North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Gonna try this one more time.

My small Ben Loman plant bore a crop for the first time this year and the clusters are so nice and fruit so big I begin to wonder about one thing.  It seems to me that other varieties I have, including Cascade (I think), Willoby, Crusador and  Consort, all used to give me larger fruit in tighter clusters easier to harvest.  Maybe I've not been managing these plants in the best way by allowing them to get quite large.  I don't tend to pay great attention to my ribes with all the other demands in my orchard that already go way beyond rational business thinking.

So I'm interested in input on best management techniques.

By the way, the Ben Loman fruit is quite good- not so strong that it isn't good right off the plant.