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.
You Will Need
- Blackcurrant bush
- Garden fork
- Garden spade
- Multi-purpose, peat-free compost
- Fertiliser
- Secateurs
Total time:
Step 1
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.
Step 2
Tip plenty of garden compost into the hole and fork it deep into the soil.
Step 3
Sprinkle a handful of fertiliser in the hole and fork it into the soil.
Step 4
Spread the roots of the blackcurrant bush out evenly across the hole area, teasing them out carefully.
Step 5
Fill in around the roots with soil, firming it down with your foot as you go, to remove any air pockets.
Step 6
Water the plant in well, soaking the area to help settle the soil down around the plant’s roots.
Step 7
Prune all the shoots right back to encourage new growth from below soil level.
Step 8
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.
