{"id":1599,"date":"2015-08-17T20:16:49","date_gmt":"2015-08-18T03:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1599"},"modified":"2015-08-18T06:37:52","modified_gmt":"2015-08-18T13:37:52","slug":"tips-on-blackcurrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/vegetables-herbs\/tips-on-blackcurrants\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackcurrant Cultivation Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Recommended AGM Varieties<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Ebony&#8217;s large berries can be ready as early as June. Branches may need support.<\/li>\n<li>Big Ben crops well and a good all rounder.<\/li>\n<li>Ben Connan compact bushes with easy to pick fruit. My choice for my small garden<\/li>\n<li>Ben Sareksaid to acidic and have short strings.<\/li>\n<li>Ben Hope Not a strong currant flavour<\/li>\n<li>Ben Tirran easy to manage with late fruiting and good flavour &#8211; I have just picked a good crop<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Quick Tips<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Plant new bare rooted blackcurrants <strong>2-5 inches lower<\/strong> than they were grown in the nursery to encourage branching from the bottom. This helps to create a strong shrub.<\/li>\n<li>Best fruit yields are obtained from <strong>wood grown in the previous year<\/strong> so one third of the older wood can be pruned out to an inch from the ground each year.<\/li>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<li>Older black coloured branches will bear fruit, but quantity and quality decline with age.<\/li>\n<li>Combine pruning with picking the fruit by cutting the branch prior to harvesting. Alternatively wait until winter to prune.<\/li>\n<li>Buy <strong>disease free plants<\/strong> and watch out for big rounded buds harboring gall mites. Pick off and burn infected buds and if badly infested destroy the plant.<\/li>\n<li>You can get a <strong>yield of up to 8 pounds<\/strong> from a strong bush. Net bushes if birds are a problem<\/li>\n<li>Favourite include varieties Ben Lomond, Titania and Ben Hope.<\/li>\n<li>Planting should be completed by the end of March. Discourage fruiting in the first year to build up strength.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tandmpics.com\/240\/8\/89837.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"240\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Cultivation Tips<\/h3>\n<p>Protect from strong winds and they will tolerate shade.<br \/>\nPrefer fertile soil with plenty of compost.<br \/>\nVigourous plants need space up to 5 feet.<br \/>\nMulch well but not up to the stems.<br \/>\nWater well whilst fruit is setting and ripening.<br \/>\nBeware of Blackcurrant gall\u00c2\u00a0 mite &#8211; infected buds should be removed.<br \/>\nGrow as stools with mulit branches from ground level<\/p>\n<p>Prune after leaf fall removing a quarter of the wood including the oldest branch back to the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pruning and picking tasty blackcurrants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vegetables-herbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}