Kitchen Garden Forum

Back in October I dug over part of my plot with the intention of moving some blackcurrant, whitecurrant, redcurrant and gooseberry bushes to a new home in late November, having read somewhere, (? KG forum), that this was the best time for such a move. Since then the weather has been so foul that they are still not moved. Does anyone know whether it is still not too late to move them successfully, or should I be thinking of leaving the move until next (this) November?

If they were mine I would be considering moving them now, before end of Feb. Providing the ground they are going in is not too cold.

No idea what the books say but I would prune them back to give roots better chance to re-establish, and not expect to harvest this year

That is exactly what I am planning to do when I thin out and move some of my raspberry canes.

I think I would get them moved too. I wouldn't prune Gooseberries or Red and White Currants very much but if you can miss a year the Black Currants would probably be better in the long term hard pruned. If you have several leave some shoots on some to give you a limited crop.

Most fruit bushes are tough as old boots and can stand moving any time so long as they don't dry out and there isn't much chance of that just now. It would be preferable to get them moved before they start putting on new growth, but I can't see a problem for a couple of months unless it freezes.

I'd avoid moving them right now while if the ground is is actually frosty but otherwise would do so as soon as possible as you don't really want to be disturbing the roots when they are starting to shoot which can sometimes be quite early in the season. Try and keep as much of the immediate root ball as possible.

Hello Fred
I'm not very keen on moving old fruit bushes. If you've got a fresh patch of soil in good condition, I would buy in some fresh stock and start again.
Old bushes have a limited span maybe, 10 years or so, for producing good quality fruit. They will probably have acquired a good few viruses over the years - time to dig them up and burn.

John

I am currently facing the same dilemma at the original poster.

I have two gooseberry bushes, a blackcurrant and a jostaberry that I need to move pronto, but won't have a position ready for them for at least a fortnight, if not 3-4 weeks. This is a huge concern, since moving them late March is probably not recommended, but I don't think I will have any choice, since the area where they need to go is CLOGGED with twitch, which will require extensive hand weeding.

Fortunately (!) winter has come back with a vengeance here in the SE. The ground is very cold indeed and the situation unlikely to change much in the coming week or so.

Significantly, Keepers, the large fruit tree/bush nursery in Maidstone started its annual sale almost a month early this year given the mil winter, predicated on the fact that the dormant season seemed to be coming to an end much earlier this year.

Any thoughts on whether the current cold spell will induce fruit bushes to stay asleep for a bit longer?

This existing site that you are moving stuff from on a 'mass basis, do you have a time limit when everything needs to be moved off to the new site?