The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Fruit => Topic started by: sabrina on April 18, 2013, 05:32:19 pm
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I took cutting of my blackcurrant bushes before the winter and just stuck them in some composts. They have been in the pollytunnel all winter and I was surprised to see the other day that they all have green buds coming. Should I now put they into bigger pots to grow on or plant straight into the garden.
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I would crack on and plant them out. Black currant seems amazingly resilient. We did the same with ours.
Just don't disturb the root ball at all and water them well in :-)
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We get the best crop if soft fruit from the blackcurrants, even with kast years weather!
I would be tempted to put them out as well.
Helen
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Is it too late to take cuttings now?
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if you take cuttings now, use a bit of rooting hormone and put them in pots in the greenhouse to protect them from the wind. remember, the cheap aldis blackcurrent bushes come at a price, the new varieties of blackcurrent are much more resistent to leaf mold than before, the cheap aldis ones are invariably not the new type. ask if you can exchange or help your neighbour prune their blackcurrent bushes and increase the number of varieties in your garden. Black currents, gooseberries and red currents should be pruned every 3 years, so plant them in threes and prune one of them every year
the above method is a superb way of generating lots of plants, a good idea for someone intending on planting a hedge row
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Brilliant idea - I have a fence I want to disguise and make useful at the same time. Tried rasps but they didn't take for some reason
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An easy way to propagate blackcurrants - and redcurrants, brambles and gooseberries - is to pin down the tips of branches in the normal garden soil around the bush, using a stone or wire hoop. If you do that now you will have new plants by the end of the year which you can separate from the parent and plant out on a fresh site. The soil doesn't even need to be weeded - they just love to grow roots.
We have put some blackcurrant bushes in our wildlife hedges, but the birds don't seem interested although they strip everything in the fruit cages :(
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I never thought of a hedge row, that's a great idea. Will aim to have them all round the edge of my veg plot. good wind break and we love blackcurrant jelly.
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An easy way to propagate blackcurrants - and redcurrants, brambles and gooseberries - is to pin down the tips of branches in the normal garden soil around the bush, using a stone or wire hoop. If you do that now you will have new plants by the end of the year which you can separate from the parent and plant out on a fresh site. The soil doesn't even need to be weeded - they just love to grow roots.
ooo does that work for white currant too? We've got very spindly gooseberry, red currant and white currant (and blueberry) bushes in the garden. Shall have to try.
Dans
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Yes to whitecurrant, but it would perhaps be a bit more difficult with blueberry as their branches don't tend to come down to the ground. You would need to hold one down more tightly than for the currants. Try it and see ;D Or you could pin it down into a pot, but still leaving it attached, you would though have to be diligent with watering.
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You can put them into the ground with a good helping of compost, but if they are small I tend to pot them on to bigger pots and get them to a decent size before planting (or they would get a bit lost in my fruit/veg garden).
The Fruit Cage is full so a couple of years ago I planted a hedge of Blackcurrents and also a hedge of Gooseberry. I prefer the Gooseberry hedge as even when the leaves die off the stems are thorny (depending on variety) and so still offer up a barrier.
I've got about 20 more Gooseberry to plant up again this year, even though we can't get through that many. The birds, fieldmice (et al) enjoy the treat and there's more than enough to go around.
Out of the three we have (Black, Red and White Current), the White Currents are our favourites. Will be taking more cuttings of those this year.
:sunshine:
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I'm about to create a border between an access path and orchard using blackcurrants I've propagated in compost outside, and read your posts with great delight. So I thought you might be interested in a little organic tip to reduce aphid/fly infestations in the spring. The first time you see a ladybird when you're out and about, go straight to your currant bushes, and start squishing the one or two aphids or blackfly that will be there.
This slows the onslaught considerably, but you do have to keep going back and squishing to keep on top of it. I had a full time job and 2 kids and kept mine practically free (within reasonable limits might be more truthful).