Does anyone grow both white imperial and primus white currant?

General Fruit Growing
1

Im interested in growing some white currant. Unfortunately I only have room for one bush. I’ve read online that generally imperial is the sweeter/lower acid of the two varieties. Has this been true for people who grow both?

2

i just put in primus last summer so it may be a few more years before i have a report on that one. Drew51 might have both.

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3

Yeah I do and imperial is a little better but primus has awesome long strings of berries. To me the lowest acid is pink champagne. IMO the best for fresh eating.

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4

Does imperial grow as upright as primus does? Ive read imperial can sprawl quite a bit? Also does imperial produce as many berries? Thank you!!

5

Mine has grown upright. I found if you prune to upright branching you can shape them. Seems like it’s always a work in progress. The golden currants tend to lodge or sprawl and I’m always pruning to upright. Usually after fruit. What I have found is they tend to do this when young but grow more upright with age. Here is a Crandall currant I’m shaping slowly with time. I don’t want to cut off too much any one year

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6

Wow, thanks for the photos. This is great to know!

7

my crandal and jeanne gooseberry just want to lay on the ground. i think im going to make a collar to put around them out of hardware cloth to keep them up right this year. i just got done cutting out 3/4 of old wood off of my consorts. im going to be more aggressive pruning my Ribes in the future.

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8

Maybe, but for me Imperial wasn’t worth eating and a waste of space.

9

I use mine only for syrups. I would say it’s not my favorite although I still enjoy it I mostly use syrups to flavor cordials. I use other flavors with them like crystal lights blackberry lemonade.

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10

White Imperial is very good in W Washington. It tends to branch out at ~45 degrees. It is tart, like sour citrus candy, with a sweet green grape aftertaste.
I rooted a Swedish white currant, but I don’t expect fruit this year. I have read that White Grape currant has a very vertical habit, and I plan to get some wood when I find it in stock.

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