Currants and Gooseberries

by Doug
(in his garden)

The care and feeding of these two plants are almost identical so rather than repeat myself, here’s the data with important differences noted.

Soils

These small fruits grow in almost any soil so that’s the good news. You’ll find a heavy clay doesn’t work as well.

And if you’re looking for the optimum soil, it’s a cool, evenly moist but well-drained, rich clay loam. (And good luck finding that) :-)

Feeding

These are not heavy feeders so several shovels of compost around the base of the plants in the spring should be all you require in the home garden.

Planting

Early spring planting is best in colder climates but a fall planting will work in anything over a zone 5.

Commercially we’d use 1 year old plants but 2 to 3 year old plants are fine in the garden setting. This plant grows *very* fast so young plants are fine.

Plant each bush 5 feet apart. They’re big spreaders. You can squeeze them down to 4-feet apart but you really have to watch your pruning at this spacing. Rows should also be 4-5 feet apart (as wide as the plants are in the row so equal spacing all way round)

The roots are covered and indeed because of the way this plant grows, you can plant it a touch deeper than it was in the nursery and it will be fine.

Firm soil around the roots and water it in thoroughly

Cultivation

Shallow hoeing or a deep mulch will keep the surface roots from being damaged. If they were mine, I’d be mulching them.

Remember - you have to keep this plant evenly moist if you want to see fruit.

Pruning

Now this is where the rubber meets the road. If you prune properly, you’ll get fruit. If you don’t prune, your harvest will be decidedly low or non-existent.

Black currants produce the most fruit on strongly growing one-year old wood. So you need to cut out the old wood every year. Any shoot (and there will be lots coming from the ground) older than 2-years is removed. You also only allow 10-12 shoots (the biggest and strongest) to survive and grow (spring pruning) from each mature bush.

Red Currants and Gooseberries produce on 2 to 3-year old wood for the most part. Keep 2-4 shoots (again the largest and strongest) of 1-year old canes every year. This way you have 2-4 of 1, 2, 3 year old canes (for 10-12 canes per plant) and you cut out the 4-year old canes in the spring.

if you don’t do this - you can quickly see your canes will go mature and you won’t get any fruit.

Harvest Amounts

If your bushes are giving you 6 quarts of fruit per bush, you’re in the ballpark. If they’re giving you less, your cultivation or pruning techniques are not good enough (see feeding and watering needs)