North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[lee reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com>]

You might be interested in what I wrote in my new book Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden (Timber Press, 2004):

            Clove currant (Ribes odoratum, and the closely related R. aureum, both uncommon fruits of this book), Worcesterberry (R. divaricatum, with edible fruit, incidentally), and R. sanguineum provide suitable rootstocks and trunks for tree-form gooseberries. Be warned that clones of clove currant vary in their compatibility with gooseberry scions and in the vigor, and hence yield, they confer to those scions. In a Hungarian study, clones named ‘Fritsche’ and ‘Brecht’ were best for rootstocks.

Although I have not yet tried it myself, it seems that Ribes aureum would make a particularly suitable rootstock. My R. aureum plants are much more upright growing than either R. odoratum or josta, and also tend to sucker less.

Lee Reich, PhD

www.leereich.com

Books by Lee Reich:

Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden

A Northeast Gardener's Year

The Pruning Book

Weedless Gardening

On Sep 5, 2005, at 11:51 PM, Charles Paradise wrote:

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

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