Blackcurrant · Harbin, Heilongjiang, China
When to plant blackcurrants in Harbin
Main outdoor window
6 Oct - 14 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
28 April
In Harbin, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Jul - 31 Aug
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Harbin
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Plant the bush
6 Oct - 14 Apr
Any time the plant is dormant and the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged: after leaf fall in autumn, or at the end of winter before growth restarts.
Harvest
1 Jul - 31 Aug
Blackcurrants through the year
Against the frost risk in Harbin
Why these dates
Plant dormant, and plant deep - 5 cm lower than the nursery mark - which encourages new shoots from below ground. Blackcurrant is the one soft fruit that genuinely benefits from being buried.
Very hardy. The flowers open early and can be caught by frost in a cold spring, which shows up as a bare patch at the base of an otherwise full strig.
Blackcurrants are planted once and then left in place, so there is no sowing offset to resolve. What matters in Harbin is the shape of the year: this crop is dormant through the winter and is planted while it sleeps, any time between leaf fall in autumn and the restart of growth in spring, so long as the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged. That is why the window below spans the cold months rather than sitting in the middle of the growing season.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Harbin is zone 4a, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
Do not expect a crop in the first year. A plant set out now should give its first worthwhile pick around year 2, and will then produce every year after that, which is what makes the planting decision worth getting right the first time.
Also in Harbin
Other fruits to time
Growing blackcurrants in Harbin
When should I plant blackcurrants in Harbin?
Aim for 6 Oct - 14 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 29 Sep - 21 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will blackcurrants be ready to harvest in Harbin?
Expect to start picking around 1 Jul - 31 Aug, based on 60 to 80 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will blackcurrants tolerate?
Very hardy. The flowers open early and can be caught by frost in a cold spring, which shows up as a bare patch at the base of an otherwise full strig.