Red and white currants and gooseberries require a different method of cutting than black currants. These shrubs produce most of the flower buds on the side shoots, growing out of annuals, two-, three- and four-year-old skeletal shoots. Fewer flowers develop on the five-year-old shoots, the bunches on them are much shorter, and the berries are getting smaller and smaller. For this reason, five-year-old shoots should be removed.
In the first year after planting the bushes, all shoots are allowed to grow, However, shortening them to a height of approx. 30 cm from the ground. In the spring of the second year, weak shoots are cut, sick and lying on the ground, while healthy and strong, it is shortened by a few centimeters. This trimming produces numerous side branches, which bear fruit abundantly, increasing the yield obtained from one bush. In third, in the fourth and fifth years, only weak shoots are removed, sick and lying on the ground. However, the strongest, cubs should always be shortened. In the sixth year, all five-year shoots are cut.
Properly cut bushes of red and white currants and gooseberries should not have shoots older than five years; and only left after 3…4 shoots from the following years and 5…7 annual shoots in case, if in the following years it was necessary to cut sick shoots, broken or lying on the ground. You should proceed slightly differently when cutting the recommended varieties of red currant – Heros or Jonkheer van Tets. Its bushes are similar to the way of fruiting black currants, therefore the principles of cutting are like this, like black currant bushes.
Planted raspberries should be trimmed above the ground, On the other hand, the x-ray cutting is performed after the fruit harvest is completed (in August). All shoots are then cut out near the ground, which were fruitful in July in a given year. With a large number of new shoots, some of them must also be cut, leaving 8 in each bush…10 pieces. The cut shoots must be collected and burned.
Red and white currants and gooseberries require a different method of cutting than black currants. These shrubs produce most of the flower buds on the side shoots, growing out of annuals, two-, three- and four-year-old skeletal shoots. Fewer flowers develop on the five-year-old shoots, the bunches on them are much shorter, and the berries are getting smaller and smaller. For this reason, five-year-old shoots should be removed.
