← Soft fruit and grapevines H13-03 · Module 3 of 7 · Pages: 21 · Worksheets: 6

Currants, gooseberries, aronia and blueberries

Four bushes that crop for decades: choosing varieties, planting, pruning step by step and the acid bed without which blueberries won't grow

€9

Secure checkout with Stripe · VAT included · The PDFs are in the language of this page.

Whole series: Soft fruit and grapevines, €39

Currants, gooseberries, aronia and blueberries

In short

  • Currants and gooseberries give roughly 3–5 kg (7–11 lb) per bush, crop from the second year and are in full crop by the fourth.
  • Blackcurrants fruit on one-year-old wood: every winter cut out a third of the oldest stems.
  • Redcurrants and gooseberries fruit on older wood: keep 8–12 stems of different ages.
  • Aronia needs almost no pruning or protection; the fruit is astringent — for juice, jam and drying.
  • Blueberries need pH 4.5–5.5, a loose acid growing mix, rainwater and at least two varieties.
  • Birds love all four fruits: net them before they ripen.

What's inside

Chapters

  1. Four bushes for the holding
  2. Varieties and pollination
  3. Planting currants, gooseberries and aronia
  4. Pruning currants and gooseberries
  5. Aronia: the easiest bush
  6. Blueberries: acid soil is everything
  7. Planting and caring for blueberries
  8. Care through the year
  9. Picking and using the fruit
  10. Healthy bushes without spraying
  11. Common mistakes
  12. Printable checklist

Worksheets

  • Planting plan
  • Bush and growing-mix calculator
  • Bush calendar
  • Blueberry pH and water log
  • Bush pruning log
  • Harvest log

Fields and checkboxes can be filled in with Adobe Acrobat Reader (desktop and mobile), and the calculator adds up by itself. Filling in may not work in some browsers. A print version comes with the screen PDF.

This guide in other languages:

BalkanDeutschEspañolFrançaisPortuguêsTürkçeالعربية