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Fruit non-bushes
Native58
Posts: 46
in Fruit & veg
Hi
Does anyone know why my blackcurrents, gooseberries and raspberries aren't bush-like. It's only from reading the forum on here that I realised they shouldn't be long canes but bushy! They're all grown in large pots with plenty of sunshine. I water them every day in the morning and evening and feed them with tomato feed weekly. The canes I do have are fruiting nicely, but I think I'm doing something wrong 
Just wish I'd taken up gardening before my granddad passed away......!
0
Posts
Hi Native. Your raspberries will be cane-like and I suspect you are overfeeding the bushes. Did you prune them or are they young plants?
Hi Ladybird4 - thanks for the info. I got all of the fruit bushes last year - they're in large pots (12" diameter and about 12" deep). The raspberries I understand grown as canes, but I'm really confused as to why my gooseberries and blackcurrents are also looking like canes. I didn't prune them last year - to be honest I didn't know that they needed to be pruned,
If the gooseberry and blackcurrant look like canes, they need formative pruning but not now. The blackcurrant I would prune down to six inches at the end of July. Gooseberries are winter pruned.
They will do far better in the garden. My blackcurrant bushes are five feet across and loaded, they would not be in a pot.
I agree with fidgetbones. They should all be in the garden. I only have one blackcurrant bush and it grows in my flower border with the roses, salvias and other hardy perennials. I get loads of blackcurrants every year. All I do to prune mine is remove the fruiting shoots to collect the currants. The new shoots then become next year's fruit carriers.