Topic: Lost blackcurrent bushes

[7oaks plot]

Hi everyone, im just clearing an overgrown part of my allotment and under the many bramble bushes etc ive found 3 blackcurrent (i think!! maybe redcurrent) bushes.......they are in a healthy state but VERY leggy as they have probably been searching for the light for a few years now and so are maybe 5 or 6 foot long. What i want to know is should i trim them down to a reasonable height, say 3 to 4 feet or should i cut them down to ground level to start again as to grow stronger and thicker stems as at the moment they are rather thin and straggly.

There are lots of straggly branches to each bush, maybe a dozen or more on each one, but as i say they are very long and straggly.

Any help would be very welcome indeed.

Bye for now,

Mark.

[sheilan]

Hi 7oaks, rub and smell the leaves. If they small like blackcurrant then the chances are they wil be blackcurrant as the leaves smell just like the fruit.

If not they could be red or whilte currants, if they are indeed currants.

Black currants need to be planted deep and grown in a bush as they tend to put out new growth from below ground and fruit on the previous years growth and you remove most of the fruited wood after the harvest.

Red and White Currants can be grown as open goblet shaped bushes or as cordons (I grow mine as cordons)
Thttp://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_growingcurrants2.shtmlry this link for more information

Whichever they are they would probably benefit from pruning.

[Digeroo]

Personally if they are black currant I would cut them back to the ground and feed them.   

[THE MASTER]

rub and smell the leaves. If they small like blackcurrant then the chances are they wil be blackcurrant as the leaves smell just like the fruit.
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gonna try that tipp tomorrow i have both black and red currents growing . and as it the first yoear no fruit as of yet but the bushes are looking fine

thanks for the tip . i like little tips like that