We are becoming increasingly aware that soft fruit are one of the most expensive and heavily sprayed crops out there, yet they are some of the easiest things to grow in your allotment or vegetable garden. Being perennial, this means once planted you will be rewarded with beautiful organic harvests year after year, with little or no input.
They are also one of the easiest crops to propagate, which means you can invest in one good quality plant and then make lots more plants by taking hardwood cuttings in winter, or softwood in summer, increasing your harvest potential or to even to swap with other gardeners.
Within a few years of propagating you can create a productive fruit garden, free of costs and pesticides.
The instructions below are suitable for blackcurrants, whitecurrants, redcurrants, goosberries, and any other type of currant bush.
Step 1
Indetify your healthiest looking stem from this years growth, follow it to the base of the plant and snip it off.
Step 2
Remove any leaves from the stem and cut them into lengths about 15-20cms long, making sure you discard any dead or damaged stem.
Step 3
If you are rooting the cuttings directly in the ground, select a sunny free draining area and create a slit in the earth. If you are rooting these in plant pots fill these with homemade compost, garden topsoil, or bought in peat free compost.
Step 4
If you are using rooting hormone to help the cuttings root quicker (not required) apply this to the base of each cutting.
Step 5
Insert each cutting into the ground or pot to halfway and firm the soil around them. If using a pot place a few cuttings to each pot around the edge to allow for good drainage. If you have a greenhouse or cold frame place the potted cuttings in there, making sure the cuttings are kept moist in dry conditions. By early spring these will have rooted and can be potted on or planted out.
If you have found these instructions helpful I would love to hear from you, so make sure you get in touch!