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labruscagrape - Re: [OFEX] red currants

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Subject: Ontario Fruit Explorers

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  • From: "Thomas Olenio" <tolenio@sentex.net>
  • To: "Ontario Fruit Explorers" <labruscagrape@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [OFEX] red currants
  • Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 09:47:16 -0400


Hello,

Are thimbleberries more commonly known as blackberries?

Are yours trailing or upright?

I had some tailing blackberries a number of years back. Very tasty but not very productive.

When picked you ended up with a hollow, thimble shaped fruit, that removed from the stem plug.

My red currants were upright... until this year. The Red Lake, red currant is still upright, it is only the "Cherry" red currant that is down on the ground.

All it's leaves have now re-oriented to the sun.

Later,
Tom


On Wed, 31 May 2006 09:16:02 -0400, Biz Storms <biz.storms@sympatico.ca> wrote:

Good morning folks,


Spent the day at the farm yesterday, trying to get ahead of the grass before
it gets too long to mow. I think I have samples of every bug bite
imaginable, plus a new little chomper that swells up beautifully. Our black
currant bushes are also exploding with fruit - lots more than last year.
Ours seem to be pollinated the most by bumblebees. This year they must have
arrived at odd hours using stealth mode, since we rarely noticed them
around. Looks like our cassis supply will increase by large amounts this
coming December.

We had also purchased one of the "giant" black currant variety's from
MacFayden Nurseries a few years back, and it grew like a normal size variety
for the last three years. It has now exploded in size and is also heavily
laden with fruit. Since the branches are more sturdy than the clove currant,
it has a more porcupine appearance. It also ripens a bit later than the
others, with larger berries. I wish I had recorded the name before my best
half tossed the packaging.

As for the bees, both our hives made it successfully through the winter, and
when we removed the medicated strips two weekends ago, they had just about
stocked both the upper and lower hives with honey. We put honey supers on
both and they have extremely busy with them. With all this heat and massive
amounts of dandelions, lilacs and the early bloomers like the Nanking Cherry
and the Saskatoon berries - it has been a great year for early honey. I'm
predicting our earliest year so far to have to haul out the extractor.

For those of you with apples, I'd love to hear how your pollination went
with this wacky freezing to heat wave weather. We have some varieties that
will not produce a single fruit this year, since bloom coincided with the
chill two weekends ago and the rain and wind blew off or destroyed the
blooms. Alternatively, most of the crabs bloomed early, as they tend to do,
and the Dolgo, Chestnut, Geneva, Trail and Scugog crabs are covered with
fruitlets. Strangely, the Centennial and a few others are more hit and miss.
Hopefully we can start bagging in another week or two when rowing season
ends. I have become envious of other sporting parents, since they tend to
not have to get up at 4:30 in the morning to get the kids to the water for a
practice before school every day. On the other hand, we know where our
daughter is on Friday nights - in bed at 8:30 !

Going back to apples, we seem to be under attack by the leaf rollers -
anyone else experiencing this? Also, early growth on the apple trees this
year is awesome. Again, way ahead of the last few years. Is this happening
on other fruit varieties?

One final question. Does anyone have Thimbleberries? Mine are now four years
old and doing absolutely nothing. Maybe I have a bunch of eunuchs, but for
all their size, there's been no fruit. Much ado about nothing, so far.


Well, must dash. Cheers, Bizmark.





-----Original Message-----
From: labruscagrape-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:labruscagrape-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of John Barbowski
Sent: 28 May 2006 17:09
To: labruscagrape@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [OFEX] red currants


My currents (red and black) are too young for comparison. The have a
reasonable fruit set.

Pears are good, apples are very good, apricots average, blackberries appear
to good, strawberries are very good, cherries (sweet) are average, peaches
are good, jostaberry is sparse (still a young shrub - 3rd yr) and grapes are
very good (young vine).

jb


_____


From: "Thomas Olenio" <tolenio@sentex.net>
Reply-To: Ontario Fruit Explorers <labruscagrape@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: "labruscagrape@lists.ibiblio.org" <labruscagrape@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [OFEX] red currants
Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 17:06:03 -0400

Hello All,

My red currants are going gang busters this year. They are laying on the
ground with a ton of green fruit.

Anyone else seeing this?

The variety in question is "Cherry" red currant. Usually, they are
upright, but this year they are ground dwelling, pulled down with fruit.

This is much to early for this. Makes mowing a pain.

Later,
Tom
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