BUSH FRUITS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1938, Page 10

BUSH FRUITS

PRUNING OF CURRANTS. With bush fruits, all dead and unhealthy wood should be cut out. This is a kind of “clearing for action.” Then comes the pruning. Here it must be remembered that black currants differ in habit of growth from both red and white currants. These last two bear their fruit on short lateral growths ("spurs”) coming from the older wood. The best way to prune these currants is to shorten the side-growths in summer, so that they will form fruiting buds. If this has been done there will be little winter pruning necessary beyond shortening the tips of the “leaders” (the main growths). If there are several strong new shoots from well down in the plant they may be kept and an old rod may be removed. That will mean the loss of some fruit this year, but it will help to renew the bush .

Black currants, however, bear their fruit on new wood, and a supply of this must always •be present. Every year several old rods should be cut out from the base of the plant. The best time for this is immediately after the fruit has ripened—in December — so that the new growths can get all the light 'and air that they need. In September and October all currant bushes should be examined so that die-back of any kind may be discovered. Some of it may be due to a borer in the stem. In any case, the rods should be cut back to healthy wood and all the growths removed should be burned, so that insect and fungal pests will not have a chance of increasing.