Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: heygrow on May 19, 2017, 20:36
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This is the second year since I planted out redcurrent bushes. They have grown well, but I'm now seeing a lot of the early recurrents droping as soon as they start to ripen. This happened last year as well and I put it down to being their first year and small bushes.
Is this normal in early years and will they get better as they mature, or am I missing something like correct fertiliser? Soil is clay based, but there a lot of other redcurrent bushes on the allotment that seem to do well.
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I think, the one very likely reason is that birds are nicking your currants.
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You say "dropping", Heygrow, are they still visible on the floor, if so this would rule out birds pinching them.
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I would think it may be related to the dry spring we have had.
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You say "dropping", Heygrow, are they still visible on the floor, if so this would rule out birds pinching them.
Not necessarily. Birds do drop as many on the floor as they eat. A big bird like a wood pigeon crashes around in the branches eating some fruit and knocking down even more.
Environmental conditions like drought can also be a factor.
Are the bushes netted Heygrow? If they are and you don't think birds are at them, it may be worth adding a good deep mulch.
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Don't think it is birds as they are netted.
Could be the dry spell as suggested. Just I had the same problem last year. Hopefully with all the rain of recent days they may improve?
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In my experience birds of all type will move heaven and earth to have a pop at redcurrants once their colour starts turning, more so than blackcurrants. Draped net isn't good enough and on my site the netting really does have to be down to the ground and tucked in or they battle their way underneath and work their way up.
Currants drop off for several reasons, one of which is me rearranging the netting in a rough manner. If I harvest 75% of the fruit that has set, I'm happy. Hence, my days with gooseberries are over.
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Ripening in May?
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Ripening in May?
Yes I was surprised to see some turning red already. It must be said that most are still green and on the bushes getting bigger, but the ones that dropped have turned redish colour, but probably not ripe.
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Soft fruit that is knocked off or drops does usually try and ripen on the ground. I've seen that when the pigeons have got at gooseberries on my plot. Whether they are actually ripe is debatable, as you say.
I saw a woodpecker at my site recently, helping himself to unripe currants on an abandoned plot. He was being rather delicate picking through the branches, but it was green fruit he was after. I guess the dry spring has made any kind of food appealing to the birds.
If your currants are dropping fruit every spring, it does seem to point to the soil not being rich and/or damp enough to support the fruit that has set. I would still go down the mulch route and maybe add some fertiliser into the mix. The fertiliser could go on now and then you could mulch over winter as you prune.