When to prune redcurrants?
- Botanical name
- Ribes rubrum
- Family
- Grossulariaceae
Redcurrants are pruned from February to March. They are planted from October to March. They are harvested from July to August.
Redcurrants are woody perennials. The edible part is the fruit.
Redcurrant fruits on short spurs on older wood. The bush is therefore trained to an open shape and renewed only in part each year. From the fourth year on, 3 or 4 of the oldest branches are taken out at ground level every winter.
Redcurrant is self fertile, so a single bush is enough for a crop. In the first year the flowers are removed, so that the bush builds up its roots.
Redcurrant fruits in partial shade and even against a north wall. The fruit ripens later there and is less sweet, so a sunny position has the advantage. Soil at pH 6.5 suits it best, though it takes a wide range and alkaline ground as well. In heavy clay organic matter is worked in or the bush goes on a raised bed.
Redcurrants through the year
- pruning
- planting
- harvest
In short
Growing conditions
Pests and diseases
Listed here is every problem for which the sources name this plant as a host. The problems are not listed in order of how common they are.
- Signs
- Colonies of small aphids sit on the shoot tips and the underside of the leaves. The leaf curls and puckers, and sticky honeydew is left on everything below. The viruses they carry are more dangerous than the feeding itself.
- Prevention
- Go easy on nitrogen, because soft sappy growth is what aphids are looking for. Encourage the predators (ladybirds, lacewings, parasitic wasps). Use a reflective mulch, which puts them off settling, and a strong jet of water to knock the colony off the tips.
- What to do
- Potassium soap works on contact and only while it is wet, so it has to reach the underside of the leaf. On drought-loving plants and in heat it can scorch, so apply it in the evening.
- Signs
- Green larvae with black dots, caterpillar-like in appearance, strip the bush to bare branches in a few days. They appear first in the middle of the bush, low down, and only then spread outwards, which is why a gardener often notices them when the foliage is almost gone. A bush stripped of leaves survives, but bears less the following year.
- Prevention
- From April to September keep checking the middle of the bush, above all the underside of the leaves low down on the inside. An open, airy shape makes both the checking and the picking easier. Leave the birds and the other natural enemies in the garden to their work.
- What to do
- Pick the larvae off by hand as soon as you find them. On a single bush this is the quickest measure, and if you find them early it is enough.
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Related plants
The plants below are in the same botanical family (Grossulariaceae).
Sources about the plant: GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, Iowa State University Extension, Penn State Extension, Royal Horticultural Society, Utah State University Extension, Wikidata. Checked between 14 and 28 August 2026. The problem descriptions also draw on: Clemson Cooperative Extension, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.