Grow Your Own Magazine

Hello peeps
I was watching a gardening dvd the other night and they suggested growing redcurrant and gooseberry bushes as a standard bush. I thought this was a good idea as it frees up the ground underneath for growing other stuff such as herbs etc.
Ive inherited both bushes and they are a bit scrappy. To train theminto a standard type bush, do i just prune everything away exept one central stem? How long do you think it would take before it became a good size and produced a good amount of fruit?
Unfortunately the dvd raised mmore questions than it answered! Said it was a good idea but didnt show you how to do it!

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aka Donna

I like the sound of this idea also and with this in mind I have taken cuttings of my redcurrant and whitecurrant and am layering some gooseberries.

I would imagine it would be quite hard to start with an established bush, but with cuttings should be simple..........hopefully!

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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)

Snadgers right - almost impossible to grow a standard from an established bush.

Not that difficult from a stong new cutting - just takes time. You'll need to rub out the lower side shoots and keep the leader tied in to a cane.

You can buy rooted cuttings or maidens to save a year or if you're flush you can buy ready trained standards - RV Rogers have them for about £25

Thankyou. Thought this might be the case. It will have to be a diy job with cuttings, as I cant remember what it feels like to be flush! We discovered the redcurrant when we cleared brambles on the bank, it did fruit last year. The gooseberry has never fruited, I think because I pruned it badly! Hopefully now Ive found the vine it will help me avoid so many mistakes!

Like the idea of a forest garden type thing, growing at various levels.
Thanks for the advice

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aka Donna