Author Topic: Gooseberries and white currants in pots  (Read 2669 times)

davholla

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Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« on: February 07, 2018, 22:13:25 »
I thought that I had asked about this before, but I cannot find it - apologies in advance, if it is easy.
I have some in pots and some in the ground and none have ever had more than an ice cream tub of gooseberries or white currants.
I think that in order to get a good yield they need a potash feed?  Any other advice?  Lots of watering?

ed dibbles

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2018, 00:28:04 »
Both of the things you mentioned, although I like to give a balanced feed early spring (growmore or BFB).

The way to get bumper crops of red/white/pink currants and gooseberries is correct pruning. Both these soft fruits crop on old wood and the pruning for them is the same. In the dormant season prune all last years growth to within one or two buds of the main framework. In other words one year old wood is cut back to form spurs. This is where your fruit will come from.

It may seem drastic the bushes spending all year growing new shoots that you then prune away but those one year old shoots have to grow another year before fruit buds grow. Meanwhile the bush gets more and more congested, light can't penetrate the centre so fewer fruit buds will form next year.

Prune out the new growth every year and you will have heavy fruit crops come harvest time. :happy7:



davholla

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2018, 10:04:29 »
Thanks for that I have always been a bit nervous with pruning.  I will try to be more ruthless this year.
Would this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00B4T09J8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Or chicken manure be a good feed?

ed dibbles

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2018, 21:44:37 »
I tend to give gooseberries/red/white currants a light general feed as you are looking for some but not too lush growth. Container plants may need a little  more. Blackcurrants get more feed as you are looking for healthy replacement growth from them.

Chicken pellets have too much nitrogen. Best save those for leafy crops rather than fruit.

Any fertiliser with a good balance is ok.

My own preference is growmore for cane and bush fruits and bonemeal for top fruit trees. You need a slower release fertiliser for those so they don't abort fruiting because of a quick dose of the good life. :happy7:



ed dibbles

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2018, 21:56:15 »
This is how the pruning is done. Notice how little of last years growth is left at the end and how the bush is back to the main framework. This is the key to heavy yields.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdUmWHQS9q8

You will not kill bushes by pruning. They can even be cut right to ground level and still grow. :happy7:

davholla

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2018, 13:16:42 »
Thank you very much, I did most of them last weekend will do the rest this weekend.

davholla

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #6 on: February 16, 2018, 14:24:51 »
I have a fertilizer 5-5-10 + T/E +Mg+Fe, especially formulated granulated fertiliser to pack more bulk into your tree fruits, bush berries etc. Application rate: 140g sq. m – dug in. 70g sq. m – top dressing
Would that be any good?  Should I dig in or dissolve it  in water or just put it on top?

compothefirst

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #7 on: February 16, 2018, 15:25:42 »
I thought that I was rubbish at growing gooseberries until I netted them one year.  Now I make pounds of jam each year and the birds get the remainder when I have taken my share.


davholla

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #8 on: February 16, 2018, 15:28:40 »
I thought that I was rubbish at growing gooseberries until I netted them one year.  Now I make pounds of jam each year and the birds get the remainder when I have taken my share.


That is a possibility but how can I stop the birds from getting harmed?  If I don't the nets might get vandalized by bird loving vigilant parents when they come round.   Has anyone ever netted cages in pots?

Vinlander

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #9 on: February 17, 2018, 12:04:29 »
I've never seen or heard of a bird being harmed by any taut net designed for protecting crops - unless you count making the bird just hungry enough to tire itself very slightly by flying over to the next sap who hasn't netted...

Birds are really smart anyway - I once accidentally caused the death of a bird by using fishing line as an emergency extension to the anti-heron net on my pond - I was gutted because the thread got tangled around the feet of a thrush ie. a genuine feathered friend. (If it had been a pigeon my reaction might have been different).

It happened the first morning after I set out the line, and I was in the last minutes before catching a train for the weekend, so that stopped me replacing the line with string immediately (and I wasn't going to cut it because that would have put my fish at clear and immediate risk).

I came back worried I'd find more casualties, but it was clear and I thought  hmmm... maybe change is the real problem here (that, and birds are really smart).

At that time I was having problems at work with the "all change is good" madness (and nobody else would agree that constant change is as bad as no change, or that we should change towards the latter for a change). 

Anyway I (and the birds) never had another problem with my fishing line - except that the herons were smart enough to work around it, and when I extended the net they stabbed the fish through it - pushing it close to the water in the process (too greedy to realise they wouldn't benefit - or maybe just fox-in-henhouse crazy).

I now have no fish, but when I get more I'll make sure the net has 100% cover and is 100% supported.

Cheers.
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

Digeroo

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #10 on: February 18, 2018, 06:34:19 »
Good video Ed Dibbles.  I am good at Blackcurrents but hopeless as gooseberries and redcurrants I tend to not to prune them at all.  I prune blackcurrants after cropping in June and then put the prunings to root.  Its so much easier when the fruit is one it.   I never seem to have my gloves when its right to prune gooseberries and so they get left.

Beersmith

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #11 on: February 18, 2018, 20:31:18 »
I never seem to have my gloves when its right to prune gooseberries and so they get left.

Well at stretch you can winter prune gooseberries anytime between the start of December and the middle of March. It is worth setting aside a dry morning to this task. The benefits are considerable. Removing crossing and crowded wood from the middle of the bush has good health benefits helps prevent disease and discourages sawfly. As a side effect bushes shaped carefully in winter to have an open goblet shape are much less "vicious" when it comes to summer picking and pruning.

If you find the the thorns are a headache, try thornless varieties, as there are some very good ones on offer, or do as I do and grow the thorniest types as cordons, pruned in exactly the same way as cordon redcurrants.
Not mad, just out to mulch!

davholla

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #12 on: June 04, 2018, 10:09:09 »
I've never seen or heard of a bird being harmed by any taut net designed for protecting crops - unless you count making the bird just hungry enough to tire itself very slightly by flying over to the next sap who hasn't netted...


I have heard of one being killed like that.

Vinlander

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #13 on: June 05, 2018, 09:51:34 »
I've never seen or heard of a bird being harmed by any taut net designed for protecting crops - unless you count making the bird just hungry enough to tire itself very slightly by flying over to the next sap who hasn't netted...
I have heard of one being killed like that.
As I implied in that post - the species of bird is key - I felt pain when I killed a single thrush inadvertently, and might cry over a robin, but every dead pigeon cheers me up (especially if they are in a nice pie).

How many starving pigeons (good) does it take to balance the inadvertent death of a single possibly-crop-neutral bird like a great tit? That gets complicated - great tits can strip a blackcurrant of buds, but if they are trying for more protein by getting all the ones with bud mite in the process then they may be doing me a favour. So much to learn, so little research (relatively) on which birds are unexpectedly 'deserving'. Diversity is important but I won't lose any sleep over the decline of sparrows until the relevant species go amber Europe-wide.

Obviously I feel my crops are improving the health of my family (and friends) so some impact on the environment is justifiable if it is sustainable.

For the record I don't have a car, I prefer my push bike to the internal combustion engine wherever possible, I have no pets at present (apart from my robins that will eat out of my hand, and I'm comfortable with the ethics of putting a few fish in my pond eventually). Most importantly I've made strenuous efforts towards having the minimum number of offspring.

Those are just the big ones, but I also regard a lot of other trendy and superficially 'green' life choices as pointless if they just encourage population growth and many are intrinsically counter-productive per se.

That's just my opinion (a really stupid saying [if I may say so]... if it wasn't, I'd have cited the inventor).

So I won't be commenting further on this thread.

Cheers (probably from everybody).
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

davholla

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Re: Gooseberries and white currants in pots
« Reply #14 on: June 05, 2018, 11:16:32 »
I should have said it was a bullfinch, thanks for your post. 
I agree with your points about superficially green life choices.

 

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