Planting and pruning

The cultivation of redcurrant plants begins with the preparation of the ground, such as levelling, draining and fertilizing. These activities are only carried out during suitable weather conditions, to prevent deterioration of the soil structure.



The planting of the plants takes place in the period from October to December inclusive. However if circumstances don't allow this, the plants are planted in spring. The number of plants per hectare differs according to variety. On average, the number of plants on our grounds is 4500 per hectare, assuming that three main branches are produced per plant. The berries are grown as hedges and can reach, according to the variety, a maximum height of 2.5 metres.

Redcurrant plants need about 2 years to come into full production. Then a berry plant produces an average of 8 years of fruit. After this period the plants do still bear fruit, but the quality of the berries goes down.

To produce many berries of a good quality, the pruning of the plants is an important factor. The pruning takes place from the end of November until the beginning of April. The pruning is done completely by hand and is a labour-intensive process, which requires skill. Bloedbessen has trained a number of employees specially for this purpose.

Harvest
From the beginning of June until mid-September, there is a lot of work to be done at Bloedbessen. In this period the largest part of the harvest is brought in to our companies in Asch and Neerijnen. The harvest is done entirely by hand and is a labour-intensive process.



Refrigeration
The berries are harvested in 'storage friendly' packaging and are subsequently stored in our refrigerators (ULO). In these airtight storage cells the berries are stored at a low temperature, a low oxygen and high carbon dioxide concentration, by which it is possible to keep the berries from August until May. After the harvest season, the berries are brought from the cold stores on the market. In order to guarantee quality and freshness, the fridges are opened shortly before the product is sorted and packed. For this reason the storage capacity between the different cold stores varies. The different capacities also allow for flexible delivery.