How to grow blackcurrants with lots of hints, tips, pictures and advice

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Growing Blackcurrants

Blackcurrants
Blackcurrants were traditionally used only for jams, pies and puddings, and they tasted great. More recently, there are varieties the size of small grapes which are tasty eaten by themselves, with ice cream or cream. Mixed with other fruit, they are delicious.

Blackcurrants the size of small grapes with a taste to match.

An easy crop to grow in the garden, they are however expensive in the supermarkets. Home grown, they are almost free and packed full of vitamins, especially vitamin C.

BLACKCURRANT QUICK GUIDE

Latin Name
Ribes nigrum

Type
Hardy deciduous shrub with edible berries

Site and Soil
Tolerant of many conditions. Preferably full sun, on a rich well-drained soil.

Plant to Harvest Time
2 years

Yield
4kg (9lb) per bush

Varieties of Blackcurrant
The table below lists some other varieties recommended by GardenAction.

Variety	Type	Comments
Ben Gairn	Early	Resistant to most diseases affecting blackcurrants including Reversion virus. One of the earliest varieties to fruit , it has medium sized berries with a good taste.
Ben Hope	Mid-season	Resistant to most foliar diseases and also to bigbud. This variety grows taller than most blackcurrants but it has the best flavour of all varieties. Needs a sheltered position.
Titania	Mid-season	Large tasty blackcurrants on a tallish bush. Needs a protected position. Good disease resistance.

Site and Soil For Blackcurrants
Blackcurrants are more tolerant than many fruits of their site and soil conditions. What they do like though is a moist soil, but not water logged. They need the moisture for the fruits to develop. This is one reason why they do well in less dry parts of the UK.

Their ideal site is in full sun, but the effect of partial shade does them little harm. Avoid frost-pockets, their flowers can be damaged by a late frost which will of course result in a lower yield of fruit.

Their ideal soil is a rich well-drained soil which will not dry out. They prefer a slightly acidic soil - around pH 6 to 6.5 (click here for more details on soil acidity). They will grow well however on most normal soils.

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