North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[mIEKAL aND <qazingulaza@gmail.com>]

Same for me, I have a bunch of varieties of red, black, champagne &
Crandall & they all defoliate.  Doesn't seem to effect vigor.  I did
notice tho that a new planting of Consort black currant is looking
unaffected & is actually still growing strong.

~mIEKAL

On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 9:46 AM, Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us> wrote:
> I have a 'feral' red currant (i dug up a seedling from a patch that probably
> started out as something cultivated) and it gets ratty and loses most of
> it's leaves by this time almost every year.  I've had it for more than 20
> years, now, and it always comes back in the spring and produces fruit.  The
> berries are smaller and on shorter strings than 'jonkheers van tet', which I
> also grow, but I harvest both.
>
> The jonkheers also looks ratty now, but still has about half it's leaves.  I
> just think of them as plants that do their thing early, and go dormant
> early.  I suppose if they kept their foliage until fall they might be more
> fruitful (and certainly prettier as landscaping) but the two bushes produce
> as much fruit as I can process into jelly in one batch, with some left over
> for the birds and the children, so I'm satisfied.
>
> -- Ginda
>
> Eastern MA, zone 6
>
> ________________________________
> On Sep 13, 2010 10:24 AM, Anton Ptak <antonptak@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> anyone had a problem with anthracnose/leaf spot on currants and
> gooseberries? From what I've read of these diseases, they are fairly
> similar only varying with the size of the brown spots, later yellowing the
> leaves and causing early defoliation. Seems that warm, wet, and humid
> weather is when these problems appear, which fits the description of our
> weather this year. Most of the Pink Champagne pink currants and Jonkeer Von
> Tets red currants, along with my Pixwell gooseberries have nearly totally
> defoliated and only have a few leaves at the very end of the canes at this
> point. In contrast, my recently planted black currants are spotless with
> many new canes and look fantastic.
>
> I'm wondering how the bushes can bounce back from this problem the following
> year. Seems like they will probably produce less since the disease seems to
> have limited new growth.
>
> In reading about the solution for this, seems like bordeaux or lime sulfur
> is recommended starting in the spring. Has this solution been successful
> for anyone. Any other solutions to be considered. We do plan on raking up
> and destroying the mulch once all the leaves have fallen.
>
> Thanks,
> Anton Ptak
> W. Wisconsin zone 4a
>