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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Are brambles or ribes good fruits for me to try growing?

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  • From: "Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Are brambles or ribes good fruits for me to try growing?
  • Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 09:27:13 -0500

I guess I didn't consider the second part of the question. I haven't heard of too many people even on this group doing much with currants or gooseberries in the south. they don't like the heat. (I'm saying this partly to bring the defenders out of the woodwork.) That said, Richard Moyer mentioned that his gooseberries came through the freeze. I can't see that our one bush has anything on it. It was a sprout taken from a fruiting bush in town. I haven't done anything for it, never have even fertilized it, and it does make a few berries most years. And I met this little old lady in east TN who told me about the horrors of gooseberry picking. Her mother grew them for a cash crop, and so once a year she sent the kids out to pick them while they were green. No gloves, and they had to pick enough bushels to load up the wagon to take it to the market. Green is the way gooseberries were traditionally sold in England too, hard and sour and easy to transport. But apparently this TN family let the remainder ripen for their own use. So we know there are some varieties that are suited for the south, though I don't know about as far south as you are. What's your elevation? The lower it is, the further "south" you are. I'm at 1,000 ft, but I could go about 100 miles "north" by going 15 miles east, 1,000 ft higher. Donna




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