How deep rooted are currants?

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Casey76

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How deep rooted are currants?
« on: March 01, 2011, 09:06 »
This winter I, er, renovated, all of my fruit bushes.  but I'm now wondering if it would be worth actually replacing them entirely with new ones that I could prune to my desired shape from the beginning.

There are two ced currants, a white and a black in an area 3m x 1m, but they've been put in any old how, and were allowed to grow as they pleased.  Currently (lol!) they are now all 8ins high, so I'm going to see if they actually put out any new growth at all this year.  If not I'll replace them next spring.

Any ideas on how difficult they will be to dig up?

Thanks

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grinling

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Re: How deep rooted are currants?
« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2011, 13:21 »
Deep rooted the older it gets. Will still replant well with roots missing.

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gillie

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Re: How deep rooted are currants?
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2011, 14:25 »
This is a conventional way of growing blackcurrants, but normally you would have two or more bushes taking turns for the chop.   Bend a branch down to the ground and put a brick on it to hold it there.  Within a few months it will have struck roots and you can cut it away from the parent plant. 

I am not sure whether you can propagate red and white currants in the same way, but I would not be surprised if it worked.

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stompy

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Re: How deep rooted are currants?
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2011, 14:38 »
Now would be a good time to take hard wood cuttings from all 3 plants.
1, Look for a stem/branch about the thickness of a pencil and cut it off.
2, Now cut the branch to aproximately 8" long at a 45deg angle.
3, Rub off any buds half way up the stem working up from the angular cut end.
4, Insert the stem into the ground angular end down until all the stem with the rubbed off buds is under ground.
5, Wait until the end of the year and lift one to see if it has rooted, if so plant into it's final position.

I did this for my red currents and gooseberry cordons.
Not all of them will take so if you wanted for example 5 of each plant, double up on the hard wood cuttings.
I had a very good prcentage take, around 80% you can usually tell if their taking if the buds open and stay ok (don't go brown) through the year.
It also helps if your soil is quite open and of a sandy texture.
Idealy you would make a thin trnch by inserting a sade in the groung and pulling it back and forth then fill the resultant trench with sand and insert the stems as above into that.

I nevr bothered with that and still got a good percentage take.

Andy

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Trillium

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Re: How deep rooted are currants?
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2011, 16:11 »
Gillie - yes, all the currant bushes will strike roots if layered. Trust me. I'm swamped in them because I didn't get around to pruning and many flopped over and rooted.

For beginners, layering is dead easy and requires no fuss whatsoever. Just do as gillie suggests and check in about 2 months. If you want a lot of plants, have the whole branch lie flat along the ground with several bricks to ensure contact with soil.

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Rampant_Weasel

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Re: How deep rooted are currants?
« Reply #5 on: March 01, 2011, 16:29 »
do u bend the branches down now or in the autumn?

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Trillium

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Re: How deep rooted are currants?
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2011, 04:05 »
You can do it anytime there's active growth. Currants are not at all fussy.

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Dominic

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Re: How deep rooted are currants?
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2011, 13:40 »
I moved some a few weeks back, not very, would be my response.
Although they were fairly wide roots.
I ended up moving about half a spade deep, two spades across, they've all burst into life now.
We use chemicals in this garden, just as god intended


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