Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi want to add some blackcurrants to my fruit beds, what varieties do you suggest and how to plant/grow/site.
Thank you x

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When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. ~Author Unknown

My favourite, for size of fruit and for flavour, is Ben Sarek. There are lots of Bens - Ben Conan is another. I've never given them any particular special treatment - bang em in and give them some manure if you can get it. If you get one plant, they come easily from cuttings.

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Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated September 1st - Great Givendale - and some Sungold offspring

www.henheaven.blogspot.com - August 21st - Digging!

Thank you. Miffyx

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When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. ~Author Unknown

Ben Sarek for me as well. Fantastic crops of good sized fruit. Don't plant them too shallow. If anything put them a bit deeper than you think they should go, ie. a couple of inches deeper than the old soil line. They do like plenty of organic matter around them so bung plenty of well rotted muck in the hole.

I grow both Ben Sarek and Ben Connan. Last year I planted Ebony, and from my first few berries, I think that it is better than the other two as it is not so bitter.

Hi Miffy

Ben Sarek and Ben Connan are both very good varieties - they are tried and tested and have been around for a while now. Big Ben however is a new variety and has superior flavour. The fruits are very large and sweet and can be eaten fresh. Its also resistant to mildew. I haven't tasted Ebony but I understand that it is also sweet.

As Solway Cropper says, plant them a bit deeper than the old soil line - on shallow soils it is best to plant at an angle of 45 degrees. Also, immediately after planting prune back to within two buds or 1 inch of ground level. This might seem like a shame but you need to do this in order to get a good framework.

I have four different types of blackcurrant but I think it was Ben Sarek that really performed for me.
So much so that it's the only one I've taken cuttings from!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable(Snadge)

By the time you've got the hoe from the shed at the end of the garden, you could have hand weeded the area! (Geoff Hamiltom-ish)

I have Ben Lomond and Ben Connan growing, as they where the only ones my local garden centre stocked. Both have quite a sharp flavour.

I have been looking for Big Ben as I understand they are very large and sweet to taste?

Thank you for all your advice will let you know what i decide to get and how i get on.

__________________
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. ~Author Unknown