Redcurrant Cordon Pruning advice needed please

[Digeroo]

I saw some at Wisley and want to have cordons.  Tthy had fruit dripping off them.

I moved several rooted branches to the lottie three years ago.  They are now nice strong plants.  Up until now they have been growing taller and looking good.  But this summer they have put up a huge amount of new growth from the roots.  Experience of the mother plant suggests these will produce well next year.

So half of me wants to cut them back to maintain the cordon shape and the other half wants the fruit next year. 

PS I planted them far to close for bushes.

PPS Mother plant huge, and produces several rooted branches every year.

[goodlife]

It is bit like pruning for apple spurs..you cut each main branch hard back down to about 4" or so from the main stem. And any new growth coming from those short side branches you cut down to 1-2" in future.
But it all depends how much space your plants have..if you have room for slightly longer branches..do so..it means more fruit...but I would recommend some sort of support for you plants to keep them falling over with heavy crop.

[Digeroo]

Many thanks for your advice.

Perhaps I am using the wrong variety.   The branches of the huge mother plants hang down onto the ground so hence the large number of rooted 'runners'.

I am not very good at being brutal where pruning is concerned.

I have read that Rovada make good cordons I have recently bought one but it will be a couple years before there is much action from it.

I think I shall have to get the secateurs out.

[goodlife]

I'm sure you can make cordon what ever the variety. But if the mother plant is bush form the outer branches will hang down. Perharps you can plant those rooted ones in such a angle that they stick upright and force the rest of the branch by tying it against cane..eventually it will set straight.
Usually you would start the cordon by rooting some straight whips from the top and allow it first couple of years to make new growth mainly on the tip. Once it start gaining some height then you allow more side growth.
You just have to do some experiments with your plants.

[Digeroo]

I  am used to experienting with methods of growing, problem with fruit bushes is that it is a long time between action and effect.

Looks like the basal growths will have to go.

The mother plant is vast it is more or less never been pruned and I give it a whole box of Lidl fruit feed every years and it rewards me big time.  I used to use Rose fertilizer but the LIdl stuff is cheaper.  But it is very difficult to keep the bird off, hence the idea of having tall individual stems which can be covered by a fleece bag.

[Deb P]

I think I would be tempted to take some of the rooted cuttings and train them from scratch as cordons rather than prune a large plant heavily to suit. Yes it take time but that is part of the fun of gardening isn't it! That way you can keep your heavy fruiting mother plant until the others are big enough to fruit.

[Digeroo]

The plants I am aiming to prune are rooted 'runners' from the mother plant.  They were moved to the lottie three years old when I started and have been behaving themselves up to now, but last year they sprouted a forest of shoots from the base of the plant.  It is these which I am not sure what to do with.  It looks more like a blackcurrant at the moment, though I am 100% sure they are reds.

I am thinking about just leaving one strong one to make a second cordon shoot so then I can replace the first in two or three years time.

[Deb P]

You could leave two shoots and train them as a 'U' cordon, that would be pretty straightforward.....providing they have some support of course (not necessarily a nice brick wall like in this example!) I saw some trained on wires which made a beautiful screen, tempted to have a go myself actually!

[Digeroo]

Many thanks for the pic.  I think our farmer might object to the wall.

We nearly bought a house in an old walled garden, now I have got into growing in a big way I very much regret not buying it.  At the time the potential cost of maintaining the walls was rather daunting.   

The ones at Wisley must have been on wires I cannot remember a wall.

[Deb P]

Yes, I can imagine our Committee's faces if I put in a request to build a wall on my plot....
Saddad has the only plot on our site which has a wall on it, he grows figs against his (put envious emotican here!) I currently grow apples pears and cherries as cordons on posts and wires, my currants are all bushes, but planted a bit close together, I quite fancy having a go at taking some more cuttings and growing a productive screen....hmmm, that is a thought! I need to winter prune my currant bushes so it would be easy to strike some cuttings at the same time....

[saddad]

I had to wait a long time for that wall.... 

Ryton have some redcurrants espaliered (if that is a real word!) 

[Robert_Brenchley]

I'm sure I've seen 'espaliered' before,

[Digeroo]

Well I was out in the garden today and a found a wall.  There it was staring me in the face.  It is very much attached to my house, but almost the whole west wall is blank.
So would they be happy with a West facing wall? 

[goodlife]

West facing it fine..

[Digeroo]

So the west wall it is.  Many thanks

[Russell]

I gave been growing redcurrant cordons of one sort or another for about 40 years and am just now passing through a renewal cycle. They last about 20 years.
I can confirm that growing them in a line against a fence is brilliant for bird protection. If your fence is just a few posts and two or three lengths of fencing wire then you can zip-tie canes either vertical or oblique as you fancy (they both work OK) to the wires and then tie in your growing rods to the canes as convenient. Hang a net each side off the projecting tops of the canes, they are easy to flip up for one of the marathon picking sessions you can anticipate, and to flip back again for even the shortest absence. The blackbirds may be persistent but unfortunately the neat arrangement you have just created facilitates access by wood pigeons and consequent devastation. Hang up your nets just as soon as the blossom drops, woodies eat the berries green (and gooseberries too).
Strong growths at the base must be removed as soon as possible, the name of the game is to get your rods extended upwards so you can pick without bending your back. I once got a row up to six feet high but it took a few years. You can take several rods off one root if they are not planted too close. The rods sometimes die back, then you replace the dead rod by tying in another shoot from the base.
Redcurrants are the easiest thing to prune that I have ever met, because no matter how inept you are the bushes will still keep right on fruiting. Not like apples!
After a few years you can develop quite a wall of fruit which loads up the fence posts, particularly in a strong wind, so extra strength posts are good. You don't want to plan for failure.

[Deb P]

I have been bad...... Was reading the January edition of Kitchen Garden magazine again late last night and they had a special offer on some pink currants....so with the currant screen in mind I've just ordered a couple of 'Gloire de Sablon' bushes to use as stock bushes.....so how you lot lead me astray!

[Digeroo]

I was planning some more currants but found someone near which sells ordinary ones for £4 each.  I have jsut got some white ones.  But the pink is very tempting but rather expensive.

[Deb P]

Yes I agree, I wouldn't normally be tempted but have a bit of Christmas £ to spend so I thought why not..... If they did this variety in Lidl I would be a very happy bunny! Their fruit has been very successful in the past, but only only few places seem to do the pink varieties so I was limited and the KG offer was the best price I could find.

[Digeroo]

Who are KG?