Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Blackcurrants pruning  Oh… good old Ribes nigrum! It’s one of our favourite fruits – Juuls makes pretty mean jam out of those dark berries. You can eat them raw off the plant, but honestly… jam is the way to go as far as I’m concerned.  They hail from the temperate areas of Central and Northern Europe and Asia – yep, they can deal with frosts.  Blackcurrants are usually grown as multi-stemmed plants, with an open structure of 6–10 upright stems growing from the base.   Established bushes (aged four years or older) are best pruned every winter to keep them fruiting strongly. This is a simple process – cut out up to a third of the oldest stems down at the base, create some space in the middle. The younger stems will then rise up to produce fruit for the next few years.   Red Currants pruning is slightly different from Blackcurrants.  From late winter to early spring – prune all forms of red and white currants annually while the plants are still dormant, before any signs of growth appear.  Red and white currants