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nafex - [NAFEX] clove currant seeds

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  • From: "tanis cuff" <tanistanis@hotmail.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] clove currant seeds
  • Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 14:28:44 +0000

Not too long ago I posted that I have a clove currant which has never made more than a few berries. It must have internet access, because it has made a liar out of me by this year producing enough berries for me to enjoy some and to share with others interested in this rare event. Crop is nearly done now; season was just after/slightly overlapping the Timm & Success juneberry season.

Seed production is shy, maybe 2 seeds per 10 berries. Berries stay on the canes, often even if full ripe and drying up. Less ripe berries taste like tart red currants, mid-ripe taste like a mild wild grape, over-ripe berries taste like a low quality blueberry. Ripe berries are black. This is the vigorous clove currant, 6' or taller except that tall canes arch over; suckering/spreading shrub; wonderful rich fragrance when blooming; gets a late season leaf disease &/or has early senescence. Very drought tolerant-- the one I planted on a high-dry hilltop produced proportionally as much fruit as the one planted where it gets some rainwater off a roof. (The dry-site one is smaller, though.)

I thought I should offer to NAFEX Ribes people the seeds I've collected, in case this fruit production is a rare event and I should send the seeds to people who know what they're doing. (Or is this nothing unusual, just a simple thing like the flowers finally attracted the right pollinator?)

tc, s.WI, more surprised by these currants than by the drought & heat






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