Spent 3 hours tonight picking the ripe redcurrants off our 4 bushes. Finished just before dark, sooo many... :o will post a pic of the harvest tomorrow...
Ours are being strung by the birds but there are still thousands!
;D
same here, and still as many on the bushes yet to turn red. the bushes were already esatblished when we moved in and we have had 2 bumper harvests from them alreeady :) They are starting to spread wider though so must try and prune them back this year at some point.
Anyone have any tips for pruing them???
here they are - the pyrex bowls are the largest ones you can get so quite a few and about the same number again yet to ripen on the bushes :o
For pruning, on established bushes like yours, it may be wise to start encouraging some new replacement stems. As with all pruning, remove any dead, diseased or damaged wood first.
Normally, after fruiting, if the bushes aren't too big or old, you then just cut out any stems that are crowding the centre of the plant and cut back the new growth that's been made this year by about a third, this encourages new fruiting spurs to form.
If the fruit is starting to be a bit sparse near the bottom of older branches, it may be time to cut some out, but do this in early spring as then you will get good vigorous new stems appearing, you then trim them back by about a third after fruiting.
You can just lightly trim with shears if they are grown as a hedge. If you want to play around with new plants, they can be trained into fam shapes or cordons, but to be honest I don't really see the point of that with redcurrants as they aren't thorny and are usually reasonable easy to get at when picking the fruit if grown as a bush on a short leg.
wow mine are not that big!! or plentyful
Are you just picking the group of redcurrants or the individual redcurrant off the bush?
thanks for the pruning advice. going to put a post up and get some wites either side to try and help the branches stay upright - they weight of all the fruit means most branches were weighted down and virtually touching ground..
bit of both - took of far too many green ones as it was (started off picking ripe only but with 4 bushes they are so plentiful - after 3 hours your hands get tired so as time went on was picking whole groups off if only a couple or so of unripe ones...
my bushes are only about a foot and a half high and about a foot wide how big are yours?
not sure - bigger than that I think. I will try and measure and take photos at the weekend when the rain stops - bucketing it down all day today again..
I know what you mean!!
If it was not so windy i would borrow a gazebbo so i could still get some work done!
not stopped all of today either. weighed beofre freezing this eveneing and we have just over 3.5kg so far :o
stopped raining for awhile today so managed to get some pics taken. Looks like another mega picking session needs to be scheduled for this week.
need to try and tidy them up somehow and prune before next years growing season.
I cover all my redcurrants with netting to stop the birds taking the fruit. That way I can leave the fruit to get so ripe that it starts to wrinkle. Then when you start to pick, all the fruit is fully ripe and you can pick all the strings of fruit at once. If you are making jelly, then wash and simmer the fruit, then strain through a muslin bag.
I think leaving them is a good idea but if they are left too long the pectin content will be reduced so if you are doing it for the first time be aware of this. XX Jeannine