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A tip for the newer gardener.


Pun
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Ive been in the garden all day  picking black currants,

Now for the people who are new to gardening and intend growing black  currants the best way to pick your crop is to cut the complete branch off with the currants still on the branch,

You,ve now not only made the picking of the currants easy, but youve also pruned your bush, as the currants grow on last years new branch,

so all the new branch you see in the bush now, will be next years fruit,

Now having got all these juicy black currants ready to be removed from the branch, get a bowl for the currants and a bin for the little storks and strip the fruit from the branch,

Your not finished yet,

having taken the fruit off the branch, you can use these branches as cuttings for new bushes,

It,s a really simple thing to do, just remove all the leaves from the bottom of your branch up until your at the top of the branch and leave the top set of leaves (2 or 4)

now cut the branch from the bottom  about third of the way up just under a leaf bud,

find a place in the garden you wont need for a couple of months and just make sure the ground is soft enough to take the branch being pushed in(about3inch)

by september you,ll see new leaf growth and a good root system ready for transplanting to its future site,

and all from a cutting,

Ive only ever bought one black currant bush years ago, using this method Ive given more away to friends etc I care to remember and we enjoy

Jams/cakes/crumble, sauces,  We even leave two bushes uncovered "old net curtains" for the birds to get thier share, thats how simple and cheap this method is.

a good cheap tip well worth trying.

Happy gardening.[I]

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Yes I have just picked mine today, I couldnt believe how big they had grow they where like bunches of grapes. never seen them so big.

So i juiced some and made a loverly cool smoothie then froze the rest, for more smoothies later

Did you know that blackcurrents are the new superfood taking over from blueberries, and cranberries, and THEY (not me) say they are good for fighting cancer.

Mine where grown from my friends bush using the method decribed above. apart from the raspberries my most favorite fruit Yum...........[:)]

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Thanks for the tips. As a complete novice at the grow your own, I find other gardeners input invaluable. Next year, definately no spuds, after the first new ones, blight!!! has got the other 12 rows and the spuds have little pit marks on them and have to be peeled. The other problem being, the farm 500mtrs away, is selling lovely pots that are better than Jersey's,in my opinion, and so cheap it hardly seems worth the effort. I have just pulled all the onions,red and white, and they are drying off in the sun.Hope I've done it right this year as last year about half ended up in the bin.3 apple trees have leaf curl, so they will be for the extensive chop.

Regards.B&B St.Malo.   ourinns.org 

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  Hi Gastines,

Just had my dinner and called it a day ref the garden I  was going to give a very light prune of the wisteria, "If I do this now I,ll get a second flower showing around september)

But having read your reply I thought I,d try to get you not to chop your apple trees!

All you need do in the winter when the tree is resting "the sap is low down the tree" is have a look at any prunning that may need sorting, make sure all the dead wood is removed and any crossing branches are removed,

the heart of the tree need light and air, and the use a tar-oil spray and last but very important a grease-band around the tree trunk, this band helps stop the  bugs etc getting up the tree to the branches that have leaf and stops bugs nesting and leaf curl.

you may have to do this a couple of years but it will save your tree and by prunning the fruit should be a good size rather than lots of small apples.

Ive got trees that hadnt been touched for 15 years when we bought this place and I read and read about prunning and didnt expect to see any fruit for at least 3 years and I thought one or two trees had gone way passed giving me fruit, but as Ive said befor we have some apples we,d never tasted befor so dont give up,

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Hi pads

sounds smashing, and dare I say it "food for thought"

How are you on grape vines?

We,ve a small one we found hidden away under a broom plant that had way over grown itself and grass that just finished the job of hiding the vine,

Ive given it a prune and from january Ive been reading what to do and what not to do, at the moment it,s looking good, no sign of pest and Ive thined the indivisual bunches out so they have room to get air around them and I feed them once a week with tomatoe feed.

any tips?

I dont know what kind of grape they are as they dont have any colour just now and they are about the size of a fully mature black currant.[+o(]

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Hi Pun, If your vine is in the ground there should be no requirement to feed what so ever, in fact it's counter productive. Vines have an extensive root system, 30 metres plus and live in relatively poor soil conditions, in fact many of the best vines grow on rocky hillsides. You also need to take care where you are getting your vine advice from, much of the advice from RHS for example does not apply to conditions in France. Obviously as an Organic gardener I wouldn't use feeds anyway, but that's a different matter.

Chris

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Yes id agree with chris , we aquired 2 when we moved here, we dont do anything to them apart from a good hacking back once a year, one has been concreated in to a path!!!! (not me) but it dose very well we get lovely bunches of small black grapes, and we dont even water the poor thing the other is younger and we only get nasty small green grapes on that one, which we leave to the birds who seem to enjoy them , but that is in a flower bed so it gets fresh compost out of our bin each year and watered. so maybe thats why? 
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hi chris i am an organic gardener as well and am starting to learn about gardning by the phases of the moon, which cuts down on the amount of water that is needed, as the roots follow water table??? I dont know very much about it but would like to learn more do you have any info about this ? I have tryed google but havnt found much of use
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Good morning to you chris,

many thanks for your help ref grape vine, all,s taken in and Im learning.

Im one of these people who like to learn a new thing every day, no matter how small,

the Info Ive been reading is from R.H.S and a few small write ups in the verious gardening mags and as you say the grapes in france are proberly grown in a different way to the english weather system etc,

Ive got into this grape thing through finding  one in the undergrowth.

many thanks chris a really good bit of info.

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Hi Pads,

It just goes to show you never know with gardening, most plants would really welcome a good regular feed but not the grape.

Ive just come in for a nice coffee, Ive been collecting the seed off our Lupins and Delphiniums

its a pity really lupins only last a short while,

but back to the grape saga,

I,ll keep on learning and who knows I may see some fruit by the end of the summer,

have a nice day and good gardening.

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Now that WOULD be a good idea.  I'm a Seed Guardian for HDRA/Garden Organic in the Uk and hopefully at the end of this year will have some non-commercially available seeds for exchange or to pass on.  Nothing wrong with them, just not commercially viable under current EU legislatioon though they grow perfectly well and the French beans are superb.

How about a blog for seedspeople? 

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I'm not sure which bit you are referring to, the taking of cuttings or the method, Pun has views on this and it's not about which way is correct, personally I wouldn't do it at this time of year, especially in parts of France where the climate is hotter and dryer. I think that I would also approach the opening out and shaping of currents somewhat differently as well.

Anyway, red currents, white currents, black currents and grapes all take very easily simply by taking a length of  ripe growth, 30 cm or thereabouts would be fine, ( in October / Nov in my opinion ) , cutting just below a bud and inserting directly into the soil about half / half but it really doesn't need to be too precise unless you enjoy using a measure and a spirit level.

In the spring they should start to grow, but it may be as well to keep well watered initially as the roots will be rather fragile, again in warmer / dryer parts of France this needs to be considered more.

Chris.

 

 

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thanks chris...i was referring to the cuttings method.  I wanted to make some redcurrant jelly...I don't have alot of plants, and thought the method of cutting off the branches and then getting more plants out of it was a great idea.  I am a complete novice and greatly appreciate peoples tips. 
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A neighbour has given me a cutting of something she calls a casseiller.  She says it's a cross between a blackcurrant (cassis) and a redcurrant (groseiller).  It has not flowered or fruited this year (planted last autumn).  It is shrub-like and has definite currant-shaped leaves.  Anyone else ever heard of one of these or got one?

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"A neighbour has given me a cutting of something she calls a casseiller. She says it's a cross between a blackcurrant (cassis) and a redcurrant (groseiller)"

Could it be a cross between a blackcurrant and a gooseberry - which is a Jostaberry. We've got several, and the fruit makes fantastic jam.

Coincidentally, I keep meaning to post in the "Language" section to find out the French for Jostaberry, so you might have just saved me a post!

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I have found this one reference on the Internet to a "casseiller".  You're right - it's a gooseberry-blackcurrant hybrid.  It does have a gooseberry habit and currant leaves.

Le casseiller est le fruit d’une hybridation entre la groseille à maquereau et le cassis.

Le casseiller produit des fruits en grappe dont les baies sont noires et rondes.

Plus grosse et plus juteuse que le cassis, la casseille

en garde le goût et l’odeur tout en modérant sa force par une plus

grande douceur ; elle est également moins acide que la groseille.

Elle compte parmi les fruits les plus riches en vitamine C, et elle est très bien pourvue en potassium et calcium.

Sounds good to me - do you know anything about their care, pruning etc?

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Hi

In terms of care, I don't think they're very different from the other currants. I did a spot of Googling when I worked out what they actually were, and this:

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/GARDEN/07005.html

is the page I used for pruning. Frankly, it didn't help as I couldn't work out which branches were 1, 2 and 3 years old (you may find it easier as you're starting from scratch), so I just cut out any crossed/dodgy-looking branches. They're seriously prolific, anyway.

HTH

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Where do the willow sticks come from?  Out of the hedge!  Takes a day or two every Feb/March to coppice the hedges.  What we don't want goes to Monsieur Lorin, an old retired gent (and father of my French best mate Eric) who weaves baskets for a charity.  In return Jude gets a couple of trugs or baskets.

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