Currants and gooseberries will be huge: how to prune these bushes properly

In the last weeks before spring begins to bloom with young greenery, gardening enthusiasts are pruning fruit trees and bushes. In particular, currants and gooseberries need such care. This helps to rejuvenate the plants, delighting you with a huge harvest.

OBOZREVATEL learned how to properly prune these bushes. Timely treatment allows them to feel better, grow and bloom more intensively, and produce good fruits.

First of all, when pruning fruit bushes, you need to remove all branches that are in poor condition: dried, frozen, damaged by pests or diseases, or poorly developing. This will remove excessive shade from the plant and it will receive more sunlight.

You should also remove those branches that have finished bearing fruit. Instead, the bush will focus on releasing new ones that are young and healthy. These are branches of a certain age:

• black currants - more than 4-5 years;
• red and white currants - over 4-5 years old;
• gooseberries - over 5-7 years old.

The result of pruning should be 15-20 of the strongest shoots rooted in the soil, which have additional roots. It is important to pay attention to the age of these branches: shoots of each age should be 15-20% of the total.

You should start pruning the bushes in the second year after planting. At this point, 2-4 well-developed buds should be left on each branch of the bush. Weak and poorly located shoots are subject to removal. During the second pruning and in the future, you need to leave 3-4 of the strongest annual shoots that come out of the base of the bush.

When pruning the basal shoots, it is important to distribute the new branches so that they do not shade each other. At the same time, the remaining annual root shoots should be shortened by a third, and those that are 2-3 years old should have the top removed at a distance of about 3-5 buds. Caring for branches that are more than 4 years old involves removing dried tops.

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