Overgrown Currants - help !!!

In the past 3 years, due to having plenty of other fruits in the garden for our eating and jam making needs, we let blackbirds help themselves with our red and white currants, and we failed to pay enough attention to the plants, as a result they are becoming very overgrown.


The one on the right is the red currant which this year didn't produce as much as it usually does. The one on the left is white which was heavy with fruits as previous years. The photo shows how much fruit it had on one branch:


Now that the fruits have been harvested I intend to give the plants a good pruning but don't know where to start. Both plants are about 12 years old. Could anyone give me some suggestions ?

 

WOW!!! Fabulous. We are just on year one with black currants and one or two red currant bushes that I bought as a "mercy buy" last year from our local tool shop..... so I need to brush up on my currant pruning skills this winter.

There is lots of good currant pruning advice on the web from the BBC and the RHS

and videos on pruning red currants and black currants

They are slightly different.

HTH

 

In general, currants do perfectly well left alone for ages.

In my native Finland, where currants are grown in every garden, the guidance is: if the shrub looks very crowded, cut some older branches at ground level a week after harvesting the crops.

Makes sense, because the crops is often heavy so the shrub needs some days to recover the shape. After that you can simply cut off the oldest, or awkward stems at the base to let more light through.

Currants are very long living shrubs and generally do well with minimum maintenance. Lazy gardener's dream BTW, the leaves of blackcurrant are worth picking. They are brilliant flavouring for pickled cucumbers and also make a lovely drink.

 

When are they best picked Selleri?

 

When you need them, i.e. when pickling the cucumbers or gherkins.

The leaves can be also used for drinks, here is a bit more complicated recipe Google found: http://www.thebarefootcrofter.com/2012/06/nettle-and-blackcurrant-leaf-cordial.html

The lazy gardener just crushes some handfuls of leaves, pours over a cup of hot water and when cooled down, fills the jug with cold water and ice cubes. Sugar and vodka are optional.

The freezer- crazy Finns have been known to freeze blackcurrant leaves for winter, for what purpose, I haven't really found out yet. They (the leaves that is) can also be dried to make herbal tea.