Whitecurrant Summer Pearls White

Planting Advice for Whitecurrants

• Easy-to-grow soft fruits that cope with a wide range of soil conditions, they're best grown in well-drained, fertile soil with a neutral to acid pH.
• Full sun is preferred, but partial shade is tolerated, and plants can be even trained against a north wall.
• Keep the area around the bushes free of other plants - a mulch of well-rotted compost, manure or bark will help supress weeds and retain moisture.
• Water your potted plant well.
• Dig a hole a little deeper and 3 x wider than the nursery pot.
• Add a soil conditioner such as well-rotted manure to the earth removed from the hole if necessary.
• Remove the plant from its pot and tease out a few of the roots.
• Place your plant in the hole at the same level at the pot.
• Refill the hole with the earth removed (backfilling).
• Firm in the soil with your heel, avoiding the root ball.
• Water well and mulch around the base of the plant with a collar, compost, gravel, bark etc.

Aftercare Advice for Whitecurrants

• Currants prefer moist, well-drained soil in full sun, or light shade.
• Keep well-watered.
• In late winter, feed with a balanced fertiliser, following the instructions.
• Weed and mulch around the plant in late winter to suppress weeds. Avoid hoeing near the base of the bush where new shoots are developing.
• If growing in a pot, choose one that is around 45-50cm (18-20in) in diameter and use a good-quality compost (John Innes No 3 is ideal).
• Repot every 2-3 years into the same pot or slightly larger. Trim back some of the roots and tease away the old soil replacing it with fresh JI No 3 compost.

Pruning Advice for your Whitecurrant

• Whitecurrants bear their fruit on old wood. Prune bushes by removing diseased or very old branches in winter, then prune new growth back to two buds in early summer to keep plants compact.
• Leaders should be pruned to outward facing buds unless the branches are bending, in which case they then should be cut to upward facing buds.