Fruit bushes

[Charlie]

I have thinned out my soft fruit bushes this week because they had become a bit of a jungle. I now have several blackcurrant bushes and one gooseberry which I have dug up but am reluctant to discard because it seems such a waste. Is it possible to replant them successfully?

Thank you.

[charles]

 I would not recommend it as large bushes and trees take so long to settle in to a new position, having lost a relatively high proportion of their roots, perhaps also because they are older and less vigorous.

I have enjoyed best results from planting small bushes as nothing much more than single stem twigs. Fruit trees as well are most successful when planted as one year old maidens, which are cheaper to buy and easier to plant.

[Stevie342000]

Perhaps another route would have been to take cuttings from the desired fruit bushes at the appropriate time of the year of course and then to nurture these into new healthy bushes, then transplanting them into their new site.

Cropping the old ones only, then composting the old bushes; after planting up the new bushes in March. Lots of fruit trees, bushes or plants benefit from not being cropped in their first season. If they are raspberries of course then it is simple cut the canes down once you have removed them from the soil and transplant, autumn fruit raspberries will fruit in that year (of course they should be replanted from October to March). Summer fruiting raspberries will crop the following year.

Is this correct?

[Jane Wilding]

Blackcurrant cuttings are almost foolproof, so if you’ve dug up a blackcurrant bush, simply cut them into separate twigs and bung the bits into some clear soil. I once used year-old blackcurrant prunings to stake peas and they all rooted, even after lying in a pile by the compost heap all that time – since then I just take cuttings whenever and made a whole blackcurrant hedge once out of prunings. It flowered and made a good crop the next year, at about a foot high!
Jane

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