North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

When I lived for a short time on Amherst Island (NE corner of Lake 
Ontario, northern edge of Ag Can zone 6a), in the fall about 29 years 
ago I set out 3 short cuttings of Poorman (from my young bush) in 
Farmington (clay) loam (shallow soil over layers of limestone and 
shale). 2 cuttings rooted. I gave away the rooted cuttings and my bush 
succumbed to vole damage, so I have no personal knowledge of the fruit.

I read that Poorman makes a somewhat larger bush than Hinnomaki Red, so 
if there is no difference in disease resistance or soil/climate 
adaptation I speculate that for people in much of North America with 
plenty of space who are going to plant only one bush, Poorman may be a 
good choice.

I have a feeling though that there was a reason why the Finns continued 
breeding work, so I suspect that Hinnomaki Red may have a better 
adaptation to conditions like those in at least the more populated areas 
of Finland (somewhat maritime cool climate?), and maybe Poorman does 
better, or at least is competitive, in a more continental climate. This 
in the absence of more comprehensive information from trials. I recall 
that about 20-30 years ago the (defunct) New York State Fruit Testing 
Association said that Poorman was the best gooseberry at Geneva station, 
which I have read has a lot of clay soil.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada



John S wrote:
>   Doug,  That's a hard question for me to answer accurately without 
> doing some objective measurements.  My feel for the situation is that H. 
> Red is slightly better in terms of fruit productivity.  I would claim 
> that fruit size is similar without doing the measurements.
>
> Frankly I have problems telling the two apart, except for the subjective 
> observation about slightly different ripening times, which overlap.
>
> I have made some minor efforts to propagate using prunings of various 
> sizes, but not had much success with these two.  Hinnomaki Yellow, an 
> excellent, very cold hardy yellow berry, is trivially easy to propagate 
> in comparison, tip rooting itself all the time.
>
> Keep in mind that my Poorman was a discounted nursery rescue acquisition 
> and is slightly a different size from my H. Red and I keep my 
> gooseberries somewhat rootbound in pots.
>
> My favorite gooseberries are H. Red (or Poorman), H. Yellow, Glendale 
> and Black Velvet of about 15-20 varieties in trial.  Hope this helps.  I 
> haven't found any better than the ones mentioned, but there are others 
> similar and almost as good.
>
>
>
> --- On *Wed, 5/13/09, Douglas Woodard /<dwoodard@becon.org>/* wrote:
>
>
>     From: Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>
>     Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Gooseberries
>     To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
>     Date: Wednesday, May 13, 2009, 11:07 PM
>
>     John S., how do Poorman and Hinnomaki Red compare in berry size,
>     productivity in relation to bush size, bush size, and disease
>     resistance
>     with you? Any difference in ease of propagation from cuttings?
>
>     Doug Woodard
>     St. Catharines, Ontario
>
>
>     John S wrote:

>      > Hinnomaki Red is excellent but similar to Poorman in taste and
>     sweetness
>      > and among my favorites..  I find they ripen at slightly different
>     times. 
>      > Pixwell is a poor comparison and not worth growing unless you use
>     the
>      > fruit for cooking.  Poorman produces average size berries here.  If
>      > yours produced tiny berries, then perhaps you had incorrectly ID's
>      > plants or something else was wrong.
>      >
>      > John