The Scotsman

Blackcurra­nt bushes are plain but their fruit is not

- Jennymolli­son

Sometimes I remind myself that I enjoy the process of growing my own fruit and vegetables as much as the end product. This is not the case with blackcurra­nts. They never appear in the shops in the quantities I would like at an affordable price so growing my own is a necessity.

A blackcurra­nt bush is not pretty enough to grow as a garden plant nor does its habit lend itself to training against a wall. It is ideally suited to growing on an allotment plot.

Anticipati­on mounts when the first little green berries start to turn black. Patience is needed because they take several weeks to ripen fully. Commercial fruits have a thick skin and long shelf life, but home-grown ones are thin-skinned and juicy. Right now I am enjoying fruit from five bushes of different sizes and varieties.

Like gooseberri­es and redcurrant­s, they are members of the Ribes family. However, pruning is different. They fruit on new wood and the aim is to encourage the bush to put out new branches from the base by cutting out about a third of the old woody stems each year. This can be done at the same time as harvesting. If the midges are biting and you’re tired of kneeling under some netting, it is perfectly acceptable to take the loppers and remove an entire branch and strip off the fruit somewhere more comfortabl­e. Whether or not you top and tail the berries is up to you, but I don’t bother.

Some bushes fruit much more heavily than others. It pays to buy

If a friend appears to have a better variety of blackcurra­nt than yours, beg a stem from them

from a specialist grower to get the best. Alternativ­ely, they root easily from cuttings. If a friend appears to have a better variety than yours, beg a stem from them. I recently discovered a bush in a derelict manse garden on the west coast, took a small cutting, and less than a month later it had grown a network of strong roots and is now planted out on the plot. I’ll have to wait for a couple of years to see if it has good fruit.

The main scourge of blackcurra­nts is big bud mite from which there is no recovery. Telltale swollen buds harbour small mites which suck vigour from the bush and can transmit a virus. It is possible to pick off the offending buds but I think it’s better to remove the entire bush and start again. n

 ??  ?? Home-grown blackcurra­nts tend to be thin-skinned and juicy
Home-grown blackcurra­nts tend to be thin-skinned and juicy
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom