I grow Hinnomaki red. LOTS of thorns to deal with but the fruit is good sized and delicious. Worth fighting the big thorns.
I grew Pixwell as a youth and enjoyed that one too.
I am trying to grow Tixia but to no avail. In SE WI my Tixia get some type of rust and defoliate by August every year. I was going to rip them out but my brother growers Tixia farther north in Wisconsin and the grow just fine for him.
Miserable sized bare-root plants available? Yes I can attest to that. I bought some mail-order a few years ago. It did not say how big the plants would be. I assumed they would be 12" TT. Instead I got a plug from a plug tray. Basically a rooted cutting stuck and rooted the season before. I was very unhappy with the size of the plants. However they grew like weeds once I put them in the ground so all is well.
do the underside of the leaves turn a rust orange color before they fall? its probably white pine blister rust and you should pull and burn it as well as any fallen leaves. this will kill any white pine within a 1/2 mile around you and it wonāt produce anything because of the infection. i wouldnāt put any Ribes in that spot for a few years until the sprores die off.
Yes the Tixia leaves sound just like what you describe. I will destroy my 2 plants. The Hinnomaki is 4ā away and never gets it. Hinnomaki must be very resistant. Wish I had bought more of those instead. Thanks!
gooseberries are generally more rust resistant than currants but the older cultivars like trixia are prone to it. i have jeanne and so far so good. also looked before i bought it to see if it was resistant. it was.
To me the black currants are way better. Not for fresh eating, once processed. The flavor is so rich. With reds itās kinda flat, no depth to the flavor. To put another way blacks for flavor have a start, middle and finish. All distinct, whereas reds have one flavor from start to finish.
For me I would agree to eat fresh i would rank blacks low. I enjoy them processed. I do eat some fresh to determine ripeness, and flavor. .If you think gooseberries are good fresh man you should try them processed. I like the red and white currants to accent other fruit. Like a nectarine crisp is much better with some red currants. It brings out the flavor of both.
I have a Pixwell gooseberry and a white imperial currant on order from Burnt Ridge. No idea how they will perform here, but I am willing to give them a try.
I have a white currant. White currants are just pigment-deficient reds from what Iāve read. They tend to be a little sweeter than the reds I have.
Jostaberriesā¦ I have a couple that I grew from cuttings a couple years ago. They have not produced well for me at all. I recall getting a single berry and doubt it was ripe when I tried it.
Hereās another good nursery for ribes : www.whitmanfarms.com Lucille is a sweetheart and ships wonderful plants.
I love my red currants, I am not a fan of my black currant and it actually got hacked back heavily last year. I may try processing them in some way this year if it fruits for me. I love black currant juice.
When choosing gooseberries I was in reverse choosing the ones with the most thorns. What do seaberries taste like. Was looking at them yesterday. They look pretty.
nothing touches my black currants here. donāt know why. might be that musky smell they give off. even the bugs barely do anything to them. Iāve never had to spray them either. not sure about reds pinks or whites tho.
they are a attractive bush but a pain to harvest. i planted mine up in the yard and finally got rid of them because id get tore up mowing around them. tough bushes! the juice sweetened is delicious but a lot of work to pick and make.
mine are about the size if a pea but its a older variety. the problem with picking is they are soft and ballon like and are attached directly to the stem. Iāve used a fork but it tedious work.