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  • #1

    Currant maintainence

    I planted 4 bare-stick currant bushes (1 or 2 year old I'm not sure) in spring and they've all grown pretty well, reaching between 3-4 feet high with plenty of leaves. However they're all fairly tall and narrow, I planned to keep them constrained to about 4 feet high by 4 feet wide as my garden is small.

    Should I do anything to them to try and make them grow sideways - cut them back for instance - or do currants not like being pruned? Maybe they'll naturally bush out? What is the right way to maintain currants - especially given that probably 90% of the bush is this year's growth (they really have shot up quite splendidly)?

    Thanks!
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  • #2
    What kind of currants are they? Black currants are pruned differently from red, pink or white currants

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    • #3
      I've one of each. If I'm lucky, I can remember which is which

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      • #4
        Blackcurrants are multi stemmed, the others can be grown as cordons
        https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-y...it/redcurrants
        https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-y.../blackcurrants

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        • #5
          Redcurrants bear their fruit on old wood. Prune bushes by removing diseased or very old branches in winter, then prune new growth back to two buds in early summer to keep plants compact. Leaders should be pruned to outward facing buds unless the branches are bending, in which case they then should be cut to upward facing buds.
          I didn't do any of this, I just planted the dead looking stick and left it all spring/summer Should I still follow the above advice even though it's autumn i.e. prune most of the new growth?

          It sounds like the blackcurrant doesn't need much doing after a year as it hasn't any old wood at all yet, other than perhaps for aesthetic reasons.

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          • #6
            Make sure you remove any crossing branches, and you want to open up the centre of the bush, aiming to give it a shape like a wine glass. I'd take off the top third of the new growth to keep it compact.

            Once it's established, you should remove about a third of the oldest wood each year, emphasising crossing branches of course.

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            • #7
              At the risk of sounding foolish, how do you remove the oldest wood given that the newer branches all grow out OF the older ones?

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