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How to Grow Redcurrants UK | Regional Planting Calendar
Move through the SoilCommander growing library like a course: keep the navigation in place, open the next lesson, and build your garden plan step by step.
In the UK, redcurrants go in the ground early October to late May.
Redcurrants (Ribes rubrum) — perennial.
Timing is the decision that matters most in the UK: there are 4 separate regional sowing windows, ranging from early October in Southern England to early October in Scotland.
Core growing advice on this page is checked against named horticultural and university-extension sources — see References.
RHS: best planted September/October or April/May; a single autumn-to-spring window is applied uniformly across all four sub-regions since RHS gives no UK-region-specific gradient.
Midlands - detail & sources
RHS: best planted September/October or April/May; a single autumn-to-spring window is applied uniformly across all four sub-regions since RHS gives no UK-region-specific gradient.
Northern England - detail & sources
RHS: best planted September/October or April/May; a single autumn-to-spring window is applied uniformly across all four sub-regions since RHS gives no UK-region-specific gradient.
Scotland - detail & sources
RHS: best planted September/October or April/May; a single autumn-to-spring window is applied uniformly across all four sub-regions since RHS gives no UK-region-specific gradient.
When to pick: USU: "Currants ripen over a two-week period in mid-June to mid-July...and change color to a bright red when fully ripe"; fruit "do not need to be harvested as soon as they turn red, as they hold well on the plant"; leaving fruit 2-3 weeks after coloring "will enhance flavor and sweetness"; harvest "the whole cluster at once" since the tender skins tear easily; yield "about 3 to 10 pounds per bush". RHS: protect ripening fruit from birds with netting or a fruit cage.
Storage
Best used fresh or for jams/juice; tender skins tear easily so handle by the cluster
Directly fetched and verified. RHS explicitly does not recommend pesticide use against aphids; recommends tolerance, manual squashing, and encouraging/purchasing natural predators (ladybirds, hoverflies, lacewings, parasitoid wasps, earwigs) as biological control, especially under glass.
6 independent sources are cited for this crop. Where they disagree - soil pH is the clearest case - every figure is preserved rather than averaged into false precision.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I sow redcurrants in the UK?
In Southern England, from early October. In Scotland, wait until early October. Treat these as a guide rather than a fixed date — the governing rule is to sow only once frost risk has passed and temperatures are reliably warm enough.
When do I sow redcurrants?
Sow early October to late May.
What soil pH do redcurrants need?
A pH of about 6.5–7.5. That span reflects genuine variation between the authorities we cite rather than a single agreed figure — the References section lists each source's exact range.
What problems affect redcurrants?
Our data links 4 diseases and 6 pests to this crop. See the sections above for each one and how to manage it.
Plan next season before the problems start
Most of the advice on this page comes down to timing and spacing — sowing at the right moment, rotating beds, and giving plants enough airflow. The UK Garden Planner lays your plot out month by month so those decisions are already made before the season starts.
UK vegetable growing guides · Checked against RHS & Met Office guidance
Every SoilCommander guide is written and maintained by our editorial team for real UK growing conditions, and reviewed against Royal Horticultural Society growing advice and Met Office climate data before publication.
Sketch your exact plot shape, pick your UK crops, and get a spacing-accurate bed layout with companion pairings, a rotation plan and month-by-month sowing dates — every fact sourced from RHS and Garden Organic.
