It is dry & hot in my region. I’ve put some currants against the east wall of the house. They’ve done well in afternoon shade. Influenced by that, I put the most recent purchase where it will get afternoon shade from an apple - once it becomes a tree. The excess light Belaruskaya has received may have stunted its growth - first time with it, so will learn - but it otherwise looks very healthy. It will put out some berries this year, too. I hope to compare its taste to Black September.
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@Drew51 gave me these cuttings two years ago. They lived in a 30 gal grow bag all that time since I missed my window to plant last spring. There finally in the ground and the extras in smaller pots.
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Good job!
But, they’ll do even better if you cut them back to just a feww inches tall…(and try rooting the cuttings)!
Need to try the fruit to find out which are worth keeping before I root any more.
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Naw, root the cuttings (if you have the time) and give them away if you don’t like the fruit (or traade them). 
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That reminds me, I finally smelled the cloves in my blooming Crandal. Not nearly as fragrant as the Goumi, which remind me of gardenia or something perfumey like that.
I have 4 black currants growing that were cuttings from when I harvested my fruit, so June or July last year in the heat. Stabbed 20 or so of various thickness and green or hardness into the ground. They had no business rooting, but they did. Not nearly as nice as dormant cuttings earlier, but not bad for an afterthought.
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This year has been pretty good for black currants. So far, I’ve picked about 6 quarts, more than 7.5 pounds of fruit. Once it stops raining in a day or two, I’ll check to see how much is left.
I didn’t take any measuements on how much I got from each bush, as not only does it take quite a bit of time, but it isn’t all that exact, given that other critters (including birds) are also picking them.
The standouts this year were:
Black Reward- now a good sized bush and quite productive of largeish berries
Ben Lomond- very productive and a bit easier to pick than some of the others due to the large fruit size and how the it hangs in clusters.
Strata- It looks like my 2017 note was spot on. This bush was horrible for rot. I doubt I got more than a handful of berries from it. I should probably remove it and replace it with one of the good ones (Ben Lomond, Black Reward, or Ben Sarek)
2017 note:
Strata - Looks to have the same kind of rot as Goliath, except it is worse. A small, open plant which has worse rot will probably not get better with time.
Consort- Still productive and makes flavorful jam. Still the small fruit size which makes them a pain to pick.
The top quart is from Consort (mostly) and the bottom one is from Black Reward and or Ben Lomond.
Ben Sarek- masively productive of good sized fruit, but the bush is still tiny (the same one that was small in 2017). At one point, the roots weren’t completely supported, so I don’t think it is entirely down to this variety not growing. I ordered 3 more of them from Indiana berry this spring (my plant is too small to supply much wood to root) and planted them at a few rentals. I’ll be interested to see if they can size up a bit more and still be as productive as the one I have at home.
Not so good years:
Titania- overgrown by kiwi vine but quite good in past years. Worth experimenting with more.
Blackdown- OK, but overgrown by weeds. May give it another shot.
Goliath- I think I transplanted it to a rental in 2018, but it was next to Blackdown, so maybe the weeds (including bindweed) just swallowed it up. Not something I’ll miss.
Minaj Smyreu- I have several bushes of it, but it doesn’t seem that strong of a producer. Maybe @scottfsmith liked it for it’s taste eaten fresh. But that is wasted for me, as I make jam with all the black currants.
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Well, mainly I liked it because it didn’t die 
I still have a couple bushes that must be 10 or more years old, all my other black currants died a long time ago. It is not the most productive perhaps but it is reasonably productive. My yard is very hot, not the ideal place for currants. Similarly for gooseberries they all died many years ago except for Poorman which is still hanging in there.
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Wow, I didn’t realize that they were at all tough to grow- my area is a lot different. I’ve probably lost a few currants over the years (the only one I can think of off the top of my head is an Orus 8 from 7-9 years ago and maybe 1 or 2 from a sunny, dry, rocky hill which wasn’t the best place to put currants even though 1 is still struggling on after 11 years), but in general they are pretty bulletproof here. Sometimes I’ll get rots, etc (like on Strata and Goliath), but the plants seem healthy enough. A long time ago, I think a few of the black currants had a bit of mildew on their leaves, but I haven’t seen any in the last 5+ years.
Some gooseberries (Poorman and Red George in particular) get leafspot and sometimes defoliate. And I’ve had a few of the weak growers like Hinnomaki Yellow and Jeanne (which both produced the tastiest berries) die. But they have mostly been pretty sturdy as well. Especially Black Velvet. It get’s huge. Here’s a pic of a Black Velvet gooseberry which is using a plum tree as a trellis. BVs can get over 8’ tall for me.
I’ve also put them currants and gooseberries at several rentals and they are healthy enough with almost no care. Of course, I don’t always get around to harvest all of them and the birds take care of the fruit. It’s apricots that drop like flies for me, with a 2-3 year lifespan for many/most.
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currants and gooseberries are super vigorous and productive with no care here. other than a pruning occasionally i do nothing to them and they produce like crazy. birds dont touch gooseberry or black currant up here. they are no maintenece whatsoever.
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I netted some gooseberries this year…had gotten tired of birds getting more than me…and have had two birds die so far…tangled in the netting!
Black currants did not produce at all for some reason this year. But Rovada plants I received in April produced just a strig or three of red currant fruit.
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If you think birds are bad with gooseberries, they are much worse with red currants. I lose a few gooseberries, but I often get no red currants. This year, not only was the bird pressure a bit less, but I had a large red currant bush get overgrown with weeds to the point that the birds didn’t realize there were berries. I got 2.5 quarts of red currants (Laxton’s No. 1, I think) from this one bush and a pint from one (not protected by weeds) at a rental.
This isn’t the first time I’ve (accidentally) used weeds to protect the berries, though it was with a different red currant bush. But that time I made the mistake of only picking half and removing the weeds. I went back a couple days later and there wasn’t a single berry left.
The red currants were much faster to pick, as I just picked the whole strings. From past timings, I’m at about 45 minutes to pick a quart of black currants. I didn’t measure for the reds, but it couldn’t have been more than 15.
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Nice large currants. You remember the cultivar? The cherries don’t look like Montmorency, Meteor or North Star…so must be one of the newer and smaller sour cherries.
what cultivar is that? ive heard selenchenskaya 2 get as big as a nickel.
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They do not like the humid swampy Summer that Scott and I get here in the rolling hills of the Chesapeake region. Mine are alive but even with afternoon shade they are a bit shy. Just taking a bit longer to get well established than I had hoped.
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i think its more the heat as we get humid summers here also and as long as it doesnt get over 85F theyre good. higher than that they wilt badly. all mine are in full sun. funny thing with mine, i grow early and later fruiting cultivars but they still all ripen the same time. same with my honeyberries . maybe because i have such a short growing season, they feel they have to fruit as quickly as they can.
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The currants are Dobrynia and Uslada both come from the breeding station in Bryansk. The sour cherry is a hungarian Erdi Botermo…actually quite a decent size fruit…the photo could be misrepresenting.
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I would like to get some cuttings of your black currants this fall.
Are you interested in grapes?
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