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  • From: Joe and Ellen Hecksel <jhecksel@voyager.net>
  • To: Ginda Fisher <ginda@concentric.net>
  • Subject: [Fwd: Re: [nafex] what new for the spring?]
  • Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2002 08:00:44 -0500

Very nice post! Thanks for taking the time.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [nafex] what new for the spring?
Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 18:53:19 -0500
From: Ginda Fisher <ginda@concentric.net>
Reply-To: nafex@yahoogroups.com
To: nafex@yahoogroups.com



I don't have any experience with gooseberries, but I've grown Crandall currants, true black currants, and red currants. I've had good luck with Crandalls - very easy, very productive, and I like the flavor. The plants get a bit sloppy (better when staked) but are pretty and smell pleasant in the spring.

The true black currant I grew (Consort) was so vigorous it threatened to take. Maybe it was just too big for the spot. I have mistreated it horribly and it still gave me a little fruit this year. (I dug it up last year, leaving behind a lot of root, and moved it into the shade, with only shallow soil over rock.) The fruit is nearly inedible raw, but is very rich and tasty when cooked up with some sugar.

I've grown a few red currants (Red lake, Red Start, and several feral plants). My tastes run towards the sour ones. Some are susceptible to aphids, but other than making them look ugly, the bugs don't seem to do much damage. Other than that, I've found them trouble free. The most serious pest has been chipmunks, who ate all the unripe berries one year. (On all three types of currant.)

Red and black currants do not have ornamental flowers, but the plants themselves look very attractive from early spring to late summer. They get "ratty looking" well before they really go dormant, but I forgive them this flaw as they are such easy, well behaved plants, and I enjoy the fruit.

Red and black currants are both high in pectin and easy to turn into jelly. I don't think I've tried with Crandall, but somehow I don't think it would work as well. The half Crandall, half apple pie was a big hit, though.


On Thursday, January 3, 2002, at 10:37 PM, lostman_amiga wrote:

Now that the new plant catlogs are starting to show up at my
door, I am starting to plant for spring.

. . .
Lasty, I want to get a few Currents or Goosberries or both.
(I was told Crandells are a good bet)



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--

-Joe Hecksel







  • [Fwd: Re: [nafex] what new for the spring?], Joe and Ellen Hecksel, 01/05/2002

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