enough for the wind to catch hold of!

You can just about see that a couple of branches that are horizontal rather than pointing upwards as they should be.  All the branches were like this when I came out one morning after a couple of days of high winds. 

After this near disaster I read that the new shoots should be staked for a while as the junction between the main stem and the new growth is quite weak at the start.  I managed to pull all the stems back up and stake them without much long lasting damage, however one shoot came off completely :(

So I put one stake into the pot and loosely tied most of the shoots to this. 

My next post on redcurrants will be about the autumn pruning.  In the mean time I might try making some redcurrant leaf tea...