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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Ribes update

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  • From: "Kieran &/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Ribes update
  • Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 09:45:31 -0600

Gooseberry update:
In researching the varieties you all mentioned and recommended, I found out that American gooseberry mildew invaded England and NZ in the 1980's, creating a sudden flurry of breeding activity which we in the eastern US can benefit from. The Hinnonmaki gooseberry varieties came from a plant or plants collected wild off a Finnish island and apparently they had no idea what a gem they had found. Whether these are actually wild collected or crosses of a wild plant, they are very disease resistant, not just to mildew but also to the cursed leaf spot. The taller red one must have originally been called "Leepa Red" but someone has decided it would be better to link it name-wise to the little best seller, Hinnonmaki or Hinomaki Yellow. (This is shortened Finnish that just happens to read like Japanese.)
The gooseberry seems to have been extremely popular in England as something that the average backyard gardener could play with and produce his own crosses, so thousands of vars have been named. These will probably be largely swept away by the new disease to be replaced by crosses of our native vars (many of them crosses to the Euro) and of new collected vars or old lesser known cultivars that turn out resistant. I think it was John S who recommended Red Jacket aka Josslyn, which sounded good but my old Rodale book said it was prone to mildew if grown further south. I would like to try Invicta (which seemed to have the most supporters and detractors), Jahn's Prairie and Jeanne, but prefer to start with sure bets. I definitely want to try Glenndale, but only Edible Landscaping carries it for a $20 price tag.

The oft reviled Canadian black currant releases Consort, Crusader and that other one have been crossed to European black currants to produce Ben Lomand, now the most widely planted black currant in Europe for juice, and others in the Scottish "Ben" series. (Ben meaning mountain.) Resistance varies, I hope in a year or two there are more of these available. Titania doesn't sound all that great to me, has anyone tasted it?

I put in my order to Whitman Farms:

2 Hinomaki Yellow (and they are little bitty horizontal guys, nothing like the others!)
1 Hinomaki Red
1 amish Red
1 Crandall currant
1 Ben Lomand
1 Ben Sarek
1 Black Down

With shipping they ran $10 each. I was idly wondering if I might want to change my order when the plants suddenly arrived, 8 days after I dropped my check in the mail! It must have been their first shipping day, as there were still leaves on some of the plants. I put the little H yellows right in the garden in the rose row, plenty of thorns for company there, and the Crandall down at the end of the blueberry row as it sounds like it might come in so late it could be netted with them. The others are in pots while I study my compass and the tree line for the black currants to be shaded in the afternoon. This is the first time I've seen what the thorns on gooseberries are normally like. When I told my husband that the local plant I collected is the lowest of the low flavorwise and told him the name, he exclaimed, "Pigswill? What kind of name is that?!" I said, "Pixwell, Pixwell, because it doesn't have many thorns." But it will be called Pigswill in this household forever more. I know that's what it is because the fruit starts out sour, then goes completely insipid when it's ripe. Never seems to have any other flavor. I got out this past sunny weekend, yes, sunshine, I'd forgotten what it was like, and dug out a 4 young mimosa trees and all kinds of weeds that were competing, and found about 5 rooted sprouts around the edges of my Pigswill plant. Next some phosphate, and Rodale press said that Ribes do better without commercial fertilizer so I'll just give it some rock dust and a speck of fertilizer next spring. The plant's really big enough, I'd just like it to crop better till my new plants kick in.
I think the info on new Ribes introductions is worth getting into Pomona for the winter issue, so that people have time to order for spring. Any further comments you'd like to see included? Donna




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