Black currant bush with no berries

(Question)

I have a three-year old black currant bush in a sunny west-facing corner. I water it deeply and regularly. After planting, I pruned it quite low and it produced many berries. Mulched overwinter after low pruning again. No berries but a healthy five-foot bush with many stems. Repeated procedure last year. Same result: healthy bush, no berries. There is ivy near it and a mum on the other side. Please could you advise me? Thank you very much, Lesley Ciarula Taylor

(Answer)

Dear gardener, thank you for posing your question to the Toronto Master Gardeners.

A previous gardener did likewise and in answer to this question, Toronto Master Gardeners summarized a fact sheet from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) on currant and gooseberry bushes and ensuring they produce berries.

The bottom line seems to be that you have been pruning your bushes too often. Black currant bushes produce berries on stems that are one-year old. You have to prune off the two or three-year old stems if they do not have good one-year old shoots.

This is a copy of the summary relevant to black currant bushes:

  • Prune when the plants are dormant in late winter or early spring.
  • Black currants produce the best fruit on one-year-old wood. Strong one-year-old shoots, and two- or three-year-old shoots which have an abundance of strong one-year-old wood, are the most productive. Keep a total of 10 to 12 shoots per mature bush, with about half being one-year-old shoots. A few more shoots may be kept if plant vigor is very good. Remove all shoots which are more than 3 years old. Make pruning cuts close to the ground.
  • Remove branches hanging close to the ground if berries are to be harvested mechanically. Also, for control of diseases and insects, remove and destroy any diseased tips of branches and branches which are late leafing out, dying or sickly.

The same fact sheet also offers advice on winter protection:

  • Currants and gooseberries bloom early in the spring. Severe frosts can injure blossoms and young developing berries. Frosts cause less problems in sites with good air drainage.
  • In small plantings, cloth or paper covers can be put over plants for frost protection. Plastic usually gives little or no protection.

Please read the OMAFRA guide, and you will be on your way to eating many delicious bowls of black currants.