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Overview
Blackcurrants are easy to grow and more tolerant of heavy soils than other currant bushes. Just one plant can provide a generous crop of berries. If blackcurrant bushes are kept well fed and watered you could be harvesting fruit a year after planting.
Do it:
autumn and winter
Takes just:
45 minutes
How to do it
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Choose an open and sunny site. Fork over a wide area of ground, then dig a hole deep enough to accommodate the roots of your fruit bush. -
Tip plenty of garden compost into the hole and fork it deep into the soil. -
Sprinkle a handful of fertiliser in the hole and fork it into the soil. -
Spread the roots of the blackcurrant bush out evenly across the hole area, teasing them out carefully. -
Fill in around the roots with soil, firming it down with your foot as you go, to remove any air pockets. -
Water the plant in well, soaking the area to help settle the soil down around the plant's roots. -
Prune all the shoots right back to encourage new growth from below soil level. -
By summer the bush will have formed plenty of new shoots that will carry fruit the following summer.
"Mail order fruit nurseries have a great range of bare-root plants in autumn and winter."
