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»  Red Currants
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  • New Plants
    • Plant in holes during October to March; put plenty compost or well-rotted manure in the bottom of the hole.
    • Bushes should be about 4 or 5 feet apart
    • Prune branches back to about 4 inches to encourage new shoots from below ground.
  • Propagating from cuttings
    • Take 10 inch cuttings of healthy shoots in autumn. Push them into soil in nursery bed until two buds are left showing. Cuttings root very readily, and should be ready for planting out in one or two years.
  • Care
    • Black Currants will produce a good crop if they are fed well - traditionally a thick mulch of well-rotted manure or compost in February, as they need plenty nitrogen.
    • Keep plants weed free - they steal the nitrogen and water your bushes need! Use black plastic as a mulch.
    • Water regularly in dry spells - and especially in early June to help fruit fill out.
    • Harvest berries about a week after they have coloured - don't let them start to go dull.
  • Pruning
    • Black Currants fruit mostly on one-year old wood. Prune about one-third of the oldest (ie darkest) branches every year; after leaf-fall is easiest.
    • A bush should have about 10 or 12 shoots, half of which should be this year's growth.