And serviceberry as well, just all around a fantastic book
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my gooseberries are two and three years old, one is ancient and came with the house, it may have been making cane there for a hundred years for all I know. I leave it alone but to pick berries.
only one of my own plantings has fruit this year for the first time. should I cut the older canes away after the growing season, to get it ready for next year? or wait until they are dead or unproductive after a season of putting out fruit?
the house I grew up in had old patches of gooseberries. nobody ever did anything to them but pick berries and they were very large and productive.
I do have golden currants I just put in this year, are those similar?
I planted several serviceberry last spring after being told they were somewhat drought resistant once established. I babied them all summer, but only one survived the winter. they all died.
The only currant I like to eat is white imperial, they taste nothing like any other currant. The plants are ridiculously productive. Here is a picture of my main plant, all those flowers turn into currants.
Here is a picture of a cutting from last year pushing a ridiculous amount of berries for size
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Carmine Jewel this year. I should have cut it back last year. Not sure what the best approach to cutting back would be. Haven’t cut any of mine back yet. It was terribly weighted down with cherries. I froze about 12 quarts of pitted cherries from this one CJ. Wild turkeys and magpies were all over it as well.
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I have black september, minaj and blackdown black currants. Theyre the easiests fruits to grow ever, minaj is my favorite bd is decent dont recommend september.
Also have primus white and pink champagne, pink tastes better primus produces way more. Theyre not as good but my kids like them.
Poorman and black velvet gooseberries. Both are really thorny. Poorman are much sweeter and have a funky fruity taste thats hard to describe, bv tasyes more like a semi sour grape or blueberry and out produced it and is more vigorous but theyre both only 3yo
Ive had juliet and romeo cherries and had numerous setbacks and have bad to replace them a couple times due to deaths and deer attacks. My juliet is dead, romeo has finally gotten to a decent size after 4 years and deer eating it to a knub and had a ton of flowers this spring but no fruit stuck around to try
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This was so helpful to read! Do you have any updates on the above? You basically planted all the things I’m interested in!
Seeing this thread late, but adding a plug for serviceberries. I originally planted mine (2 autumn brilliance and 1 spring glory) as high wildlife value landscape trees, but they berried the second year and wow are they tasty. I never water them- they did fine through the 6 week summer drought wr had last year. Spring glory suckers, but it’s easy to remove those and the tree is so dainty and pretty. Both autumn brilliance had CAR last year (old cedar and juniper in a neighbors yard), so I did start spraying with regalia and other biofungicides, plan to try compost teas and see how they manage this year. Currently blooming.
Here in southern middle TN… I have lots of wild serviceberry. They bloom early … just b4 or after redbuds. Fruit ripens in May here… I can find green and red fruit… but all the fruit that ripen past that is covered in rust.
Are there any serviceberry varieties known to be very resistant to rust ?
Anyone in the south east growing serviceberry without serious rust issues ?
I started crandell clove currants (2) last spring… they bloomed and fruited first season… the first few pickins were pretty yuck… later on as it got hotter and i let them hang longer they improved… to the point that I would almost say they tasted good. Not hardly though.
Hoping they improve here in season 2.
I planted 2 Jeanne goosberry last spring… no fruit first season but they did grow some and kept most of their leaves (better than jostaberry did). Hope they fruit this year. Never had a gooseberry.
TNHunter
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When it is full-grown, you may have to support the branches to keep them off of the ground.
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Don, id trade some cuttings of my primus white for some imperial.
The serviceberry trees that grew at a park nearby our house are always infected with rust each year. It could be from all the cedar trees in the neighborhood.
Their fruits remind me of brown miniature naval mines…LOL
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Are you saying that those serviceberry species are resistant to rust? I’ve been searching for rust-resistant Amelanchier for 2 years now!
I planted mine the year before last and had a similar experience with the fruit. Where did you get yours? I got mine from Burnt Ridge and someone here said that Burnt Ridge doesn’t sell the real Crandall currant.
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I got a Crandall from edible landscaping and one from Lucille. I might be able to compare taste for you all later this year. They have flowers
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@lmvian … I got mine from Lucille at Whitmans farms. Nice lady.
So far I purchased a couple crandal clove… a couple jeanne gooseberry, oscar mulberry and silk hope mulberry from her.
All have been very nice !
TNHunter
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That would be fantastic!
[quote="TNHunter, post:135, topic:38277”]
I got mine from Lucille at Whitmans farms. Nice lady.
[/quote]
Nice! I’ll probably order from her this year because I’m looking to interplant Ribes between my blueberry bushes.
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I have an autumn brilliance serviceberry for an ornamental tree in my yard. I haven’t seen rust in the 3 years I’ve had it. Berries remind me of a miniature blueberry with a nutty flavor from the seed that takes up a decent amount of the berry. Birds get most of the fruit shortly after they ripen.
My Primus I planted last year with its red new growth. It pretty much didn’t grow at all last year. So hopefully this year it puts on some growth.
Blake sells one at Peaceful Heritage that is supposed to be resistant. It’s been on my list of things to buy for a little while, but it looks like it’s out of stock this year. Maybe someone else has personal experience?
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Hopefully I’m not cursing myself by saying this, but my spring glory serviceberry did not have rust last year. My two autumn brilliance that are 80 feet away did. The spring glory berries were deliciously fruity and delicate. We’ll see what happens in the next 2 months.
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