How to shape and prune currant bushes stylish

How to shape and prune currant bushes stylish
How to shape and prune currant bushes stylish

The word “pruning” sometimes scares gardeners: not everyone dares to work with pruning shears or saws and mostly for one reason only, for fear of damaging plants. But the truth is that it’s not pruning that causes more damage to a tree or shrub, it’s not pruning.

Without pruning, the canopy of apple trees, pear trees, currant bushes, and currant trees will overgrow and grow quite unnecessary shoots, dry branches, and old branches, resulting in the formation of a harvest only on the periphery of the canopy, which is drastically reduced, and the plant itself will become increasingly sick and infested with pests.

Probably everyone has heard the phrase: “The bush is old and is getting sick”. In fact, it is more correct to say “The bush has been badly neglected and that is why it is getting sick”. So, in order to keep your plot free of “neglected” gooseberry trees, we will tell you to prune currant bushes, how’s, when’s and for what this or which pruning is done.


WHERE DO I START PRUNING?

The first pruning should be done immediately after planting the currant on the plot. Of course, when planting in autumn it is better to wait until spring, well, when it makes no sense to postpone pruning “in a long box” when planting in spring. The shoots of just-planted currant seedlings should be shortened so that each shoot leaves only 4 or 5 buds and no more.

Don’t worry, currant bushes will only look ugly, but they will appreciate it: after all, this pruning will allow new shoots to form, which will allow the bush to develop as fully as possible and will therefore help to increase the yield in the first years compared to currant bushes that have not been pruned in this way.

The best time to prune currant is early spring, usually March or early April, always before buds open. However, because currant bushes wake up so early, you need to somehow combine the snowmelt with this time before vegetation starts and have time to prune during this very short period of time.

But if you don’t have time, that’s okay, pruning can also be done in the fall, most notably during this period when pruning only starts when the plants have gone into dormancy after the leaves have fallen. When pruning the shoots of the currant, you should try to cut them above the outward-facing buds on the crown: later, the shoots will not grow in the center of the bush, making it dense, but outward.


WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS FOR PRUNE CURRANT BUSHES?

What are the options for prune currant bushes
What are the options for prune currant bushes

The currant is not an apple tree, there are not so many forms, usually only three. The first option is the usual bush formation, which is the kind of bush form of currant bush plants that we are all familiar with, usually scattered in the center of an open canopy. The second option is the stemmed currant bushes, which look like a small tree with shoots on top.
The third option is the trellis form, in which, after planting the currant trees in a row, a trellis is arranged – two poles are placed on the border of the row and two to three rows of sturdy wire are pulled between them. On this wire currant shoots formed in a special way are laid.

What is the advantage of shaping currant in a common way? It is as simple as possible. what are the advantages of currant bushes? Such plants can be grown more in the same area. Besides, such plants look unusual and beautiful.
What are the advantages of a currant? The plants are open, there is no overgrowth, they are less prone to diseases, less affected by pests, the canopy is open, the fruits are well lit and heated by the sun, therefore they are bigger and more delicious.


WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS FOR PRUNE CURRANT BUSHES?

A currant is not an apple tree, there are not that many forms, there are usually only three. The first option is the usual bush formation, the kind of bushy form of currant bush plants that we are all familiar with, usually scattered with an open canopy center. The second option is the stemmed currant bushes, which look like a small tree with shoots on top.
The third option is the trellis form, in which, after planting the currant trees in a row, a trellis is arranged – two poles are placed on the border of the row and two to three rows of sturdy wire are pulled between them. On this wire currant shoots formed in a special way are laid.

What is the advantage of shaping currant in a common way? It is as simple as possible. what are the advantages of currant bushes? Such plants can be grown more in the same area. Besides, such plants look unusual and beautiful.
What are the advantages of a currant? The plants are open, there is no overgrowth, they are less prone to diseases, less affected by pests, the canopy is open, the fruits are well lit and heated by the sun, therefore they are bigger and more delicious.


Stem formation of currant

Appearance – a shrub on the stem, a small tree. From the outside, it looks interesting and it seems to be very difficult to achieve such an effect by pruning. In fact, this is not the case. First, you need to plant common currant bushes in a place convenient for both you and the plant. next, you should choose the thickest, strongest, and upward-facing one from a large number of shoots. It is the future of such currant bushes that will function as both a trunk and a crown.

When you have chosen such a shoot, ruthlessly remove all other shoots and cut them off at the level of the soil. After that, you need to determine how high the pole of your future tree will be. Immediately, it is not necessary to be overly enthusiastic, currant bushes are still shrubs (biologically), so you should not let the stump be higher than 40inch (1 meter), otherwise, you will have to install a strong stand next to it.

Did you choose the height? Remember that no side shoots grew on the branches? Then simply cut all the side shoots into rings to reach the specified height, making sure that all cuts are sealed with garden varnish or oil-based paint. In the future, you will need to monitor the shoots at this height and remove them about once a season. At the top of the growth, it is necessary to leave branch shoots as this will be the crown of future currant bushes.

In the first year, you should leave four or five of these shoots, shortening them by half in order for them to grow out of the bushes in the second year. Try not to leave the initial downward-facing currant shoots, as they are of little use and look ugly from an aesthetic point of view; also remove all broken and dry shoots.

During growth, remove all shoots that will appear at the bottom of the bush and try to replace those that are more than seven years old with younger growths. By the way, the bottom of the bush can be covered with a layer of 1-1.5inch (3-4cm) of sawdust, which will stop the growth of weeds and also the roots.

Thus, the tree is ready, it does not take up much space and it looks unusual and beautiful from an aesthetic point of view, which is a clear advantage. In addition, the canopy of this tree is well lit by the wind and the berries are better illuminated, so they usually ripen more quickly. These are advantages, but there are also disadvantages – the currant stump, even though it is small in height, can easily break in a strong gust of wind, so ideally even a stump of 20inch (50cm) in height would need support.

The second disadvantage is that currant species are usually not particularly winter hardy, but can survive the winter well under a thick layer of snow. However, a layer of snow does not cover the stump shrub, which is supposed to be a very large mat of snow, so this plant sometimes freezes to death completely.

Finally, the most important disadvantage is the much shorter life span of the plant. If ordinary currant bushes can live 30 years and bring a harvest, then the bush on the stump, no more than a dozen. In fact, in its essence, shoot, which ages very quickly.


The formation of currant trellis

A long time ago, trellises were very fashionable. Scientists have proved that the fruits of plants grown on trellises are tastier, bigger, and contain more useful substances, but the cost of installing trellises is very high, both financially and materially. Trellis becomes an experiment, and not everyone dares to hold such experiments on their plots.

Where to start? With planting currant bushes, of course. for a full-fledged trellis, you need at least five or six bushes, probably of different species, planted very close to each other – about 20inch (0.5m).
Once the bushes are planted, we build a trellis – digging posts at the edges of the rows and stretching three rows of wire between them at heights of 15inch (40cm), 27inch (70cm), and 40inch (1m) above the ground, which is quite enough. Then, as the currant buds grow, they are tied to the trellis with twine, with a distance of about 7-8inch (18-20cm) between the branches.

Adjustment: When placing the trellis, it is best to place it with the flat side facing east, so that as much sunlight as possible reaches the trellis before and afternoon, and shines on the sides of the trellis during the hottest hours, otherwise the shrubs will be burned.

Try to leave and tie to the trellis no more than six strong and powerful shoots belonging to currant bushes, the rest can be safely cut off at the bottom of the soil. During growth, the previous year’s shoots should be shortened by about 45-50% and no more than six shots should be left in the current year’s growth so as to avoid overcrowding.
After five years, you can rejuvenate the currant bushes. To do this, leave three to four young shoots on each plant and cut off all the rest at the bottom of the soil.

What are the other advantages of a trellis, besides those listed before? Of course, the ease of collecting the fruit; as you know, currant which is a thorny crop, so it is difficult to collect the fruit from the bushes – is much easier to collect from the trellis. In fact, the green wall. In this case, the berries always remain clean and are much larger.


Formation of currant bushes

This is a classic and familiar currant bush from childhood, but it is best not to be neglected, that is, not to be overgrown and not to have broken, dry shoots growing deep into the canopy. How to achieve this goal? In order to obtain accurate currant bushes, it is necessary to shorten all shoots growing this season by 30%, so that each shoot has at least 5 buds.

Of those currant shoots that grow from the roots, it is necessary to leave no more than three well-developed shoots and no more than four at most, and the rest can be cut off boldly. In addition, it is advisable to cut all those currant bushes that are too close to the ground, touch the ground or go directly into the bush, and of course the sick, dry, broken and very short ones.

In the autumn of the following season, it is necessary to cut off again 30% of all the shoots of the year and leave more, seven pieces from the roots.

In the third year, currant bushes will usually begin to bear fruit, and by this period, thanks to your pruning and shaping, it will consist of a dozen branches of different ages. During this period, the pruning scheme of currant bushes remains the same – all shoots of the year should be shortened by one-third and two to three of the best-developed ones should be left from the root shoots.

By the end of seven years, currant bushes enter the industrial production phase. In this period, the bushes can consist of two dozen branches of the most varied ages. From this period onwards, every autumn, it is necessary to completely cut off (at the bottom of the soil) all shoots older than five years. How do understand that currant bushes are old trees? By the color of the bark: it will be much darker than the younger ones.

Finally, the cardinal rejuvenates. Carry it out when currant bushes “will have 20 years of history”. If you like this variety and don’t want to replace it with another one and the crop is not as good as every year, simply cut off all the shoots at a height of 4-5inch (10-13 cm) above the soil surface and new shoots will form a young currant bush.

Restoration pruning of currant bushes is best done in the spring, and the bushes should be given adequate nutrition after pruning – pour a tablespoon of urea under each bush.

Pruning of currant is not complicated here.

More related information about growing currant plants

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