Got to looking through my containerized inventory…and I have a Jahn’s Prarie also. still in it’s pot. Bought a year ago. Alive. But has not had fruit. And I didn’t see blooms currently either. Pixwell was loaded with honeybees last week.
Some pics of the Oregon Champion plant, now about two feet tall, with several little berries on it now
Jeanne plant, not as tall, but quite dense, with a few tiny berries on it
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I just picked a quart of pixwell off 1 bush and I like the flavor of pixwell in comparison with many. They are a little thorny.
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Thanks for updating. I decided I’m going to plant a whole bunch of varieties. As many as I can. I’ll feed the birds along the way, too.
Dax
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@Barkslip
I don’t grow many gooseberries because though I enjoy a good gooseberry pie I don’t eat much of it. Like currents I enjoy them but in a limited capacity. We have a bushel of cherries that went in the freezer and counting so I’m reaching capacity on tart fruit for us to consume this year. The ripening times overlap with juneberries and cherries so I don’t have more manpower to deticate to expanding gooseberries. To make matters worse they overlap black raspberries and clove currents that are ripe. Kansas is to hot technically for gooseberries and so I created artificial shade to Grow them many years ago.
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Glad to see your pixwell. I thouht my pixwell was some kind nursary mixed up because it has thorn. I read in web description that pixwell is thornless plant therefore berries are easy to be picked, pixwell. .the leafs, and berries of mine look a lot like what’s in your picture. The berries are on the small side, but the flavor is sweet when ripe,no tart skin.
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@IL847
That’s them you have a pixwell bush. Your description is exactly how they are. I balance the tart less ripe green berries with the sweet red berries and they make a nice tart yet sweet pie mixed together. I wait until ripe and unripe berries are about 50/50 before I pick them. That’s a very hard pie to beat!
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What do you use to pick the berries?
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I just pick them by hand.
I found a handy tool, a horse comb that comb the berries off:smile: one side is for small berry, another side is for bigger berry.
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Very clever!
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It’s my first year growing them so I can’t say I have a favorite. But I did obsessively research for the best dessert quality gooseberry that had good disease resistance and produced reliably and the ones that consistently came out on top were: Poorman, Hinnomaki Red, Hinnomaki Yellow and Black Velvet
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I have a couple,different varieties I got from friend’s plants. Thay have tip layered themselves, what an easy plant to propagate! Unfortunately, I don’t know the varieties…they do look similar to Pixwell in coloration. One makes smaller, more intensely flavored fruit, the other larger fruit-dime vs nickel size. Very productive plants that bite back when I pick the berries, I like that comb idea!, I also like the the idea of using a tomato cage to contain them, as they really sprawl under the fruit load and that further complicates the harvest. I would like to expand my small collection of these…
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The Hinnomaki Red has lots of little saw-briar like thorns…it bites. The Pixwell has thorns, but not nearly as numerous. Pixwell is probably best for the novice…for they require little if any attention. All gooseberries should be planted more often…it’s an easy plant to put in the landscape.
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My 3rd year Hinnomaki Red was fairly productive for a small plant. About a quart baggy full, so maybe 2-2.5 cups?
Reminded me a bit of plums in their sour-sweet mix. I’ve got 2 others with fruit loads, but I don’t think they’re at the same stage of ripeness. The H. Red was randomly dropping fruit as I was picking from it, so I just took everything.
This far south they have some heat & mildew/fungus problems in July/August. I’m pretty much at the south end of the gooseberry range in 7a/b.
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This was the first year I had any fruit from my gooseberry plants, and it was from a hinno red. I really enjoyed the flavor. I’m hoping the size of the berries will be a bit bigger next year, but the flavor was somewhere between a raspberry, apple, and plum, with a spritz of rose water. I was really surprised with how good it tasted. I can’t wait to try other varieties
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I ate perfectly ripe ‘Red George’ yesterday and I can report they taste almost if not exactly like red raspberries. There’s just a tiny bit of sweetness left out. They are superb!
Still waiting on Jeanne to color purple. The berries are awful at the bright red stage.
Hinnomaki Red while coloring up is still sour. I only have a few on my plant to try yet. All my plants are very young.
Dax
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We’ve had some of our Oregon Champion berries ripen up, they turn purple when ripe. The flavor of most of the ones I’ve tried is kinda bland, maybe a weak grape flavor. The size of them have been about thumbnail size at the biggest. I’m really surprised that the birds have left them alone, maybe it’s because the bush is low and the berries are kinda hard to see. I know it’s the first year of production, so I imagine they’ll be better in the following years.
Damn, raspberries are my favorite fruit. I’m going to have to add that one!
I added jewel this year, an orange cultivar. I want to add one other but that’s it, OK, 2 now, jeez!
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how if your Jewel doing? I felt badly as when it arrived there were about a cup of pea-sized berries in the box.
I always see the Black Velvet sizing up and beginning to color up, but never seem to get them before the wildlife (squirrels and possums)
My dog got a possum the other night, I should check to see if there are any BV’s left…
Scott