Blackcurrant Production Cycle

There’s a whole lot of hard work that goes into getting those tiny purple berries plumped up and ready to be made into all the good foods and drinks that we love…

Winter

– Pruning of bushes
Side pruning, centre pruning, base pruning or selected hand pruning

• removes dead wood
• reduces height of bush
• helps establish new canes
• opens up bush to increase sunlight and air circulation in the canopy (poor air circulation promotes disease)

– Ground spray for weed control

– Planting of new cuttings

Spring

– Apply fertilizer if required, based on soils testing carried out early in the previous autumn

September – very early November

– Canopy spray in response to crop monitoring and to meet residue compliance for control of the following pests and diseases:

• Armoured scale
• Tetranychus urticae (two spotted mite)
• Synanthedon tipuliformis (currant clearwing)
• Nasonovia ribis-nigi (lettuce/blackcurrant aphid)
• leafroller
• leafspot
• Botrytis cinerea (flower blight)
• Botryosphaeria (canker)

October

– Put out pheromone strips for biocontrol of currant clearwing (mating disruption)
These are a plastic strip that looks like a plastic bag tie, which controls the release of a man-made chemical that mimics the pheromone that female Currant Clearwing moths use to attract males. They work in two ways:

1. by overloading the males senses so it no longer reacts to pheromone from real females, and
2. when there are lots of dispensers about it creates a “pheromone fog” which covers up the female moths’ pheromone trails so they can’t be followed by the males.

Summer

December

– Growers prepare their harvesters and make sure everything is running correctly prior to harvest

December / January

– Start harvest end of December until early February

– Application of beneficial predatory mites if required

– Irrigate immediately after harvest through to the end of April

February

– Soil testing

– Application of post harvest ‘clean up’ sprays for:

• control of leaf roller, scale and Botryosphaeria
• foliar nutrition to assist in bud development

March / April

– Apply main fertiliser according to soil testing results

– Continue to irrigate until the end of April

Autumn

– Prepare ground for planting new cuttings

– Growers hopefully get to take a well earned holiday after a very busy harvest!!

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