Prune a currant bush now?

**veggiechicken** · 04-06-2016, 11:26 AM

My best guess is that's the blackcurrant. I can't enlarge the photo to see the detail.
Do the leaves smell of blackcurrants when you rub them?
I'm no expert on pruning soft fruit but I wouldn't cut anything off that bush until you know what it is and its fruited.

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**cheops** · 04-06-2016, 11:35 AM

Veggie, I've just checked and I don't think it is the black currant as the leaves have no smell and another of the bushes does have a faint black currant smell. As they are all currants I think I'm right in saying which of the currants bushes it is is not important. I'm assuming as it didn't fruit much it needs new growth so I'm hoping someone can say prune now or prune in Autumn and prune two of the branches or all three.
Out of interest I can enlarge the photo when I view it.

**Scarlet** · 04-06-2016, 12:28 PM

Black currants have different pruning requirements to red/white currants - which are similar to gooseberries gor pruning. With that in mind you really need to know what variety it is before doing anything.
How old are the ants?
Is the growth new wood? Fruit doesn't form on the new growth, on my gooseberries I often take off half of the new growth off now.
Have a read of this :https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=332
Good pruning advice for red and white currants but you need to know how old they are first. I wouldn't advise on cutting them down to ground as you will have to wait for another two years before you get fruit.
There will be other more knowledgable grapes along soon - don't do anything drastic yet

**Jay-ell** · 04-06-2016, 12:35 PM

Black currants are pruned differently to red an white currants so it does matter which one it is.

I'd wait until winter to prune as any pruning in summer will remove vigour but winter pruning encourages vigour.

Red and white you prune down to a bud creating a spur, black currants you prune out the oldest stems which are no longer productive from the base to encourage new stems to grow.

It might take a couple of years to get the framework in place to get maximum production but they should produce more each year.

Re and white currants can be trained to be cordons and standards but black currants aren't

**veggiechicken** · 04-06-2016, 12:45 PM

Red/white currants are pruned differently to blackcurrants. That's why its worth identifying them before you cut anything off.
You should be able to look at the forming fruit on the 2 bushes and see if they're similar. If they are they're the white & red ones.
Blackcurrants have purplish tints to the flowers.

**cheops** · 04-06-2016, 03:18 PM

Ok thx everyone. I'm gonna wait til winter and by then know how each should be pruned. My lesson learnt here must be label new bushes or make note on paper what is what. Thx again for all the info.

**muddled** · 04-06-2016, 05:00 PM

Also, especially with black currants, its worth waiting to see how much you like the taste and/or size of berry (you'd be amazed how much they vary).
If you find that one of the bushes has fantastic fruit, stick the prunings in a pot to start off another bush.
If you have space for three of one you can have one just pruned, one producing and one about to be pruned in any given season which will give you best yields year on year.

**cheops** · 04-06-2016, 06:59 PM

Interesting muddled you say how much size and taste of a berry can vary. Do you this variation occurs within the same variety? If so am I correct in assuming that amount of sunshine [where placed in garden], soil type, amount of rainfall etcetra affects the taste and size of black currant. In other words conditions affect the taste and quality.

**cheops** · 04-06-2016, 07:00 PM

Correction. Do you mean this variation occurs within the same variety.

**devonuk** · 04-06-2016, 09:07 PM

Redcurrants and white currants are the same species as each other, blackcurrants are a different species. So it should be possible to compare your 3 plants for leaf shape, bark, habit etc and divide them into a pair and an outlier, and the outlier will be the blackcurrant. Not that it makes any odds, whichever is which I'd let them all grow on for the summer and cut the weakling back reasonably hard after leaf fall .

**muddled** · 04-06-2016, 09:49 PM

I have four blackcurrant bushes.
Three on my plot, all planted in a row before the plot was mine so I have no idea the variety.
They all look exactly the same but one has tiny, quite sour berries; one has medium berries that taste strongly of iron. The third has huge, juicy berries that taste more...fruity!

The fourth bush is growing in my garden at home because it was a gift (from someone here

) and is therefore precious.
This bush looks very different to the others with black currants that grow on strands (like a redcurrant) and I have yet to taste them but I have high hopes!

I have lots of redcurrant bushes.
Of the four I bought originally, one stood out in terms of yield and flavour even though they were all bought from the � shop on the same day. So I planted prunings from that one and got rid of the other three.

**cheops** · 04-06-2016, 10:05 PM

I do love the taste of red currants, muddled. And if you don't grow your own they are not easy to find in shops or a market and would cost a lot. I find too they are quite long lasting on the bush.
From what you have said though one cannot be certain that your bushes were the same variety. Even the red currants from the pound shop are not proven the same variety. I am interested to know if I had say a Ben Nevis black currant bush and you also had one , and each were the same age, would currants from each of the bushes taste the same, even though they were growing in different parts of the U.K. and in different soils. I think it's an interesting query.

**muddled** · 04-06-2016, 10:24 PM

I think everything affects the taste, site, soil PH, weather that year and of course, variety.

But a good'un is a good'un evenif only in your circumstances and you need to try them before you decide whether or not its worth propogating from your prunngs!

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