Pruning Black Currants

Pruning black currants is a fairly easy task. Since black currants bear the most fruit on last year's wood, the only real trick is to remove all the wood that is more than one year old. Here's a before photo:

See the finished product below.  It looks like I've killed the poor thing but without removing those old canes, there wouldn't be room for the new shoots that will bear next year's crop.

Be sure to either burn the removed canes or remove them far away from your garden to avoid spreading disease or insect pests.