pruning blackcurrent bush

Blackcurrants should be pruned in winter, or after fruiting as you are too late this year. They fruit best on 2 year old wood so you need to take out the oldest stems to stimulate new wood from the base. The oldest stems are the darkest wood, but if all your stems are old then I'd suggest that you only take out a third of them and trim back the others by about a third. Then next year take out another third and by year 3 you can remove the last of the old wood.Meanwhile the new shoots will start to fruit. The books say that you can prune all shoots down to 2 inches to renovate it,but you'd have to decide if you want to risk it! If lots of new shoots grow from your first pruning then you could safely remove the rest in one go. You'll need to net the crop against birds as they will strip the whole lot!!

hello helenflower, prune back in the autumn put plenty of chicken manure or cow or horse asap put netting over the bush when fruit appear.dilys.