Currants

ripe redcurrants, white currants, and blackcurrants
ripe redcurrants, white currants, and blackcurrants

Introduction

Currants are one of the most traditional British fruits, but they are rarely seen in the supermarkets outside of the frozen fruit section. They are highly nutritious, easy to grow, and can inspire recipes from smoothies to delicious baked desserts and jams.

For the allotmenter, there are small differences in how to grow currants between the colours, but essentially the process, the fruiting season, and the care regime is very similar.

Planting

  • Planting depth: cover root ball
  • Planting spacing: 1 m between plants, 1.5 m between rows (minimum)

Harvesting

  • Eat fresh
  • Alternatively, turn into jams and jellies, or freeze
Sow
(inside)
Sow
(outside)
Harvest
(fresh)
Harvest
(stored)
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
= jar, = freeze, = store

Varieties

The colour of currants not only defines them, but marks significant differences in taste. Whereas most people would probably not choose to eat (a lot of) blackcurrants straight from the bush (much better cooked), eating fresh red or white currants is a different matter. Redcurrants are delightfully tangy, and white currants are delicate and deliciously sweet.

Blackcurrants

Growing blackcurrants is not fashionable. Blackcurrants have a strong, slightly bitter, mouth twisting flavour when eaten raw that some people love, and many others prefer to set aside.

So why bother growing blackcurrants? The answer lies in their excellent nutritional qualities. Blackcurrants are reputed to be high in antioxidants, as well as minerals such as potassium, magnesium, and iron. They are also bursting full of vitamin C.

The best way to enjoy blackcurrants is to cook them. Blackcurrants make delicious jams and sweet drinks.

Redcurrants

Redcurrants have a sweet, juicy, and characterful taste when eaten raw, and become even more delicious when turned into smoothies, or heated gently with orange juice as part of a fruit salad.

Like other currants, redcurrants are highly nutritious with antioxidant properties, minerals, and are full of vitamin C.

White Currants

The delicate princess of the currant family, and the sweetest fruit, white currants are the easiest to eat out of all the currants in their raw unsweetened form.

My personal experience is that the bushes are not as prolific as blackcurrants or redcurrants, but their superior taste is worth the growing space.

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Growing

With good luck and good health, currant bushes should provide their delicious harvest for well over 10 years.

It is worth giving their bed the best possible preparation. Start by digging a deep hole and filling it with well rotted compost or manure, mixed with some soil at about a 50:50 ratio. I like to dig down at least 40 cm or so, if not more, and about 75 cm wide.

Currants send out plenty of roots, and if the young plants have a well developed root ball, rubbing the roots by hand will loosen out the root ends. Blackcurrants are the most hungry currant, so when planting blackcurrants it is worth adding even more good compost, or well rotted manure, if available.

Young bushes will need a year to establish themselves, to throw their roots deep into their surrounds, before delivering their first delicious harvest. In general, the bigger and older the bushes planted, the earlier and bigger the first harvest will be.

After planting, it is worth placing a good mulch of well rotted manure around the base of the currant plants, being careful not to create a mound of compost around the stems. The mulch serves a dual purpose of suppressing weed growth and feeding the bush.

At my allotment, I have planted white currants, redcurrants, and blackcurrants in pairs. Each pair is separated by about a metre, and each row of pairs has approximately a 1.5 metre gap between them. Planting currants this way also makes netting them easier – a vital step as birds love to eat them. Instead of needing to net each individual currant bush, it is possible to buy one big net to cover all bushes.

Two bushes of each variety is enough to savour fresh currants in puddings and smoothies in summer for three or four people, but if growing for making preserves or wine, then more bushes would be required.

There are three essential elements for caring for currants: water; feeding with manure or mulch; and netting. None of these elements require much work. The best time to apply a mulch is in early spring whilst it is still cold, and weeds have not started to grow. Currants produce their crop quite early in the summer around June or July. It is essential that they are given a good feed in spring for it to provide a benefit for the fruiting period.

In dry periods, and especially during the spring and early summer growing season, I give a good watering once a week. Mature currant bushes will develop a strong and deep rooting system, but until this happens, it is important to provide them the water they need.

Although blackcurrants, redcurrants, and white currants are very similar to each other in many ways, when it comes to pruning there is a difference.

Blackcurrants fruit best on one year old wood – in other words, the fresh growth of this summer will be the currant bearing wood of next year. Older stems may also produce currants, but they will be less vigorous than the new growth. My advice is to cut out the wood that looks the oldest, but if in doubt, leave it on the bush!

Pruning redcurrants and white currants is more straightforward. The only wood that does not fruit is new wood. This means that you can safely prune the bush to your desired shape. The best time to prune is after the currant harvest in mid summer. This will be the easiest time, especially for blackcurrants, to see which stems are the new growth and which are the old.

At pruning time, or later during autumn, it is a good opportunity to take cuttings for new currant bushes. The process is simple. Pick the youngest wood and cut them about 30cm down from the top of the stem just below a bud. Then, as quickly as possible, plunge the freshly cut end into some wet compost.

I do not use hormone rooting powder as I find success without it, but using it may increase the success rate of cuttings. To do this, just dip the cut end into the powder before putting the cutting into fresh compost. I put about 5 cut stems into a pot, and hope that about 50% of the stems take root. Ensure the compost does not dry out. When the cutting has taken and there is fresh new growth, the cuttings can be repotted into individual containers to grow on until ready to be planted out.

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