VEGETABLE GARDEN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20782, 17 July 1937, Page 15 (Supplement)

VEGETABLE GARDEN

BUSH FRUITS RED AND WHITE CURRANTS Ribes rubrum and its white-fruited variety are natives of Europe and North America, and as fruits have not been cultivated for a very long period. Unlike their new relative, the gooseberry, they have not altered so very much from the original wild form. Red currants are extensively used in pies, tarts, and jellies, and both it and the white are used in making currant wine. The white is less acid than the red. and consequently is more popular as a dessert fruit, the red being used sometimes to give colour. Like the gooseberry, the currants like a deeply-cultivated, well-drained soil, well manured with farmyard manure, and an open, sunny position. They will, however, endure a certain amount of shade, and are very suitable for growing against fences or walls with a southerly aspect. When planted In cool, shady positions the season is extended, which is a distinct advantage. When grown as bushes they are planted at from five to six feet apart each way, and when grown on fences or walls as cordons, either as single or double-stemmed, a foot is allowed between lach. Autumn planting is to be preferred, though any time before growth starts In the spring will do.

A young plant raised from a cutting should have a clean stem of about five inches, having three branches. After planting, these should be shortened back to about four inches and to a bud pointing outwards. Next season each branch should be allowed to produce two shoots, making six in all. These should again be shortened back to from nine to twelve inches, and again to an outward-pointing bud. White and red currants bear their fruit on little spurs, which are produced on the old wood, and not on tlie young wood, like the black currant. It is therefore necessary to keep the bushes to a limited number of main branches, which should be extended each year about six inches until the bushes reach their maximum height, sufficient space being left between each to allow the sun and air in to ripen the fruit and secure the continued formation of the little fruiting spurs. When trained as cordons on a wall or fence two or three branches should be taken up from the base, these being extended from year to year, but confined to the original stems. Al! side branches which may arise should be pruned off. Like the gooseberries, the red currants are propagated mainly by means of cuttings, which are made from wellgrown young shoots. These shoots should be about 14 Inches long, which will allow for six inches in the ground, five Inches for the stem, and three inches to develop the branches. They

are made by cutting across immediately below a bud, and all but the three top top buds are removed. The cuttings should be buried three-quarters of their length, with their base resting on a layer of sand or lime rubble. After pruning, the soil should be drawn away from round the stem and burled between the rows of bushes, a mulch of well-rotted manure applied, and then covered with a clean soil. Deep digging near the bushes will destroy the best roots. Varieties to plant are:— Red—Fay’s Prolific, Raby Castle, Red Dutch, White Dutch, and Transparent. BLACK CURRANTS Black currant, Ribes nigrum, is a native of Europe and North America, and, like the red kind, has not undergone any very extensive alterations through cultivation. It likes a fairly heavy, moist soil, deeply cultivated and liberally manured with farmyard manure, and, though it will thrive and fruit in a cool semi-shaded position, it really likes an open, sunny one, which will ripen the fruit and the wood for

perfectly hardy fruit, and will stand the hardest frosts. The fruit is a very important one, and as it is a very accommodating plant, and does not take up much room in the garden, it should be cultivated by all who have a reasonably-sized garden. It is used for making jam, for pies, and making wine. Like the gooseberry and the red cun-ant, it is easily grown from cuttings made from well-ripened wood of the previous season’s growth. As suckers are no disadvantage in the case of the black currant, it is not necessary to remove any of the buds, but the unripened tip of the shoot should be cut off. A young bush usually starts with four branches, and, at the first pruning, these are cut back to about four inches. Next season two shoots will be allowed to develop on each, all others being pinched off, and, at the autumn pruning, the tips only will be cut. This will give a

bush of eight brandies, which will be quite enough. Black currants, unlike red, bear their fruit on the young wood of the previous season’s growth, so that, when pruning, one has to retain as much of the young wood as possible.

This is done by removing some of the old branches every year and replacing them by young ones, which spring from the base of the bush or even from under the ground as suckers. This means that, to maintain a black currant bush in a fruitful condition, it is necessary to keep on renewing the branch. The sun and air are admitted by a process of thinning, the unripened tips of the shoots only being cut off. For the ease in weeding and cultivating some growers like to have a clean stem of from nine to twelve inches, but this not really necessary, and strong young growths are more likely to spring from the surface of the ground than up the stem. After pruning, the soil should be drawn away from round the bushes with a hoe, a mulch of well-rotted manure applied, and some clean soil taken from between the bushes thrown on top of it. If farm-yard manure is not available, a dressing of an approved fertiliser can be given, but this should not be applied for some weeks yet. Varieties to plant are Carter’s Black, Champion Boskoop Giant, and Black Naples.

SHOULD NEWLY PLANTED TREES BE PRUNED

—lt would not be altogether true to state that there is complete unanimity of opinion among gardeners upon this subject. Those for or against maintain that on their particular soil they must, or must not, prune newlyplanted fruit trees the first spring. It is a question which cannot be answered definitely until some factors have been considered. Fruit trees, such as apples, pears, plums and cherries, planted before end of June in deep, fertile soil which was in good planting condition, may be pruned similarly, in every essential particular, to fully established fruit trees. But fruit trees planted In spring in good soil, or in bleak situations at any time during the winter, must be pruned with caution. All lateral shoots on the main branches should be pruned in the ordinary way, three or four buds being left on each cut-back lateral to form fruit buds The leading shoot on each main branch, forming the framework of the tree, should be left unpruned, or merely tipped, until the following winter. When this shoot is then examined, it will be found to have developed several plump fruit buds towards the point, and thin wood buds further down. It is back to those thin wood buds that the two-year-old shoot must now be pruned to continue the framework of the tree. For when these fruit buds are allowed to remain and develop fruits, they so exhaust the shoot that it is crippled for years. Raspberries, immediately they are planted, should be cut down to within a few inches of the soil. There must be no trifling with this rule, for if they are allowed to sway about they become the following season's crop. It is a

loose at the' collar and death of the plant may ensue. When the newlyplanted canes are retained, and they survive the rigours of spring, they will endeavour to produce fruits which so exhausts the plants that few, if any, successional canes are produced for fruiting the following season. Loganberries and all the brambles should be treated in a similar manner. Much the same rules apply to black currants, although there is much less danger that the plants may become loose in the soil than in the case of the raspberry. Recently planted black currants should be cut down almost to the soil level. This drastic treatment will favour the production of strong basal shoots which will bear fruits next season. If the newly planted bushes are left unpruned, the result will be a few bunches of dry, under-sized berries, to the disappointment of the grower. Newly-planted gooseberries and red and white currants must be pruned in a similar manner to established bushes. The laterals on the main branches should be closely spurred in, only two or three buds being left on each shortened stub. The leading shoot on each main branch should be shortened to within six or eight inches of its point of origin. Recently-planted fruit trees will be assisted greatly in their re-establlshment if the soil to the outward stretch of the roots is mulched with some half-decayed manure or bracken. This assists in preserving an equable temperature in the soil, which favours the development of new roots, and during the summer it helps to keep the soil cool and moist.