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blackcurrant cuttings
Guernsey Donkey2
Posts: 6,713
in Talkback
I am planning to prune our two blackcurrant bushes this week, any tips on rooting the cuttings would be appreciated please and should I put the cuttings outside or in an unheated greenhouse and how long before I can plant the cuttings out in the fruit patch?
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Make a slit in the veg patch. Put your cutting in, making sure the bottom is in good contact with the soil. Water it in. Make sure it doesn't dry out next summer. Move to permanent position this time next year. Blackcurrants are dead easy to root. I have even had prunings root when left on the ground because I didn't tidy up properly.
I have a bag full in the freezer. I throw a handful in the porridge in the morning. Little flavour bombs of goodness.
Go for young wood for best results but I've even had success with old stuff. I pot my cuttings up for convenience. 10 inch pot and insert cuttings around the rim. Water and then leave outside. By next Spring most if not all will have rooted and can be re-potted individually to grow on. This year, I even had a few currants on each of last year's cuttings.
Old wood seems to be fine - I usually plant the best of the prunings and I now have more than I know what to do with. Sandy soil is best - or sprinkle some sand in the hole/slit before you shove the sticks in. (Best, as with most fruit bushes & trees, not to let them fruit in their first year. Counsel of perfection, I know.)
New blackcurrant bush, anyone?
I bought some new hormone rooting powder today - so now all ready to do the deed tomorrow! Yes blackcurrants are a super fruit - my father used to grow them commercially many years ago - he sold them on the stalk to shops and hotels in his area.
You don't need rooting powder for Black Currant cuttings, just stick them in gritty compost and they will root, I have even had them root just sticking a shoot into very clayey soil.
Just make sure the bottom of the cutting is cut straight across, just below a bud. And leave all the buds on, except the top ones. They will produce new shoots, year after year, from below the ground which is where they should come from.