PRUNING THE CURRANT 



547 



PRUNING 



Pruning the currant is often neglected, yet pro- 

 ductiveness largely depends upon it. Plants will pro- 

 duce some fruit no mat- 

 ter how treated, and 

 hence are likely to be 

 treated very indiffer- 

 ently. The fruit is 

 borne both on old and 

 young wood, the best 

 and most of it appar- 

 ently near the base of 

 the one-year-()ld shoots 

 and on short one year- 

 old spurs from the older 

 wood. Consequently, 

 most of the young wood 

 may be cut awa}', or the 

 old wood may be cut 

 out, leaving young 

 shoots, and fruit will 

 still be produced. The 

 younger the wood the 

 finer the fruit, as a 

 rule, but the plants are 

 likely to be less produc- 

 tive unless a fair supply 



of wood more than one year old is left. Yet this 

 older wood soon becomes weak, and produces small 

 and inferior fruit. 



Fig. 66. Tree-form currant. 



