North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Maybe I should have been more specific then just to call the PBR hazard bogus.  I remembered reading a fairly convincing rebuttal of black currant rust phobia but few of the details in a book I have on my shelf and I just picked it up for a refresher.

 

The book is "The Old Fashioned Fruit Garden" by Ann Gardner and given the woman's last name I think we should give some credence to the case for black currants she lays out.  She questions whether black currants are actually more susceptible to PBR than other ribes species.  She found no research proving that blacks are more susceptible than other ribes to PBR and found experts to be divided on this question.  She also points out that wild ribes species are so prolific that any attempt at restricting them is pointless anyway.  I would go further to suggest that if wild black currants are truly prolific than they obviously would have done a lot more damage to 5 needle  pines by now then they have if they were important vectors of PBR. 

 

Her final point is that there was never any ban placed in Alaska, and their white pines did not suffer for this leniency.

 

I have no idea what to make of this really, but I love black currants and think they are indispensable culinary dynamos- far superior to white and reds as an ingredient in deserts, preserves and juice and much more nutritious as well.  So my emotional decision is to grant all black currants clemency.