PlantSowGrow
How to plant and care for Redcurrant (Jonkheer van Tets)
Ribes rubrum
🍓 Fruit
🔁 Perennial
Early, long strings of translucent red berries — beautiful in jellies and summer puddings. Can be trained as a cordon on a fence.
At a glance: harvest in July.
When to plant and care for it
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Harvest
Prune
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Redcurrant (Jonkheer van Tets): what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water well while fruit swells
- Soil
- Fertile, well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 1.2 m
- Height
- 1.2 m
- In pots
- Only in large containers
- Feeding
- Sulphate of potash in late winter; mulch with compost
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 3–7
Step by step
- On planting day
Plant
Plant 1.2 m apart in weed-free, well-prepared soil enriched with compost, and water in well.
- 0–3 days after “Plant”
Water In
Water well and keep moist while it settles in.
- 7–21 days after “Water In”
Mulch
Spread 5 cm of compost or bark around the plants to keep moisture in and weeds down.
Every year
- JanuaryWinter Prune
Shorten main branches by half their new growth and cut side shoots back to one or two buds.
- JuneNet Against Birds
Net before the berries colour.
- JulyPick Redcurrants
Pick whole strings when shiny and red.
- JulySummer Prune
Shorten this year's side shoots to five leaves to let sun in and build fruit buds.
