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Currants. Bushes verses cordon...
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Message 1.Â
Posted by zoomer44 (U14019069) on Tuesday, 11th January 2011
In October I planted three new currant plants and a gooseberry. I'd planned to grow them as bushes but after reading GW mag am considering growing them as cordons, pruning out all but one stem.
The area they're planted in is narrow, long and because space was limited they are spaced about 2ft apart. The spot will be sunny most of the day but as the sun sets a 4ft high fence will start to limit the sun they get, the gooseberry bush will loose the sun first being closest to the fence.
Has anyone grown them as cordons and if so how do you rate it.
I'd also thought about growing two as bushes and two as cordons so they will be at different heights. Allowing the bushes to grow ouutward and the cordons to grow upward.
Your opinions and advise would be most welcome. -
Message 2
Posted by Tee Gee (U10012255) on Wednesday, 12th January 2011
Due to a currants bush like habit, I think you would stand more chance as a 'fan' rather than a cordon.
Whats on my mind is 'pruning'
With a fan you have a flattened bush in effect so you can cut out old wood and train in 'new' wood each year.
Fruit grows on the new wood!
The pundits usually recommend a 'goblet' shape to allow air free passage through and around the plant what I have described is a flattened goblet!
Speaking of ventilation! If I went this route I think it would be best to keep the branches a few inches off the fence to allow air up behind them.
This would also be the same for gooseberies!
I hope my idea/opinions are food for thought and I for one would be interested to here how you go on ! -
Message 3
Posted by DiggerSean (U14704361) on Wednesday, 12th January 2011
It depends if you're growing black currents or red/white currents.
Black currents flower and fruit more profusely on one or two year old wood and therefore the only/best way to grow these is as a bush (They can't be trained as cordons). These should be pruned yearly taking out the oldest growth (about a third of the bush) down to ground level every winter. This means that the oldest growth on the bush will be two years old. This is the way I prune mine anyway, some people take out a quarter of the growth every year.
When it comes to red/white currants and also gooseberries then these flower and fruit on 'spurs' on old wood and the pruning regime is rather different to black currants. These can either be grown as a bush or as cordons, you can also grow them as fans or espaliers but it gets more complicated. I would recommend a good fruit pruning book or even the web pages from the RHS for tips/techniques.
The easiest way would be to grow them all as bushes and if you have the room I'd do that. Yields will also be far higher as well if grown as bushes. Good luck and let us know how you decide to go.
Regards,
Sean -
Message 4
Posted by zoomer44 (U14019069) on Wednesday, 12th January 2011
Thanks for the replies.
The explaination as to how they are planted isn't very clear.
TeeGee. The plants are in a bed nearly 2ft wide and 10 ft long. Gooseberry bush is 2ft from fence, white currant 4ft, red currant 6ft and black currant 8ft. In order to make a fan effect would I need to construct a frame for them to be trained to.
Digger Sean. Would you say there was enough room to grow them all as bushes given the spacings I've discribed. I'll certainly now grow the black currant one as a bush.
I fancy growing the gooseberry as a cordon because it is so close to the fence but the wood on this has no central branch with all the wood growing outward.
The reason for considering two bushes and two cordons was so they had more ventilation. I'd read somewhere mildew can be a problem if they don't have enough air circulating around them or if they are planted to close together. -
Message 5
Posted by DiggerSean (U14704361) on Thursday, 13th January 2011
By the way that you describe it, I would say no probably not enough room to grow them all as bushes. Some currant bushes can be fairly wide spreading dependant on type and being planted that close together would cause problems.
Restricted pruning is probably the best way to go with only the black currant grown as a bush.
If you did want to grown the likes of the gooseberry as a fan you would indeed need a frame with wires to support it.
You still have time to move your plants as they'll still be dormant, it might set them back a little but shouldn't do any long term harm. You could then move the goosberry nearer to the fence and give the blackcurrant more room to spread it's limbs...just a thought! -
Message 6
Posted by zoomer44 (U14019069) on Monday, 24th January 2011
Decided to grow the blackcurrant and gooseberry as bushes and red/white currant as cordons with a more restricted pruning. I'm gonna plant them alternate - a bush then cordon.
So went out in the garden with the intention of replanting them last weekend.
It's obvious which is the gooseberry but the winter winds have taken out the labels on the other plants
I don't know which currant plant is which any way of telling with no leaves on any
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Message 7
Posted by zoomer44 (U14019069) on Saturday, 5th March 2011
Here's an update on the fruit bushes. Two didn't get through the winter and I decided these were black and red currant. The white currant and gooseberry both have tiny shoots on then so on the strength of that instead of watching to see if the other two twigs would grow I nipped a bit off the top from each and also scraped the bark with no sign of green wood so bought a couple of new plants at £1.75 each from out local council nursery, a couple of feet tall with buds.
I can see now how different red and white currant bushes are to the black currant. I made a bit more room by digging up the gooseberry and moving it closer to the fence and spaced the newer plants out more. The red currant bush has three good stems growing straight up so thought I'd leave these on and grow this as a cordon, the white currant also has three good stems growing straight up so thought I'd wait to see which stems grew best and cut one off each later in the season.
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