Cut currants: Time & Procedure

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Currant bushes can bear fruit in large quantities. But for a good harvest, they also need regular pruning.

Perfect for preserving or simply as a snack between meals - growing currants (Ribes) in your own garden is always worthwhile. The berries of the gooseberry family (Grossulariaceae) come in different colors that have very different care requirements. Annual pruning of the currants is of great importance for a plentiful harvest, otherwise the bushes will age. We'll show you when and how best to cut your currants.

Cut currants

The longest clusters with the largest red or white currants grow on the one-year-old side shoots, which emerge from the main shoots, which are usually two to three years old. Therefore, the goal of pruning is to always ensure that enough of these side shoots grow, which will then bear fruit next year. Likewise, there must always be enough young main shoots, since shoots only form isolated side shoots with few, small fruits after about three years. In the first few years, sufficient young main shoots and side shoots will grow due to the pruning during planting. Here the training pruning, which is carried out in the first one to two years after planting, ensures that six to eight so-called scaffolding shoots - or main shoots - form a beautiful bush. From the third to fifth year, the older shoots must then be removed so that the shrub is stimulated to form new ones. In the case of black currants, which produce their fruit mainly on the side shoots of the one-year-old shoots, it is still necessary to ensure that new main shoots constantly grow back.

Cutting currants: The educational cut

As already mentioned, the educational pruning serves to establish skeletal shoots - these are the shoots coming out from the ground, on which the fruit-bearing side shoots then develop. They give the bush its bushy shape. When planting currants, five to six shoots are usually left. In the yearafter that some more will form. In the summer or autumn of the year after planting, at the latest in the following February, the currant bush is first examined more closely. Beautiful shoots that grow outwards are left in place, while weak shoots that grow inward are cut off.

In doing so, shoots that grow in the completely wrong place because there is a nicer shoot right next to them are removed close to the ground, while shoots that potentially grow out of the ground in the right place but have developed in the wrong direction , are to be cut off above the lowest, outward-facing bud. Do the same for the following year. After two to three years you should have reached the goal of being able to call a nice little bush with six to eight shoots your own.

The right time to cut the currants

Just like with training pruning, you should carry out all future pruning measures after the harvest or in February if possible. When pruning in February, it is important that you do it before the leaves sprout. In the summer before the harvest, the currant bush is additionally thinned out by motivated gardeners. This promotes the formation of flower buds on the remaining shoots for the coming year through better lighting.

Cut currants: Instructions

For cutting currants, it is first of all important to know exactly what kind you are dealing with. Red (Ribes rubrum) and white (Ribes sativa) currants bear fruit mainly on the one-year-old side shoots of the two- to three-year-old main shoots. In the case of blackcurrants (Ribes nigrum), the fruits mainly grow on the side shoots of the annual main shoots. This is very important when editing.

Generally speaking: Whenever enough new, young main shoots have already grown, the old shoots are cut off close to the ground without stump, as this reduces the risk of disease infection. If insufficient new shoots have grown from the rootstock, an old shoot is pruned back to a low-lying side shoot to the last outward-facing bud or to a stump. The aim of these pruning methods is that the pruned shoot will sprout again.

Pruning instructions for red and white currants:

1. The goal is 8 - 12 strong, this year to three year old main shoots.
2. In the case of red and white currants, cut back all main shoots that are more than four to five years old to low-lying, strong side shoots or close to the ground (if there are no suitable side shoots or if enough new shoots have grown from the rootstock ). You can recognize old shoots by the darker wood. Different colored plant wire markers also help identify old shoots.
3. After removing the old shoots, select the 8 - 12 strongest shoots and cut the remaining shoots close to the ground.
4. On the selected 8 - 12 shoots, the side shoots that have borne fruit this year are cut back to the main shoot, except for a stub. From the newly grown side shoots that have not yet borne fruit, leave up to 8 pencil-thick shoots that are as flat as possible for each main shoot. Higher side shoots are preferred to lower ones (less light). If there are more, they are cut off directly on the main shoot.
5. All thin, weak or diseased shoots are removed close to the ground, even if there are only 7 main shoots left.
6. Shorten one-year-old shoots by about a third on slow-growing plants. This improves branching, i.e. the formation of new side shoots.

Blackcurrant pruning instructions:

Black currants mainly bear fruit on the one-year-old shoots. The aim of pruning is therefore to encourage new main shoots.

1. When enough young shoots have grown from the rootstock, cut off the harvested shoots close to the ground. When fewer than 8 new shoots have grown, divert the old shoots to young side shoots. So you cut off the shoot immediately above a strong, low-set side shoot. Likewise, cutting off a shoot just above a protruding, deep-seated bud may encourage the formation of a new shoot.
2. Then cut off weak and diseased shoots as well as disturbing, drooping, too steep-growing or very deep-rooted side shoots.
3. The goal is around 10 young main shoots.

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• Felco Secateurs: ManualTop pruner, vine and secateurs recommended for all types of cutting. In addition to plastic-coated handles, it has a precision adjustment system for the blade and anvil.
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• Gardena telescopic arm scissors: Practical secateurs for effortlessly cutting tall trees and dense bushes from the ground.

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Pruning standard currants

In the first few years, currant stems are trained in such a way that a strong central shoot - almost the continuation of the stem - has four to six side shoots. Training is about leaving those side shoots that form a nice crown and cutting back those that grow out of this ideal to two or three buds. Later, the older side shoots are always shortened to about three buds and, in the case of very weak growth, to two buds. The bud that is cut back should always point outwards. For the right look, you can finally remove overhanging branches so that your standard currant grows nice and compact.

Cutting currants for rejuvenation

Currant bushes that have not been pruned for years and only bear a few tiny fruits definitely deserve a rescue attempt. The old, dark shoots are radically either cut off directly above low-seated, young side shoots or shortened to one or two buds. As always, prune back to outward-facing buds.

With the right fertilization in early spring, this radical pruning should cause the currant bush to sprout properly in the coming year. If only one or two weak shoots develop, then the rescue attempt may have failed and the shrub has had its day. Before you devote any more wasted effort to it, you'd better plant a new currant bush.

Combine cutting currants with transplanting

If you decide to plant your currant bush in the garden, you should toomake a cut. It is important to note that it is usually only worth transplanting younger specimens, as older plants will be severely affected by the move and their yield will suffer as a result. As with planting, autumn is the ideal time. If you transplant the currant, you should prune the plant relatively heavily. Cut off all other shoots except for the one-year-old shoots. After transplanting, the shrub then needs two to three years to regenerate.

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