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[Charles Paradise <machelp@attglobal.net>]

Quoting a post Ed Mashburn made in 2003 June 10 regarding his experience 
grafting gooseberries onto Jostaberries, I would like to ask if the system 
would have more in its favor if a Jostaberry stock were found that was 
resistant to suckering?

Thanks Charlie Paradise in Massachusetts

Ed Wrote:
I think that I wrote that article, it was in Pomona and Northland Berry News.
The grower was (is) Peter Howenstein in Switzerland. I had met Peter through
the internet and regular correspondence and was intriged by his planting. I
had thought that grafting gooseberries to Josta would solve a lot of problems,
such as getting them higher, opening them up (by trellising them) and may
reduce the problems of mildew. One comment was "wouldn't it be great to have
Hinnomaki Yellow berries growing at fout feet above ground". The plan was to 
reverse
the "dwarf apple concept" and have larger, more upright plants. What often
happened was that you wound up with the same type plant at a higher level.

There were several problems with the overall plan, gooseberries are very
difficult to graft and Josta has a great tendency to throw suckers from the 
base,
these grow faster and larger than the graft and cutting them off produces even
more shoots to grow. The grafts were placed at 12 and 18 inches above ground
level and I also did a number of them at 6 inches to form short trees. Most of
the grafts lasted about 8 to 10 years some longer and some much shorter. I
still have a few that are about 15 years old. I have lost some enthusiasm for
this venture and just prune and train the plants to a trellis now.

I also grafted to Pixwell and Glendale, two easy to propagate rootstocks,
that are much more upright tall growing gooseberries with a little better
results. They were easier to graft and the sucker problem was less than with 
Josta.
Josta, at that time, was reputed to be immune to mildew, which was another 
plus
for it. Josta was not immune and was in fact more susceptible than Pixwell or
Glendale. I used several grafting techniques including standard whip, saddle
grafts and reverse saddle grafts. The gooseberry scions were significantly
smaller than the Josta and the thickness of the cambium were much different, 
good
matchups required a lot of attention. Bench grafts were not very productive.

I have lost track with Peter now, but he had a great planting and sent
pictures, which I used in a presentation at a NAFEX meeting some years ago at 
Penn
State. All in all, I do not think that it solved more problems than it 
created,
and I no longer graft gooseberries except to propagate selections that need
to be increased and maintained. It seemed like a great idea at the time, but 
in
retrospect, was a lot of work that did not pan out as I had thought it may.

Ed Mashburn
Northumberland BerryWorks
707 Front Street
Northumberland, PA 17857
(570) 473-9910