Prune currant and gooseberry bushes

When to do it

For red/white currant and gooseberry bushes, use the appropriate dormant period. Blackcurrant renewal can be done after harvest or during dormancy; the existing plant page specifies after harvest. Trained forms need their own system.

What you need

• Plant identification
• Clean secateurs or loppers
• Gloves

How to do it

1. Identify blackcurrant versus red or white currant versus gooseberry. Do not use one renewal rule on all three.
2. For an established blackcurrant, remove up to about one-third of the oldest, least productive stems at the base, retaining strong young replacement growth.
3. For established red and white currant bushes, retain the permanent framework and fruiting spurs. Remove dead and crossing growth, shorten side shoots to one or two buds, and shorten last season’s main-branch extensions by about one-quarter. Retain suitable replacement shoots.
4. For established gooseberry bushes, remove dead, low and crossing growth. Renew one to three old, unproductive branches where needed while retaining replacements. Shorten excessive branch extensions by one-quarter to one-half. For a spur-pruned bush, shorten side shoots to two or three buds. Wear gloves.
5. Stand back between cuts. Young bushes need formative pruning and standards or cordons differ; avoid applying this established-bush method indiscriminately.

What success looks like

• The bush has accessible, well-spaced fruiting wood and replacement growth.

Watch out for

• Removing old wood from redcurrants as aggressively as blackcurrants.
• Treating Cape gooseberry as a true gooseberry.

Plant guides using this technique

Related help