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Blackcurrant help please

trishstephensontrishstephenson Posts: 3
in Fruit & veg
Hello - I planted a blackcurrant bare root perhaps 5 years ago and the most I have ever picked is 16 berries! Each year the same thing has happened. After cutting out the old wood it's fed and I watch it grow. Excitedly I see the flowers form and then beginnings of the fruit then overnight it is decimated by what I don't know. Thinking the birds had helped themselves a cage was made and the plant was netted but the same thing happened. I've used nematodes and hung sticky pads to catch saw flies but that hasn't worked either. Now I just want to dig it out. Any suggestions to consider before it meets its maker would be greatly appreciated.

Trish


Posts

  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    Not sure. When you say you cut out the old wood are you cutting out next years flowering stems?
    Our blackcurrants have been in our garden for 40 years. Every few years we cut them right back and allow new growth to develop. It does mean though that the one we have cut back bears no fruit the following year but picks up the next.
    Fortunately the blackcurrants are left alone by the birds. They go for the redcurrants and figs.
    The saw fly attack our gooseberry bushes which are next to the blackcurrant.
    Maybe it is just a non productive bush.
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    How big do the berries get before they vanish? Is it just after the flowers drop? If so I would think it's not getting pollinated, or it's getting some form of stress.

    I would suggest doing absolutely nothing to it this year, don't prune it don't feed it, don't do anything to it at all. I have never fed a blackcurrant bush and ours are also at least 20 years old, the neighbours were over 40 years old, I don't think either bush has ever been pruned either, and they most certainly have not been fed!

    Birds don't touch our blackcurrants at all, but the murder the redcurrants right next to it so I doubt it is anything to do with birds. Sawfly would be very obvious as the leaves just vanish overnight, I doubt your issue is caused by pests but it may be caused by over pampering.
  • Joyce GoldenlilyJoyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933
    No more pruning for at least 3 yrs. Then only take out 1/3 of the oldest stems. they will be black in colour. Blackcurrants are hungry so a few dollops of farmyard manure each year will keep your bush happy.
  • strelitzia32strelitzia32 Posts: 758
    If you have currants forming, and large numbers disappear overnight (I.e. They aren't falling off and you can see them on the ground), it's birds, squirrels or rats. If you've netted properly, check around ground level for tunnels or holes chewed in the net. 

    Same thing happened to me this year, I finally found the hole a rat had chewed in one corner. Remember they can get through absolutely tiny spaces.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    We had fantastic crops of blackcurrants in our last garden which was in Belgium and on rich soil and well watered.   I gave them an annual feed of pelleted chicken manure and found the best way to prune them and thus maintain size and vigour was to cut out the stems which were covered in fruit and then sit in comfort on the terrace and pick off the fruit.  Easier than bending under a shrub to get them.

    If yours flower but don't set fruit you need to plant some flowers nearby to attract pollinators.  If they set fruit but then lose them all you either have a pesky critter or your plants are stressed and can't provide the energy needed to grow the fruit. 

    I suggest you have a good look for holes that would indicate mice or rats - altho our last garden had both as it was surrounded by fields and they didn't strip our fruit bushes.

    Once the autumn rains have set in and the soil is good and moist to a decent depth I would give each shrub a good thick mulch of well rotted manure and/or garden compost.   Next spring give each one a good dollop of pelleted chicken manure and all through next spring and summer make sure the plants are watered in dry spells.

    We have some shrubs here but they are growing poorly and set few fruit because we get heatwaves and drought despite having fertile soil so this autumn they'll be transplanted to a dedicated soft fruit bed with loads of manure worked in, then they'll be watered and mulched and they'll have a seep hose for dry spells.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Joyce GoldenlilyJoyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933
    My daughter loses all of her blueberries in a similar way and last year one of my apple trees was stripped, just before the apples were fully ripe. This year my daughter has also lost all of her apples from 2 tree, the 2 eaters. Our eventual conclusion was deer. I saw a mini herd of 5 standing around my car, not far from my fruit trees and my  daughter's nieghbour's have complained about the deer coming into their garden.
    I netted my apple trees because they are only small and have apples this year. I have my blackcurrants in a fruit cage and never lost them. 
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