I saw where LUBERA (the RedLove apple guy in Switzerland) is planning to introduce several new patented gooseberries. Spotted a video somewhere online, but didn’t write down the address.
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For all you gooseberry trialers, it seems One Green World has a couple of new ones, too: Selby and Siewka K1.
Also, anyone here growing Sabine or Captivator, especially in hot, humid zones? I ask because Hidden Springs in Cookeville, TN carries only these two cultivars—and they specialize in stuff that is fairly low-maintenance in their zone.
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Good luck. I’ve gotten some gooseberries. Not a lot, but some.
I’ve gotten maybe 2 jostaberries over the same period.
I placed an order with honeyberry usa for 8 varieties but still looking to get a hold of Glenndale so I’m waiting on Edible landscaping to get them in stock (as I also want to pick up Ohio Treasure Black Raspberry and Prime Ark Freedom Blackberry from them). I became set on it when I learned it was named for Glen Dale Maryland. I just need it to complete the collection now! from north to south I’m planning on planting them in order; Black velvet, Pixwell, Glenndale, Captivator, Tixia, Amish Red, Poorman, Hinomaki Red, and Jeanne. some progress pictures of the bed attached. laying out flags to get the general shape, pre dug holes and filled in a mix of native (clay) soil and leaf compost (leafgro), then covered the area in cardboard. I weighed down the cardboard with very old rotten logs from an old wood pile. planning to plant through the cardboard, then cover the whole bed in wood chips. wish me luck!
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I planted my first ribes a little less then half that distance from my fence. I planted the second set directly on the fence line.
With that much space your going be able to grow a bush.
But closer to the fence with all that easy to attach to wood you can guide them into a nice cordon or trellis system.
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Also you can request cuttings of from hundreds of selections of Ribes from USDA GRIN Corvallis. You simply have to wait till September when they reactivate them.
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You have the start of a nice gooseberry set-up—said the fellow who has a similar one (what with the cardboard and wood chips)! Deep mulching will definitely be your gooseberries’ friend in your climate. The clay component in the soil will help keep those roots cool, too. I’ve a lot of clay in my soil as well, and gooseberries seem to like it. Deep planting will help, too–which I guess you’ll want to do anyway if you’re growing as bushes or “stools.” I attempt to strike a balance between good drainage and deep planting by building up a native soil berm around mine and then really laying on the rotting wood chips.
Again, enemy #1 will likely be leaf spot. I started off this season by applying copper a couple of times, starting at bud break, and putting down fresh mulch to smother out fungal inoculum surviving on any leaf liter I missed during my fall cleanup. During the growing season, I will apply potassium bicarbonate + Bacillus subtilis (or amyloliquefaciens) every week or two. We’ll see if it helps. Big flower set this season, so we’ll see how that goes, too!
Good luck, Mike! Keep us posted.
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I’m no going to be spraying at all. if they die, they die. we will just have to wait and see what happens.
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Gooseberries bloomed good…currants not so much for some reason.
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Received all my gooseberries on Friday from honeyberry USA. Jeanne and Hinnomaki Red were on the smaller side while captivator was TINY and in its own tiny plastic container instead of bare rooted like the others. all the rest were much larger than I was expecting. They were all very well packaged, with plants in bundles of no more than 5 depending on size, with roots wrapped in wet newspaper and the entire plants wrapped in plastic wrap. I made sure to give the bare rooted ones a good soaking in a bucket of water prior to planting. planted all 8, saving a spot for Glenndale when I can get my hands on it, and covered the cardboard in wood chip mulch. Gonna stay on top of their watering in year 1, but I’m hoping sufficient rainfall and the sheet mulching will help minimize extra irrigation. just gonna hope they all make it through year 1.
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all Ribes are pretty tough. keep them moist and they should do well for you. hopefully your fence is to the west as afternoon shade in your zone is important. thier only enemy is heat.
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My house is to the west and will provide significant afternoon shade. the hill faces south so the row is roughly north south facing. those higher on the hill might have more afternoon sun but during the day will be in dappled shade under a mulberry and the large back walnut tree.
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I’m off to go check out some of these newer varieties. For all the good it will do me. I have to convince the Mich Dept of Ag that anything I plant is White Pine Blister Rust Resistant. grumble
I wonder if any of the new ones have any data behind them…
Good luck on gooseberries. But, all the Markus Kobelt Hype of “Redlove” apples probably still
can’t make gooseberries a household name.
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Right?
If I had all the time and land in the world, I would grub around breeding all the neglected fruits. But I have the attention span of a ferret with a cola addiction, so mostly I just try to find the interesting things other people are doing.
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@Bigmike1116 Nice! Honeyberry USA, in my limited experience, has some pretty nice plants. Got a great Juliet cherry from them last year, and just put out a Gloire des Sablons pink currant from them a couple of weeks ago—very healthy with a great root system.
@BlueBerry No currants of blooming age here. But the gooseberries are definitely blooming their little hearts out. But I wonder how they’ll fare next week, when dogwood winter (is that the one?) gets here. I know nothing about gooseberry bloom or post-bloom hardiness, and couldn’t find a lot of info online. I just know that doozy of a freeze we had last April zapped their flowers good (along with a lot of other stuff!).
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I sold most of my currant plants from previous seasons, (for ‘edible landscaping’). But I have a couple beautiful “Titania” bushes that had a few fruits last year despite the awful freezes…not sure reason for no blooms this time.
The only currant blooms this time are on rooting cuttings I swapped for…(not good…but I’ll not let them fruit).
I have gooseberries, at least Hinnomaki Red, and haven’t checked the others. Pixwell also loaded.
ps. From blueberries to apples, pears to pawpaws…looks like good crops this year.
(The deer, bear, squirrels etc may have something to say on that though!)
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This seems to be the thread about growing gooseberries in regions with hot and humid summers, so I thought I’d post an update about my planting in 6b Kentucky.
On the whole, they’re doing well. The week before last we had unseasonably hot weather—temps in the upper 80s and lower 90s—but they displayed no signs of stress whatever. This despite a full-sun planting and southern exposure. Again, deep planting (or, in my case, deep berming or hilling) combined with heavy mulch seems to help them cope. Also, irrigation when it’s dry (as it has been).
Here’s some of my planting:
The big bruiser in the foreground is Jeanne. Some report it as being smallish, but in my climate and soil it is vigorous and has a tendency to sprawl—about 5’ at present. It is the most vigorous grower of the lot, and has put out numerous large renewal canes. As reported, thorns are sparse, except on new growth—and then they seem softer than on other cultivars. It has the largest, deepest green leaves of all the cultivars I am trialing and, as reported above, showed amazing resistance to foliar diseases in its first season. It also has set numerous fruit this year.
As @steveb4 has previously reported, Jeanne seems to want to fruit so heavily, even at a young age, that canes end up on the ground (note my makeshift efforts to keep them off the mulch; will install wires next year).
Second most vigorous gooseberry (at right) is Red George (aka Grigory #2). Plenty of nice renewal canes and a heavy fruit set. Thus far, it has the biggest goosberries of the lot.
Hinnomaki Red (middle, back row) is also loaded. As often reported by other growers, it is a smaller, lower vigor plant, but it seems to want to make up for that with fruit:
Many of H. Red’s outer canes also need help keeping off the ground.
Black Velvet (last, back row), which I’ve heard takes some years to really pick up steam, set some sparse and mostly small fruit. It is growing apace this year, though, sending up its first really beefy renewal canes.
Friend (Grigory #1) continued to lack vigor (no renewal canes whatsoever) and dropped all of its fruit. The plant may have been a sickly specimen, so I removed it and replaced it with a Jeanne I propagated from my original bush. I did, however, keep a tip layer of Friend that seems more vigorous than the original mother plant. I am growing it out, and will plant it this fall in an area with afternoon shade, (along with my other new acquitision, Invicta).
Not fruiting in my full sun planting are a new one, Amish Red, and my Hinnomaki Yellow. Hinnomaki yellow was chewed almost to the ground by rabbits over the winter. It is finally coming back, but—as reported by others----it seems to be low vigor with an ultra-dwarf in habit:
No signs of leaf spot yet this year, but it’s been dry. I did spray with copper twice during the beginning of the season, starting at bud break, as a preventive. (Edit: I also make sure to clean up fallen gooseberry leaves in the fall and reapply mulch to cover any surviving innoculum I missed.) I also started a weekly program of potassium bicarbonate (MilStop) + Bacillus amyloliquefaciens earlier in the spring, but stopped it when I found that the gooseberries showed varying levels of sensitivity to the MilStop. Whether it was the potassium bicarb itself or the spreader sticker used in the product, I don’t know, but it caused some leaf discoloration, burning and drop—especially in the two Finnish cultivars. I still occasionally spray B. amyloliquefaciens + kelp extract, and will probably step it up during periods of wet weather.
That’s about it. Now I watch and wait for ripening—which should be coming up later this month (think I see a little blush on a Hinno Red!).
I will add that gooseberries are extremely easy to propagate by tip layer (started spring/summer, then separated from the mother plant the following late winter/early spring).
In that regard, they’re almost as dangerous as figs!
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my jeanne is now 4 bushes 3 years after planting. propagates as easy as b. currants. i trimmed out all the branches that were low to the ground this spring to try to get it to grow more upright. not going to get alot like last year but im starting to get more up right renewal canes that should produce next year. its babies were from some tiny branches i pruned off the 2nd spring and just stuck in the mulch. all 4 took and will have a small crop of berries.
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