Pixwell are good.
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I am also interested in Comanche! Do you think I could buy a cutting from you?
What size container is that with all that fruit?
I love this easy trellis system you have here for the two containers!
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@Eme I think he’s using those pots for layering them to make another plant. The one looks like maybe a 1 gal nursery pot. In the pic with Langley Gage
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Got it. It looked small. I was excited.
I ripened a bunch of Welcome and Amish Red in the fridge last year (by surprise!). I picked them mostly green, but mostly full-sized to make jam/pies with. They’re not particularly sweet varieties to begin with and seemed to sweeten up less fridge ripe than if I picked them later.
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Yes, that’s correct. I am using those small orange pots to layer and start new plants. I use 3 gallon, 5 gallon, even 7 gallon to grow some of the gooseberries in pots. Most of mine are in the ground though.
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I got tired of the little hair thorns on my Pixwell this year. Pruning was so unenjoyable, any dropped piece of plant is a mine waiting to stab my feet later or my hands picking up trimmings later.
So I just pulled my plants and put them in the trash.
I need to find a list of gooseberry plants that produce big thorns only, I think I’m done with any that have fine hairs.
I couldn’t get near my pixwell without one of the little hairs getting stuck in my finger and needing to be dug out, I’m over it.
So, some gooseberries only have big thorns? Or am I giving up on gooseberries?
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Black velvet, Glendale, Invicta have big thorns.
Hinn. Yellow is a tiny plant with smaller thorns cuz it’s small low plant. Doesn’t get the wine berry look pixwell gets with all the hair thorns.
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This is interesting to know about. I was planning on getting Poorman and Jeanne for taste and few thorns. Do they have little splinter thorns too?
Poorman sorta does but nothing like pixwell. The normal ones at the nodes, with a few small random ones here n there along the branch. One thing about poorman … Mine woke up about a month after Glendale. This was it’s first full year in ground, so not sure if it’s just a 1st year thing or an every year thing. Some other people have commented on its very late wake up.
I can take a picture of my poorman this evening and show it to you.
Jeanne is completely thornless, I didn’t see any on my plant.
Pixwell growth habit is also like a trailing raspberry, it lays on the ground and kinda sprawls everywhere
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where did you get your Jeanne? i got mine from hbusa and it has small thorns with a trailing habit. its extremely productive sometimes producing as much berries as leaves. i need to tie them up to keep them off the ground here. berries are large, dark pink and teardrop shaped.
Poorman is always a late starter for me.
My Jeanne has some single nodal thorns especially if it is a young plant growing fast. Jeanne is a VERY late ripening berry for me, 3 or 4 weeks later than all other cultivars.
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My Jeanne is very young and doesn’t have any thorns. So maybe it just hasn’t thrown any out yet. I got mine from Lucille
I do have a “not black velvet” that is very erect and thornless.
Pic from May 14th of the “not BV” it set a very poor amount of fruit, maybe 10 total on the thing.
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The pixwell were not all clones. The two best producers were purchased seperate from the others. I have sold the property and by google earth, it looks like the new owner has turned the whole fruiting bush area into grass.
I had gotten some (10) Black Velvet from Hartmann’s, which have done very well. Shortly after planting them, I saw a post where someone was saying how thorny they are. He had included a picture and it was lethal looking. He went on to say that he ripped them out because of that. They resembled rose prickles, especially near the base. Something to consider. Mine are fruiting (minimally) for the first this year, so I can’t comment on the flavor, but everything I’d read prior to ordering said that they were considered one of the tops in that regard.
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I tore out a Pixwell because I did not like the mealy jello texture. It seemed to go from unripe to mealy jello very fast. I now have a Hinnomaki red in the second leaf. If I do not like the texture, I will probably be done with gooseberries.
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I have pixwell, champion, and captivator, but actually have yet to try a gooseberry. I put them all in ground though debating moving them to a slightly shadier spot.