Red currant
Ribes rubrum
also called red currant
Jewel-stringed currant — chives help shield it from sawfly.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 4 ft 3 in
- In-row spacing
- 3 ft 11 in
- Between rows
- 4 ft 11 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Calendar (from your frost dates)
- 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
Growing
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Full sun to part shade
- Watering
- Moderate
- Soil
- Rich, moisture-retentive
- Feeding
- A potassium-rich feed in spring, with a compost mulch.
- USDA zones
- 3a–8b
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- April
- Pruning
- Prune in winter and again in summer, keeping an open goblet shape.
Through the year
- Mar–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–Apr Flowering
- Apr–Jun Fruit Set
- Jun–Jul Harvest
- Jul–Oct Growing
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
Harvest
- When
- July in the UK (whitecurrants the same); bushes crop in year 2–3 on old wood and at the base of young shoots.
- What to look for
- Whole strig glowing, translucent red (or pearly white), berries firm-plump and glossy. Ripe strigs detach easily. Fruit will hang on the bush in good condition for 2–3 weeks if netted against birds.
- How to harvest
- Pick complete strigs by the stalk — never individual berries, which burst. Snip with scissors or pinch the strig stem; run a fork down the strig later to release the berries.
- How often
- One to three picks over 2–3 weeks; birds adore them, so net first and pick promptly once color is full.
- Storing the crop
- A few days refrigerated on the strig. Very high pectin — the classic jelly fruit (redcurrant jelly), also cordials and summer pudding. Freeze on strigs and strip while frozen.
Companions
Chives, Tansy, Marigolds
Pests & problems
- Aphids Small sap-sucking insects — greenfly, blackfly — that cluster on soft new growth and excrete sticky honeydew. Squash by hand, hose off with water, and encourage ladybirds and lacewings.
- Sawfly Gooseberry sawfly
- Gall mites Big bud mite
- Birds Pigeons strip brassica leaves; other birds take fruit, buds, and seedlings. Netting fixed taut over hoops is the only reliable protection.
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Parasitic wasps Braconidae & Trichogramma
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.
- Aphid midge Aphidoletes aphidimyzaHunts Aphids
A tiny midge whose orange maggots paralyze aphids and drink them dry, twenty or more each. Sold as a greenhouse biological control and resident outdoors wherever there are small nectar flowers and an unsprayed aphid colony to find.
- Assassin bug ReduviidaeHunts Aphids
A patient ambusher with a curved beak it drives into whatever it catches — caterpillars, beetles, bugs, and the occasional bee, so count it a generalist rather than a specialist. It will jab a careless finger too, so admire it and leave it be.
- Big-eyed bug Geocoris spp.Hunts Aphids
A stubby 3 mm bug with enormous wrap-around eyes, working the soil surface and the low foliage for aphids, mites, thrips and insect eggs. It is the main natural check on chinch bugs in a lawn and it is killed outright by insecticide.
- Damsel bug NabidaeHunts Aphids
A slender, mantis-armed bug that grabs aphids, small caterpillars, and thrips in low crops and meadowy edges. Leave a strip of unmown grasses and flowers for it to overwinter in.
- Dragonflies & damselflies OdonataHunts Aphids
Aerial hunters that take mosquitoes, midges and small flies on the wing all day, and whose larvae spend a year or more clearing the same insects from the water. A pond with planted margins and no fish is the way to have them.
- Garden birds PasseriformesHunts Aphids
Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Aphids
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Hoverfly SyrphidaeHunts Aphids
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Aphids
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Minute pirate bug Orius spp.Hunts Aphids
A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.
- Praying mantis MantidaeHunts Aphids
A sit-and-wait ambusher that snatches caterpillars, beetles, and anything else that wanders close — friend and foe alike, so count it a mixed blessing. Tall, structured plantings give it perches and egg-case anchors.
- Soldier beetle CantharidaeHunts Aphids
Soft-winged beetles seen mating on flower heads in high summer; adults and larvae both take aphids and soft grubs. Open composite flowers are their landing pads and hunting grounds.
- Spiders AraneaeHunts Aphids
Webs, ambushes, and night patrols make spiders the garden’s steadiest generalist predators, taking whatever flies or crawls past. Mulch, ground cover, and undisturbed corners keep the population dense.
- 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.
Did you know?
Strings of glassy red berries hang like jewels — it's a close cousin of the blackcurrant.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com