Korean currant

Survives zone 4 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

⚠ Genuinely under-documented — secondary sources describing this species may be conflating it with the closely related R. maximowiczii or R. ussuriense, and no reliable flavor or culinary information was found. One source notes Jeju Island (Korea) populations have been studied for antioxidant properties, but that's a research mention, not a garden fact. Native-range and cultivation claims here should be treated as tentative pending verification against a primary source like POWO or GBIF.

Hardiness

Zone 4–8

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

June–Aug

Mature size

Deciduous shrub 1–2 m

Light

Partial to full sun

Soil pH

6.0–7.0

Environment

Temperate

Native range

China, Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East, reportedly 900-2,700 m elevation (species identity in secondary sources is uncertain — see note).

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

1–2 yrs

Growth speed

Moderate

Spacing

150 cm (59 in) apart — about 2.3 m² (24 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Rounded, 3–8 cm, deeply cordate at the base and cleft into three main lobes plus two smaller ones, doubly toothed margins.

Root system

Spreading, arching branches that root where they touch the ground.

Fruit description

Subglobose red berries, 6–8 mm across, with an unpleasant taste.

Propagation

Hardwood cuttings are close to foolproof: take pencil-thick shoots about 20–25 cm long in late autumn, push two-thirds into free-draining ground outdoors and leave them a year. Layering a low branch works too. Seed needs several months of cold stratification and is only worth it for breeding.

Pollination

Hermaphrodite flowers, insect-pollinated. No self-compatibility study for this species specifically: cultivated currants and gooseberries are largely self-fruitful, but controlled work on wild western Ribes found several species outright self-sterile, so a single plant is not a safe assumption. Plant two.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.