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[Bill Garthright <billg@inebraska.com>]

What experiences have you had with the following varieties of gooseberry:

Black Velvet

I had to move my one bush, because I didn't leave enough room, so I've only had berries this past year. But after replanting, it grew VERY vigorously, with very tall and thorny canes. Production this year was very good. The dark red berries were good, too - probably my second-favorite for fresh-eating (after Poorman, which is great, but not too prolific).

For what it's worth, I've got two more bushes growing up where I dug this one out to transplant. Apparently, I left enough root in the ground. No, it doesn't seem to be invasive - just vigorous. Unfortunately, I don't have any room for more plants. And this one clearly grows a lot bigger than most!

Jewel

For me, it's been productive (again, just one bush), and it seems to grow a bit more upright than my other bushes. It's very, very thorny, like most of them. And like the rest, it makes great pie. But I don't like them for fresh eating, so I'll probably get rid of it.

But note that I have this problem with most gooseberry varieties I've tried. It's not just Jewel. If I were just wanting them for pie or preserves, they'd all be just fine. But I mostly want berries that are good fresh when ripe, or mostly ripe (a lot of gooseberries get too bland for me when COMPLETELY ripe), and that's harder to find, apparently.

But they grow great here in very little sun (just a few hours at mid-day) with NO disease problems at all. And one spray of Bt seems to completely eliminate the green - and very fast - worms which otherwise infest the berries. I don't have any other insect problems at all - and even the birds don't bother them! So there's a lot to like!

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

http://garthright.blogspot.com/

--
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow. - Mark Twain