Soft fruit
Blackcurrant
Ribes nigrum
Timings for your region
No region chosen yet — timings are for the Moderate climate band · Choose your region
Never sown — bare-root plants go straight into the bed.
The harvest times are for an established plant — the first crop comes after 2 years.
Plantingearly October – late November
Harvestearly July – late July
Practical tip
It fruits on one-year-old wood, the exact opposite of the redcurrant: take about a third of the oldest shoots out at ground level every year so young wood keeps coming. A bush that is never pruned goes bare in the middle and only fruits round the edge.
Origin & history
The blackcurrant is the eastern sister of the red: Ribes nigrum grows wild from central Europe to Siberia, by preference in wet alder carr. It only reached gardens in the 17th century, well after the redcurrant, because the resinous smell of the leaves was long thought unpleasant. Its career was made in a bottle — Crème de Cassis has been steeped from it in Dijon since the 1840s. In the United States, growing Ribes was banned for decades, because the bushes are the alternate host of white pine blister rust.
Varieties
“Titania” is the variety for a low-effort garden: a Swedish breeding, very vigorous, large-berried and markedly resistant to mildew and rust — though it ripens unevenly, so you pick twice. “Ometa” is a German breeding, crops more evenly and tastes milder; “Ben Sarek” from Scotland stays distinctly more compact than either and flowers late enough to dodge spring frosts. Buy certified clean stock, and look at the buds before you pay: if individual ones are blown up round instead of pointed, leave that bush where it is.
Care
Plant it about 8 cm deeper than it stood in the nursery and cut every shoot back to 15 to 20 cm as you plant: those stumps throw the canes in the first summer that carry the crop in the second year. It is hungrier and thirstier than the redcurrant — a thick layer of compost every spring, grass clippings as mulch on top, and a deep soak in June while the berries are swelling; drought makes it drop leaves and fruit. It will put up with a few hours of shade a day, but sugar and aroma only come in a sunny spot — unlike the redcurrant, which really does crop in half shade.
What can go wrong
The one serious issue is blackcurrant gall mite: in winter you notice individual buds blown up into balls, and in spring they never open. While there are only a few, break them out in February and put them in the bin, not on the compost heap. The mite also carries reversion: the leaves turn narrow and coarsely toothed, the flowers reddish, and the bush stops fruiting. Nothing can be done about that — dig it out, dispose of it and start again elsewhere with clean stock. Rust and mildew in late summer stay bearable by comparison, as long as the bush stands airy.
Harvest, storage & kitchen
Unlike the redcurrant it ripens unevenly within a single string: wait about a week after the berries turn black and pick in two passes, or you end up with hard green ones among the ripe. Ripe berries strip off the stalk easily. Raw, most people find them harsh and resinous — with heat and sugar they turn into jam, cordial, sorbet or a dark sauce for game. They freeze extremely well and lose nothing in flavour by it. A few leaves traditionally go into the jar when cucumbers are pickled.
All timings are guide values for the given climate, not a guarantee. Weather, aspect and variety all have a say.