Get the best out of your berries
Some vital tips on keeping your fruit plants going
Planting and siting
Get bare-root plants from specialists now, which will establish be er than po ed ones bought in spring. Give each fruit bush enough room to branch out – about 1-1.5m (3¼-5ft), or give each a large pot to grow into. Currants like a sunny spot in shelter, but red and white ones don’t mind shade too, although their fruit will be less sweet. They grow in most well-drained soils (but blueberries need acidic soil) and all thrive after a spring mulch. When planting, incorporate a heap of well-ro ed manure or compost as well as a handful of bonemeal to set off your plants well.
Maintenance
Pruning blackcurrants: Prune from late autumn to late winter. Cut back one in three of older stems each year, right to the base, removing flimsy growth and low-lying branches, too. Pruning red and whitecurrants and gooseberries: Between late autumn and late winter, prune new growth back to two buds, and trim leader stems back by a third. In summer, prune new growth back again to five leaves. When bushes need a boost in late winter, work a handful of Growmore into the soil around your plant. You must protect the ripening fruit with a net or the birds will snap up all the berries from under your nose! Pick currants in sprigs, not individually.
Tips to remember
If you don’t have a lot of room, choose space-saving cordon varieties for training as single main stems or double stems tied into strong canes, or grow up supports in the greenhouse. You can plant them closer together. However, blackcurrants grow best as bushes. For extra sweet berries choose a whitecurrant. Their fruit is only a colour mutation of a redcurrant, but is deliciously sugary. Red and blackcurrants can be a li le tarter. Red and whitecurrants and gooseberries can tolerate colder situations than blackcurrants, and can grow be er on poorer ground. Blackcurrants fruit on young wood, red and whitecurrants and gooseberries on older wood, so there’s a different pruning regime for both sorts.