Hi all,

silly question, I know, but is this a blackcurrant bush? Plant_1.jpg
shows a close up of the foliage and Plant_2 the whole bush (warning:
some may find the files large):

http://www.geotrans-online.de/Plant_1.jpg
http://www.geotrans-online.de/Plant_2.jpg

Assuming it is blackcurrant, what is the best way to prune? Assuming it
isn't, what is it? :-) We have bought a house with a large, rather
neglected garden. These bushes look as though they have not been pruned
for years. They are very large and dense. They are almost six feet high
at the upper tips. There are some orange spots on one or two parts; they
look like some kind of fungus. Does anybody know what they are and what
i should do?

Thanks in advance

--
Alan Johnson, Geotr@ns
www.geotrans-online.de
German-English, Geosciences/Technical
http://geotransblog.blogspot.com/
Terminus Est

In article ,
Alan Johnson writes:
|
| There are some orange spots on one or two parts; they
| look like some kind of fungus. Does anybody know what they are and what
| i should do?

Orange spots are probably coral spot - which is, indeed, a fungus.
It infects dead wood within weeks in warm damp conditions, but
rarely causes any trouble to living plants.

Note that the "traditional wisdom" is that it can cause die-back,
but it is also possible that all of the cases of where it appears
to do so are where something else is causing the die-back and it
is infecting the dead wood immediately afterwards. Anyway, most
old shrubs have it on at least some of their dead branches, and
they don't die back.

I ignore it.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Alan Johnson writes:
|
| There are some orange spots on one or two parts; they
| look like some kind of fungus. Does anybody know what they are and what
| i should do?

Orange spots are probably coral spot - which is, indeed, a fungus.
It infects dead wood within weeks in warm damp conditions, but
rarely causes any trouble to living plants.

Note that the "traditional wisdom" is that it can cause die-back,
but it is also possible that all of the cases of where it appears
to do so are where something else is causing the die-back and it
is infecting the dead wood immediately afterwards. Anyway, most
old shrubs have it on at least some of their dead branches, and
they don't die back.

I ignore it.

OK, Nick, thanks for that. I'll just cut them out.

But I was hoping for a bit more feedback. Perhaps tomorrow?

Regards

--
Alan Johnson, Geotr@ns
www.geotrans-online.de
German-English, Geosciences/Technical
http://geotransblog.blogspot.com/
Terminus Est

In article ,
Alan Johnson writes:
|
| But I was hoping for a bit more feedback. Perhaps tomorrow?

Perhaps :-)

I am no expert, but there are some general rules. With an old bush,
you may kill it by hard pruning, but the bushes that die are unlikely
to do much if you don't prune them. You should start by thinning it
ruthlessly - i.e. all really old, sick and thin wood, and cut back
long shoots.

If it then shoots from the base this year, cut out more (or the rest)
of the old wood. If not, it may be beyond hope.

With really special shrubs, you take more care, but blackcurrants
don't thrive for more than a few decades anyway, and are easy to
replace.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Hello Alan

In article ,
Alan Johnson wrote:
Hi all,

silly question, I know, but is this a blackcurrant bush? Plant_1.jpg
shows a close up of the foliage and Plant_2 the whole bush (warning:
some may find the files large):

http://www.geotrans-online.de/Plant_1.jpg
http://www.geotrans-online.de/Plant_2.jpg

Assuming it is blackcurrant, what is the best way to prune? Assuming it
isn't, what is it? :-) We have bought a house with a large, rather
neglected garden. These bushes look as though they have not been pruned
for years. They are very large and dense. They are almost six feet high
at the upper tips. There are some orange spots on one or two parts; they
look like some kind of fungus. Does anybody know what they are and what
i should do?

Thanks in advance

In my view the best way to deal with blackcurrants is to have 3 bushes, and
cut one practically to the ground each year in sequence. You will get very
little fruit on the cut back bush, but the other 2 will make up for it. You
also get rid of all of the old wood.

With a collection of neglected bushes this is not a practical approach. I
would start by cutting about one third of the branches out of each bush
making the cuts quite low down. This will take out a lot of old wood, but
also sadly some younger wood, but with luck will generate some new branches
for the future.

The other question if they have been neglected is "Are they suffering badly
from Big Bud ?" If they are it wiuld probably be better to ditch the lot and
start again.

John

--
John Rye
Hadleigh IPSWICH England
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/jrye/index.html
--- On Line using an Acorn StrongArm RiscPC ---

Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Alan Johnson writes:
|
| But I was hoping for a bit more feedback. Perhaps tomorrow?

Perhaps :-)

I am no expert, but there are some general rules. With an old bush,
you may kill it by hard pruning, but the bushes that die are unlikely
to do much if you don't prune them. You should start by thinning it
ruthlessly - i.e. all really old, sick and thin wood, and cut back
long shoots.

If it then shoots from the base this year, cut out more (or the rest)
of the old wood. If not, it may be beyond hope.

With really special shrubs, you take more care, but blackcurrants
don't thrive for more than a few decades anyway, and are easy to
replace.

Hi Nick,

I didn't necessarily mean by you, of course, but thanks for replying
again anyway. One of my first suggestions to my wife upon seeing the
fungus was to throw them all out and plant new ones. She objected,
buckets full of blackcurrants drifting before her eyes. :-)

Regards

--
Alan Johnson, Geotr@ns
www.geotrans-online.de
German-English, Geosciences/Technical
http://geotransblog.blogspot.com/
Terminus Est

John Rye wrote:
Hello Alan

In article ,
Alan Johnson wrote:
Hi all,

silly question, I know, but is this a blackcurrant bush? Plant_1.jpg
shows a close up of the foliage and Plant_2 the whole bush (warning:
some may find the files large):

http://www.geotrans-online.de/Plant_1.jpg
http://www.geotrans-online.de/Plant_2.jpg

Assuming it is blackcurrant, what is the best way to prune? Assuming it
isn't, what is it? :-) We have bought a house with a large, rather
neglected garden. These bushes look as though they have not been pruned
for years. They are very large and dense. They are almost six feet high
at the upper tips. There are some orange spots on one or two parts; they
look like some kind of fungus. Does anybody know what they are and what
i should do?

Thanks in advance

In my view the best way to deal with blackcurrants is to have 3 bushes, and
cut one practically to the ground each year in sequence. You will get very
little fruit on the cut back bush, but the other 2 will make up for it. You
also get rid of all of the old wood.

With a collection of neglected bushes this is not a practical approach. I
would start by cutting about one third of the branches out of each bush
making the cuts quite low down. This will take out a lot of old wood, but
also sadly some younger wood, but with luck will generate some new branches
for the future.

The other question if they have been neglected is "Are they suffering badly
from Big Bud ?" If they are it wiuld probably be better to ditch the lot and
start again.

John


Hi John,

Thanks for your advice, which is quite similar to that offered by Nick
really. We found another one or two hidden in overgrown corners, so it
looks like we now have 4 large, old, unkempt bushes. I'll try and cut
one of them back hard, removing about a third, as you suggest, and see
how it looks next year. At worst (I hope), it will let in more light and
air this year. In addition, it appears that some have sown themslves
out, as there are a number of very small "bushes" around some of the
larger ones. Do you (or other readers) think it's worth keeping the
little shoots to see how they develop?

Regards

--
Alan Johnson, Geotr@ns
www.geotrans-online.de
German-English, Geosciences/Technical
http://geotransblog.blogspot.com/
Terminus Est

On 8 Apr, 10:51, Alan Johnson wrote:
John Rye wrote:
Hello Alan

In article ,
Alan Johnson wrote:
Hi all,

silly question, I know, but is this a blackcurrant bush? Plant_1.jpg
shows a close up of the foliage and Plant_2 the whole bush (warning:
some may find the files large):

http://www.geotrans-online.de/Plant_1.jpg
http://www.geotrans-online.de/Plant_2.jpg

Assuming it is blackcurrant, what is the best way to prune? Assuming it
isn't, what is it? :-) We have bought a house with a large, rather
neglected garden. These bushes look as though they have not been pruned
for years. They are very large and dense. They are almost six feet high
at the upper tips. There are some orange spots on one or two parts; they
look like some kind of fungus. Does anybody know what they are and what
i should do?

Thanks in advance

In my view the best way to deal with blackcurrants is to have 3 bushes, and
cut one practically to the ground each year in sequence. You will get very
little fruit on the cut back bush, but the other 2 will make up for it. You
also get rid of all of the old wood.

With a collection of neglected bushes this is not a practical approach. I
would start by cutting about one third of the branches out of each bush
making the cuts quite low down. This will take out a lot of old wood, but
also sadly some younger wood, but with luck will generate some new branches
for the future.

The other question if they have been neglected is "Are they suffering badly
from Big Bud ?" If they are it wiuld probably be better to ditch the lot and
start again.

John

Hi John,

Thanks for your advice, which is quite similar to that offered by Nick
really. We found another one or two hidden in overgrown corners, so it
looks like we now have 4 large, old, unkempt bushes. I'll try and cut
one of them back hard, removing about a third, as you suggest, and see
how it looks next year. At worst (I hope), it will let in more light and
air this year. In addition, it appears that some have sown themslves
out, as there are a number of very small "bushes" around some of the
larger ones. Do you (or other readers) think it's worth keeping the
little shoots to see how they develop?

Regards

--
Alan Johnson,
German-English, Geosciences/Technicalhttp://geotransblog.blogspot.com/
Terminus Est

Our method of pruning blackcurrants is to cut off the fruiting branch
when the fruit is ready for picking and then strip the fruit off that.
Seems to work pretty well.

Jonathan

"John Rye" wrote in message
...
In my view the best way to deal with blackcurrants is to have 3 bushes,
and
cut one practically to the ground each year in sequence. You will get very
little fruit on the cut back bush, but the other 2 will make up for it.
You
also get rid of all of the old wood.

With a collection of neglected bushes this is not a practical approach. I
would start by cutting about one third of the branches out of each bush
making the cuts quite low down. This will take out a lot of old wood, but
also sadly some younger wood, but with luck will generate some new
branches
for the future.

The other question if they have been neglected is "Are they suffering
badly
from Big Bud ?" If they are it wiuld probably be better to ditch the lot
and
start again.

I planted a couple of B/C bushes, probably 15 years ago along with 2
redcurrant. I get decent crops of the red but my best yield of the black
has been 3 per bush - yes, that's 3 berries per bush. There are always
masses of flowers but they don't set. Out of frustration, I cut them down 2
years ago and never got around to digging out the roots so last year the
regrown bush produced nothing! I have taked to horticulturalists who are
puzzled so now I buy my blackcurrants from a local farm.

BTW, my parents live in Capel St. Mary and I nearly always find some excuse
to visit Partridge's when I'm over for a visit.
Graham

Jonathan wrote:

Our method of pruning blackcurrants is to cut off the fruiting branch
when the fruit is ready for picking and then strip the fruit off that.
Seems to work pretty well.

Jonathan

That also sounds like a good idea, Jonathan. Perhaps we'll try a mix of
the methods suggested. I'm not really afraid that we'll end up without
enough blackcurrants.

Regards

--
Alan Johnson, Geotr@ns
www.geotrans-online.de
German-English, Geosciences/Technical
http://geotransblog.blogspot.com/
Terminus Est

John Rye wrote:

The other question if they have been neglected is "Are they suffering badly
from Big Bud ?" If they are it wiuld probably be better to ditch the lot and
start again.

John

Hi John,

I meant to ask: what is Big Bud and how do I recognise it?

Regards

--
Alan Johnson, Geotr@ns
www.geotrans-online.de
German-English, Geosciences/Technical
http://geotransblog.blogspot.com/
Terminus Est

In article , afjohnson@geotrans-
online.de says...
John Rye wrote:

The other question if they have been neglected is "Are they suffering badly
from Big Bud ?" If they are it wiuld probably be better to ditch the lot and
start again.

John

Hi John,

I meant to ask: what is Big Bud and how do I recognise it?

Regards


Its quite obvious when you have it! so if you areasking its not likely
you do. The buds on parts of the bush become very swollen and do not
produce fruit, we used to have it and kept things under control by
pruning out the affected branches, eventually re planted the bushes as
per advice in books but 4 years on the bushes are not cropping as well as
the infected bushes so my advice would be live with it.
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea