Container-grown currants can be planted at just about any time of year. A sucker is a new stem growing up from the base of the main stem or root ball. The weather should be rather mild and dry, with no risk of freezing. Therefore, cut back some of the old wood each year to stimulate fresh growth and remove any dead or diseased stems. PRUNING BLACKCURRANT BUSHES Pruning of blackcurrant bushes is very simple. They key thing is to keep the soil moist, especially when the fruits are forming. Pruning Cordon Currants. Plants shipped with great care! Leaves turns a slight yellow color in fall. Watch this expert RHS video on pruning soft fruits including redcurrants, white currants and gooseberries when growing in a restricted space Initial Pruning for Redcurrants. There are inconspicuous yellow flowers in June. How to prune: A living hedge — versus a financial hedge, which is … Alpine currant (Ribes alpinum) is a hardy, low mounded shrub commonly used as a hedge.Plants are tolerant of full sun to full shade. It leafs out early, but retains its foliage all summer long and grows in sun or shade. Emerging early, the foliage changes to dark green in summer with an attractive gloss on the leaf uppersides, before warming up to yellow in the fall. Initially the leaders [main stems] can be shortened by up to one third to any outwardly facing bud. If you have a large garden, a fruit cage is ideal, alternatively, cover plants in bud with anti-bird mesh. Our experience is that that they are best planted 5cm / 2in deeper than they are in the pot. Most of the problems associated with lack of fruit on red currant bushes is owing to the wrong method of pruning. Winter Pruning in Your Garden – Fruit Trees and Fruit Bushes. Leave 1.8m (5ft) between currant bushes. Get the pruning right at the right time and red currants are hardly ever a problem. Prune away any crossing shoots or branches. Alpine currant shrubs are susceptible to aphid infestation. Alpine currant shrubs typically grow to heights between two and six feet (half a meter to about two meters) and have thick, abundant foliage. Do not cut below the lowermost branching point. The Ribes flower early in the Spring - just after Forsythia. When to prune shrubs depends on the plant’s flowering habit. Many people are nervous about the process so leave fruit unpruned which will result in progressively lower yields as the plant ages. Most other hedges lend themselves to autumn pruning: privet, Alpine currant, boxwood, yews — you name it. First clear the center of the shrub, because having light penetrate to the center is crucial. Prune out branches growing low to ground. Pick the fruit as and when it ripens. This type of pruning is carried out over a 2-3 year period making sure to remove only 1/3 of the old growth each year. After planting, prune the bush right back. Pruning Ribes. Pruning red and white currants Initial Pruning – Remove any suckers from the base of the plant. I would prune the dead branches back to a living bud, if possible. Needs to be pruned annually to encourage strong, healthy shoots and improve flowering. The flowers are greenish-yellow but ornamentally insignificant. Pruning flowering currant after planting . Pruning could not be more straightforward with forsythia and flowering currant. On these plants, pruning needs to take place before flower buds are set. Flowering currant can live for two to three decades. The time to prune is when they are dormant, mid-winter to early February is a good time for this garden job. Planting & Care for Deciduous Shrub – Currant. Blackcurrant bushes need plenty of watering and feeding – particularly if container grown. I am not sure if alpine currant falls into that category. You may want to rejuvenate the bush. Prune out wood in the centre – for light and airflow. How we ship bare root plants . The versatile shrub prefers moist, well-drained soil but adapts to dry, compacted landscapes and drought. Other shrubs produce flowers on the former year’s growth, aka “old growth”. Then water the shrubs well this summer and avoid additional stress. Flowering currant can be pruned after flowering in April or May. How to care for blackcurrants. The Alpine Currant is a great dwarf, compact, dense shrub, growing around 3-4 feet high. Like most flowering shrubs, pruning serves to increase foliage density and enhance flowering year after year. Hedges are easily kept at 3-foot heights. "Happily ever after" with a blackcurrant bush should be about 15 years before they should be replaced. Birds like to eat the developing buds of currant bushes, so protect plants in the winter. Pruning will do this. It gets a little fuller when it leafs out in spring. Prune in winter, creating an open bowl shape that deters sawflies and helps ripen fruit. Pruning soft fruits at the right time is essential to keeping plants productive. Their fruit are so flavorsome and require so little work that I think every garden should include a currant bush. To open the bushes up to light for ripening and airflow for health. Pruning in April-May. Rejuvenation is a method of pruning old shrubs that have become too large. After that, it may lose its vigor, even if you prune it diligently. If you find pruning fruit bushes difficult you’re certainly not alone. However, do this as soon as possible. Whilst the Ribes do not actually need pruning to flower well, if the shrub has been planted in the wrong place and outgrown its position, then you will need to prune the Ribes to a/ get it back into proportion, and b/ regular pruning to ensure that it does not again outgrow its position. Best offers for your Garden - https://amzn.to/2InnD0w ----- How to Prune Alpine Currant Hedges. Some shrubs can push new growth from the base following severe pruning. Opinions differ as to how deep to plant red currant bushes. Ideal for situations of limited space, Cordons can be trained into a single, double or triple stem plant. Planting is simply digging a hole slightly larger than the root spread, placing the plant in the hole and in-filling with earth. Black currant, red currant and white currant bushes all yield copious clusters of berries which are rich in vitamin C as well as having a high pectin content which makes them ideal for jams and jellies. Prune out the short, spindly, dead or damaged wood – as close to the base of the currant as practical. The right time to prune a red currant bush is towards the end of winter, ideally during the months of February-March. Cut the new plants back to about half their height. Don't prune for the first year of their life. The Green Mound Alpine Currant is a nice, hardy selection that stays dense and rounded. Plants in their prime will produce 8-12lbs / 3.5 - 5.5kg of fruit each year. Alpine Currant (Ribes alpinum) is the shrub you need when you want a super-hardy, totally dependable, tough-as-nails, doesn't care about the soil or light or air kind of shrub. This is done by selecting one third of the branches, divided evenly over the bush, and cutting these back to a height of about 50 cm. Having had more than 20 years of experience with growing alpine currants in Northern Minnesota, I have planted them around this time of the year (late September). Alpine currant Ribes alpinum) is a dense shrub so make sure to remove its interior bulk to allow light into the center of the shrub. ‘Aureum’ is an older cultivar that does best in a full sun exposure. November or December are best, although it can be done right up to the end of February, whenever the soil isn’t frozen solid or waterlogged. Dig a hole 60x60cm (2x2ft) and 30cm (1ft) deep. They can be pruned any time of the year and tolerate even a heavy pruning. The diagrams in books may look very straight-forward, but it’s a whole different story when faced with your own, undiagrammatical, pruning challenge. As can be imagined, a bush that needs it’s old stems removing regularly to keep it invigorated and encourage a fresh supply of fruiting wood, isn’t really going to be much use as a cordon. Depending on the condition of the plant, various pruning methods can be applied. First pruning of flowering currant. This encourages more than one central stem to grow and seems to result in a more healthy bush. In spring, feed with pelleted chicken manure or other high potash fertiliser, and add a thick mulch. Alpine currant's natural upright, oval shape lends itself well to classic hedge forms. This shrubs is excellent in mass or foundation planting in the landscape. Some shrubs produce flowers on “new growth” – stems emerge in spring and summer, and flower buds are set and bloom later in the season. This plant will spread to about 2-3' and may get a little taller. In winter: – prune pip fruits such as apples, but not if they are a trained form such as espalier; do not prune stone fruits, which include cherries, plums and nuts; bush fruits – currants and gooseberries – are winter pruned unless they have been grown as a trained form It is easy to maintain the desired size on these small bushes. How to prune gooseberry bushes and currant bushes. For both Red and Black. Redcurrants, ... Red and Whitecurrants should always be pruned back to an outward facing bud, as is normal for most plants. Harvesting Blackcurrants: You'll see them darken and taste sweet when they are ripe, use scissors to cut them off. Young growth is susceptible to attack by aphids. How we ship container plants. Mulch with organic matter in spring and apply a general fertilizer suitable for shrubs. Redcurrants and whitecurrants do not need the hard pruning that is recommended for Blackcurants and a framework of growth is left in place. The currants are some of the most easily grown fruit bushes. The thing you need to remember is no matter how badly you prune you will not ruin your fruit plant beyond repair and can … Remove branches that are tangled together. Whether you plant this as a specimen or better yet, as a hedge, Alpine Currant will work for you. First cut away all dead, diseased and intersectiong branches. Pruning should be quite drastic. Pests and Diseases. Extremely winter hardy, Ribes alpinum (Alpine Currant) is a compact, mound-forming, deciduous shrub with bright green, trilobed leaves in spring. Left unpruned, alpine currants grow up to 5 feet tall and 7 feet wide, but the shrubs respond well to heavy pruning and shearing. Very low maintenance with no ornamental appeal than its dense green foliage. This plant has some cultivated varieties. Cut back the rest of the branches to approximately half of their length, cut at an upward facing bud to encourage growth upwards rather than outwards. Pruning fruit bushes can seem complicated but is, in fact, very simple. The blackcurrant is seldom grown as a cordon because the pruning and growing method is different to other currants and gooseberries. Follow our guide to get the most out of your fruit bushes and vines. The reason for this is you want the energy of the shrub go into the roots and not into the foliage. How to grow blackcurrants – pruning blackcurrants. But at this point, with the photo of the shrub with the dead center, you can see how it recovers. With minimum effort you’ll have a reliable and abundant crop, and just one or two bushes will provide pounds of juicy fruits for puddings, jellies and sauces. 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