Currant cut: black currant

Why do you need a crop of currant? There are three main purposes of pruning: hive formation, continuous updatingplants and the normalization of the load by harvest. If the berries on the bush are too many, their size decreases and the taste deteriorates. Here the principle "is better less, yes it is better" works. It is important to find a balance between the quantity and quality of the crop.

The first trimming of the currant is made immediately after planting. The seedling is pruned very severely, leaving only 2-4 well-developed buds on each branch. Now the currant can be left alone until next year.

Next year, you need to leave 3-4 zero (annual) branches, growing from the roots. Leave the strongest branches, cut the others. It is impossible to leave frail and underdeveloped branches, as well as branches that are in shading or threaten with shading to other branches. The remaining branches need to shorten the tops.

For the third year, weak weak annual shoots, and strong annual shoots and perennial branches - shortened by one third. Such trimming of the currant must be carried outannually, then in 4-5 years you will complete the formation of the bush. With every trimming, all the sick, broken, shrinking, thickening bush and simply unnecessary zeroth branches should be removed.

In the sixth to seventh year, when the formation of the bush is over, remove 5-6 year old branches that have lost their ability to grow and bear fruit. You need to delete them without hesitation: The benefit from them is no longer any. If it seems to you that without them the bush will be too rare, it is better to leave more young twigs on it than "ballast" from old ones. In the following years, the cropping of currant and the formation of the bush continue according to the standard scheme, do not forget to trim the old branches.

And what if you "prohlopali ears" withpruning, and the bush has thickened much? If the currant is not trimmed for a long time, it will have many old branches that not only do not grow and bear fruit, but they do not give rise to even younger branches. Therefore, all the old branches must be removed, the young ones must be weeded out. Then you will provoke the growth of zero shoots, and already on their basis you can normally form a bush.

If the bush is strongly thickened, the trimming of the currant can be stretched for two years. In the first year you need to remove all unproductivebranches older than 5-6 years. And the next year you can put everything in order. Ideal - when on the bush there are 2-4 branches of each age. But when working with a strongly thickened bush, it is not always possible to achieve this immediately, so just make sure that there are no unproductive and shaded branches on the bush.

Cutting branches, you need to cut at the level of the soil or even lower. If they remain "hemp", the base of the bushwill be too thick. Such a foundation is a perfect refuge for pests and diseases, but you do not want to expose your currant extra danger.

When is the currant cropped? Some prefer to trim in late autumn or early winter (until the snow has fallen), and in the spring cut the broken branches and frozen tops. And some perform all pruning in the spring, in which case the black currant should be cut off in the early spring, before the appearance of the kidneys. But all the same it is better to do it in the autumn, because the currant early develop kidneys, and they are easily broken off. Summer pruning of black currant is not required.

This is only a general scheme of pruning: nuances can vary depending on the variety of black currant, more precisely - from its shoot-forming ability. The red currant is cut in a different way; about pruning red and white currants we will tell in one of our next articles.