Fruit bush cuttings

[Trevor Holloway]

Is it possible to take cuttings from well established fruit bushes, my Father in law has Blackcurrents, red current bushes that produce well ?
Have I missed "the right time" ?
How do I do this?
And how long before I can expect full production ?

Many questions but I am coming to the end of the first year of having the plot and still trying to get to terms with it.
Thanks

[Trevor Holloway]

[Palustris]

Good time to do it. Choose light brown stems of about 12 inches long. Remove the leaves, make a slit trench somewhere convenient, trickle a bit of sand into it if your soil is clay, push the cutting in to half its length making sure the bottom touches the soil, close up the slit and they root over winter.

[saddad]

I agree with all of that... move them to real position next autumn and should start cropping the summer after that...
remember to label each row well as they will be there a while!
8)

[jennym]

Not much to add, except to say that the more cuttings you take, the more chance you have of them rooting - take, say, a couple of dozen - and if they all root then you can sell or give away.
I would say that you may have problems finding stems of this year's growth that are 12" long on redcurrant, but don't worry if they are shorter. Also, with redcurrant, some folks rub off the buds that will be below the ground and also the first one or two above ground, so that you encourage a single stem to take. With blackcurrant, which is multi-stemmed, you leave all the buds on the cutting.

[teresa]

I am doing black currant cuttings now
have a look at this site I found it very good as Eric's advice is.

http://gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_veg_diary/blackcurrant_page1.asp#blackcurrant_variety