How to grow blackcurrants

Inspired by a helpful YouTube guide. We based this walk-through on the RHS video "How to grow gooseberry, blackcurrant & redcurrant plants" from the Royal Horticultural Society. It covers spacing, pruning cuts, and the difference between fruiting on old and new wood - worth a watch before you pick up a spade.

1. Choose an open, sheltered spot

Blackcurrants do best in full sun or light dappled shade. They can cope with a bit of wind, but not exposed, blustery corners where blossom gets knocked off before the bees can do their job.

Avoid frost pockets if you can. Late spring frosts hit the flowers just when they need protecting most. A south or west-facing border with a wall or fence behind it is ideal.

2. Prepare the soil well before planting

Dig in a generous amount of well-rotted garden compost or manure - a full bucket per plant is not too much. Blackcurrants are greedy feeders and the effort you put in at this stage shows for years.

They prefer a slightly acidic soil, somewhere around pH 6 to 6.5. If your soil is heavy clay, improve drainage with grit as well as organic matter.

3. Plant deeper than you think

This is the tip that catches most people out. Plant blackcurrants about 5 cm deeper than the soil mark on the stem. Burying the base like this encourages new shoots to come up from below ground, which gives you a bushy, multi-stemmed plant rather than a leggy single stem.

Space bushes around 1.5 m apart. They spread outward as they mature, and cramped plants produce less fruit and are harder to harvest.

4. Prune hard in the first winter

After planting, cut all the stems back to one or two buds above ground level. It feels drastic, but it builds a strong root system and stops the plant fruiting before it is properly established.

From year two onwards, the pruning logic changes. Blackcurrants fruit best on one-year-old wood, so each winter you remove around a third of the oldest stems - the dark, thick ones - right at the base. New pale stems replace them and fruit well the following summer.

5. Feed and mulch every spring

In late winter or early spring, scatter a handful of general fertiliser around the base of each bush - a balanced granular feed works well. Follow it up with a thick mulch of compost or bark to hold moisture in and keep weeds down.

Blackcurrants drink a fair amount of water during fruiting. In a dry spell, give them a thorough soaking at the roots rather than a light sprinkle over the top.

6. Net the bushes as fruit forms

Birds will strip blackcurrants the moment they ripen, sometimes before they are fully ripe. A simple net draped over the bush and pegged down at the edges keeps them off. Fruit cages work well if you have several plants.

Check under the net regularly once fruiting starts. Blackbirds are persistent and will find any gap you leave.

7. Harvest in stages

Pick the whole cluster - called a strig - rather than individual berries. They come off more cleanly that way and the job takes half the time. The berries ripen from the top of the strig downwards, so whole clusters near the top will be ready first.

Pick in the morning when they are cool. They store better in the fridge if they go in dry.

When to call a handyman

Blackcurrant growing is well within most gardeners' reach. That said, if your plot needs raised beds building, new fencing to create shelter, or a proper fruit cage structure putting up, that is where Richard can help.