To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Are brambles or ribes good fruits for me to try growing?
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 09:27:13 -0500
I guess I didn't consider the second part of the question. I haven't heard
of too many people even on this group doing much with currants or
gooseberries in the south. they don't like the heat. (I'm saying this
partly to bring the defenders out of the woodwork.) That said, Richard
Moyer mentioned that his gooseberries came through the freeze. I can't see
that our one bush has anything on it. It was a sprout taken from a fruiting
bush in town. I haven't done anything for it, never have even fertilized
it, and it does make a few berries most years. And I met this little old
lady in east TN who told me about the horrors of gooseberry picking. Her
mother grew them for a cash crop, and so once a year she sent the kids out
to pick them while they were green. No gloves, and they had to pick enough
bushels to load up the wagon to take it to the market. Green is the way
gooseberries were traditionally sold in England too, hard and sour and easy
to transport. But apparently this TN family let the remainder ripen for
their own use. So we know there are some varieties that are suited for the
south, though I don't know about as far south as you are. What's your
elevation? The lower it is, the further "south" you are. I'm at 1,000 ft,
but I could go about 100 miles "north" by going 15 miles east, 1,000 ft
higher. Donna