[GardenShed]

Some branches / stems on my red current bush are brown at their lower half and whitish towards the end, 20 cm or so.  Is the white part new growth or old? 

Whether the branches are all brown or partly white, most have buds on - is it still worth pruning given that buds have appeared?

Thanks.

[3 allotments]

Hi gs , in my opinion  i have several bushes with lots of white growth after i pruned it in august depending on how many white stems you got you could trim out old dark wood, to make way for this season whiteish pale new growth it will still produce on dark wood as my friend has a redcurrant  bush 5 feet across and has never pruned it its 10 year old ,somebody will come along and have a different view on this probably hope this is of some help good luck ;)Darren

[sunshineband]

The white growth is the part I prune back each winter to about four inches, to try to keep the bushes getting too untidy. I try to keep the centre of the bush open in a kind of goblet shape so remove older wood to do this.

As 3allotments said, red currants fruit on old wood, so you will not lose any fruit by doing this now. The buds on the white wood will be leaf buds, and the brown wood will have both leaf and flower buds. Flower buds are rounder.

Some folk never prune red currants and still get a crop, but I like mine to be neat 

[GardenShed]

Thank you for the advice.  What's the difference between leaf and flower buds in terms of a red currant bush - what produces the fruit?

I guess I could start by tidying it up, trimming it back a bit, and look for old dead wood to pull out / cut off.  It sounds like the whitish stems are new growth.

[diospyros]

Thank you for the advice.  What's the difference between leaf and flower buds in terms of a red currant bush - what produces the fruit?

I guess I could start by tidying it up, trimming it back a bit, and look for old dead wood to pull out / cut off.  It sounds like the whitish stems are new growth.

The fruit is formed after the flowers, so these are the buds to look for and try and keep plenty of.