Black currant
Ribes nigrum
also called black currant, cassis
Aromatic berry bush brightened by allium guards against aphids.
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- Purple and violet
- Sunlight
- Full sun to part shade
- Watering
- Moderate
- Soil
- Rich, moisture-retentive
- Feeding
- A potassium-rich feed in spring, laid over a generous mulch of manure.
- USDA zones
- 3a–8b
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- April
- Pruning
- Take out the oldest third of the stems each winter.
- Plant out
- at the last spring frost
- First harvest
- 100 days after the last spring frost
- Harvest ends
- 60 days before the first fall frost
- Apr–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–May Flowering
- May–Jul Fruit Set
- Jul–Aug Harvest
- Aug–Oct Growing
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Apr Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 4 ft 11 in
- In-row spacing
- 4 ft 11 in
- Between rows
- 5 ft 11 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody and fibrous
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 3 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 6–8 ft across, about 1.5–2× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 20 in of soil
A shallow woody framework with the fine feeding roots in the leaf litter above it. Those feeders are mostly under the outer half of the canopy rather than against the stem, which is where water and feed should go.
The habit is Black currant’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- When
- July into early August in the UK; bushes crop in year 2 and peak from year 3. Fruit forms mostly on young wood.
- What to look for
- Berries jet black, plump, and glossy about a week after they first turn color — the lowest berries on each strig ripen first. Fully ripe fruit is aromatic and pulls free easily; underripe berries are hard and very tart.
- How to harvest
- Pick whole strigs (sprigs) by snipping or pinching at the base rather than stripping single berries — fruit keeps far better on the strig, and you string them off with a fork in the kitchen. Modern varieties like Ben Sarek ripen evenly enough to pick a whole bush at once.
- How often
- One or two picks per bush over about two weeks; don't leave ripe fruit hanging in rain or it splits and molds.
- Storing the crop
- A few days refrigerated on the strig. Predominantly a preserving fruit: freezes perfectly (string off while frozen), and makes outstanding jam, cordial, and cassis — very high in vitamin C and pectin.
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Parasitic wasps Braconidae & TrichogrammaHunts Sawfly
Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.
- Spined soldier bug Podisus maculiventrisHunts Sawfly
A predatory stink bug — same shield outline as the pest, but with a sharp spine at each shoulder and a beak it uses to spear caterpillars and beetle grubs. Learn the spines before you squash a shield bug, because this one is on your side.
- Tachinid fly TachinidaeHunts Sawfly
Bristly, house-fly-lookalike parasitoids that lay eggs on caterpillars, beetle grubs, and earwigs — the maggot consumes the host from within. Adults sip nectar from shallow umbels and daisies.
Comfrey, Tansy, Marigolds
Good neighbors
Blackcurrants pack several times more vitamin C than oranges.
Green-leaved fruit, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com