{"id":611973038406,"date":"2025-10-16T16:41:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T16:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ashridgetrees.co.uk\/blogs\/uncategorized\/how-grow-blackcurrant-bushes-ribes-nigrum\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T08:41:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:41:21","slug":"how-grow-blackcurrant-bushes-ribes-nigrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ashridgetrees.co.uk\/blogs\/fruit\/how-grow-blackcurrant-bushes-ribes-nigrum\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Grow Blackcurrant Bushes"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to Grow Blackcurrants Bushes<\/h2>

Blackcurrants<\/a> are simple to grow, and the pruning regime is a bit different from pruning Red & Whitecurrants<\/a>. <\/p>

Currants are one of the few soft fruit bushes<\/a> to like damp soil next to water, and they respond to dappled shade by making smaller crops rather than inferior fruit.
Along with their close relatives gooseberries<\/a>, they are the go-to understory plant for food forest planting schemes.
Still, in the North & Scotland, a sheltered and sunny position is recommended. <\/p>

They thrive in pots where they are well-fed and never dry out. <\/p>

\"Blackcurrant<\/figure>

Basic Blackcurrant Growing Principles:<\/h3>

Blackcurrants<\/p>

    \n
  • Fruit well on two and three-year-old stems, which then become quite unproductive in their fourth year.<\/li>\n
  • Produce new stems when you prune out some of a mature plant\u2019s best performing 2\/3-year-old stems.<\/li>\n
  • Are mostly prone to fruit splitting if the top layer of soil drys out in the heat<\/li>\n
  • Cannot realistically be overwatered in most garden soils in their first year: they love a lot of moisture when they are settling in<\/li>\n<\/ul>

    Pruning New Blackcurrant Bushes<\/h3>
      \n
    • \nAfter Planting: <\/strong>Cut all the stems down to about 2.5 inches. This is to encourage bushier growth from the base in year one, making a solid foundation. If<\/strong> you were planting pot grown plants in summer, you would leave them to grow as they were until winter, then snip the top\/s off to encourage bushiness and still get fruit the next year. <\/li>\n
    • \nYear One:<\/strong> Have a cup of tea and wait. Mulch as necessary to prevent the top six inches of topsoil from drying out in summer, but at this stage it is better to use low fertility mulch material to encourage downward & outward root development. <\/li>\n
    • \nFeb-March of Year two:<\/strong> Apply the fertiliser you like in a good amount, following their instructions or your own.
      Wait for a month and apply one ounce of sulphate of ammonia for about a square metre around the base of the plants.
      Enjoy the summer fruits by July!<\/li>\n
    • \nWinter of Year Two:<\/strong> Go over the stems, pruning out all the very small and weedy, the rubbing, the hanging, the broken and the diseased.<\/li>\n<\/ul>

      Pruning plants that are 3 years and older<\/h3>
        \n
      • Remove about 30-40%ish of the bush from the oldest, most darkly coloured stems. Remove more on unkempt, congested plants.<\/li>\n
      • Cut them back to one of the lowest outward facing buds. Next, cut all sideshoots off each remaining stem, so that they don\u2019t bend and latch onto other stems.<\/li>\n
      • Always pick out weak, badly placed or poorly looking stems on sight.<\/li>\n<\/ul>
        \n