How to grow them
Plant in winter, 5cm deeper than it was in the pot, and cut every shoot down to two buds. Feed with compost each spring. From the fourth winter, cut out a third of the oldest, darkest stems each year.
Fruit and perennials
Blackcurrants
One bush gives four or five kilos of fruit, and it asks for almost nothing.
- Buy as
- Bare-root or potted bushes
- Space
- 150cm between plants, 180cm between rows
- Position
- Sun or light shade
- Rotation
- Permanent bed
- Difficulty
- Easy
The year
Plant
Harvest
When to pick
Pick whole strings when the currants are black and shiny, in July.
What goes wrong
Problems, and what to do
Birds
Net when the fruit colours.
Big bud
Swollen round buds in winter, caused by a mite. Pick them off and burn them.
Good neighbours: Chives.
Same family
More from fruit and perennials
StrawberriesThe plants crop well for three years. Peg down runners to make new ones for free.
RaspberriesA row will crop for ten years. Autumn-fruiting kinds are the simplest: cut everything to the ground in February.
GooseberriesThe first fruit of the summer, and happy in a shadier corner.
RhubarbPlant it once in a corner and it will outlast your tenancy.
AsparagusTwo years of patience, then twenty years of spears every May.