So, I’m likely going to replace my honeyberries with black currants at my house vs at my parents. So I have room for 2 varieties (I already planted a belarouska).
I’m leaning towards blackdown and 1 other. Any suggestions? My main goal is making jam and syrup.
Ones that I have already are .. risinger, belarouska, myna sayeryu (or however it’s spelled lol) so I’d like to go with a large productive variety. I’m also not worried about eating them off the bush. Also these will be in full sun.
Suggestions for the other bush? Or big complaints about blackdown?
The currants I currently have actually are doing great surprisingly, same with the gooseberries. The belarouska I have planted behind the one honeyberry is doing really well too. I’m pulling the honeyberries cuz the amount of work that goes into them for me isn’t worth it for something I find just ok taste wise. Like black currants way way better.
Maybe Hills Kiev… I have Belaruska and M.S. and Blackdown as well but prefer those other three.
EDIT: haven’t tried these yet, these also sound interesting… Selechenskaya and Tahsis
currants do seem to be significantly more drought tolerant than haskap at least. Also the birds dont mess with them nearly as much, which is nice if you dont want to bother with netting.
Im primarily growing ben hope these days, but Im experimenting with tahsis, which Ive seen some good reports about. I put in 3x300ft rows of ben hope last fall but didnt have great success with the cuttings because we are having an unusually hot and dry spring, maybe 50% or so actually started growing, so Ill need to replant a bunch again this fall.
Yeah, the netting, plus the having to wait forever once blue, squirrels, squeezing between the wall and the bushes with the netting is a pain for me for something I find just ok (not bashing honeyberries btw!). The black currants though were an eye opening experience taste wise lol.
Anyone have experience with Mendip Cross? I’m looking around in Lucille’s website to see what all she has since I’ll most likely be ordering the currants and other stuff from her this fall.
I would think Titania would be a good option, one of the parents of blackdown I believe. It seems others are getting more interest these days, but I think Titania is pretty tried and true.
my workhorse here is tiben. a polish cultivar with titania as one of its parents. its a nice upright bush and gives good sized tasty berries. still not there for fresh eating but for jams and juice is excellent and is productive and easy to harvest.
Yes it grows to a big plant. My only complaint is the branches become heavy with it’s fruit, the fruit hangs low enough to touch the ground
Black September is wrongly named. It ripens very early. A huge plant that has an excellent natural shape. Branches are upright and spaced great for ventilation. I usually have to prune to open plants up but not this one. Both these plants produce medium to large berries.
Black September produces mostly upright branches well off ground. These can grow into very large bushes.
i prune my Tiben hard and have some near 6’ft now. there are less branches but the ones left have bigger and more fruit. if any sag down i cut them of after harvesting the fruit. need to be brutal prunning black currants. my selenchenskaya 2 are also very upright bushes. i fertilized them with a little 10-10-10 in mid Apr. and they are growing hard. i skipped a few years and size and production suffered.
I prune how traditionally pruned. Sounds like you’re developing cordons. I have one cordon right now. Most bushes I prune branches five or six years old off. Let the smaller branches grow. Although I do thin them sometimes. Branches are supposed to be less productive every year.
You and I are both very experienced and I too have developed my own methods as have you.
You figure out what works. I enjoy this aspect of gardening.
Once near ripe the birds here certainly pilfer them, but the chipmunks are worse. I net them and put rat traps under the nets- my wife loves to cook with them and I have some varieties that ae nice to eat right off the plant, including a couple of Russian plants I got from Lee Reich, but unnetted plants of less appealing (stronger cat piss) varieites raw also get pilfered.
Even the cat piss varieties can be used raw in a strained mixture of fresh apple juice after being put through a blender. This is pur ambrosia and I’m sure other combinations would work just as well.
Lee pointed to raintree to obtain the plants he had. Not sure they still have them? I don’t know about cat piss varieties I never tasted cat piss. I myself so far have s hard time telling them apart. The Russian plants are small that I have. I prefer the larger bushes just to get more berries. Might be I got a runt. Happens sometimes.
i prune mostly for height and bigger berries. i dont have the time to pick 15 b. currant bushes loaded with thousands of small fruit. when i prune to about 10 upright branches i get some 3/4 and mostly 1/2in. fruit off them and the branches left are healthy and full. its alot easier to pick as there isnt much if any below 3ft. better airflow and less disease also.
the fruit hangs low enough to touch the ground
