Hello everyone!
I just recently started gardening over the past year or so. I am growing pink champagne currant and they’re a delicious/sweet fresh currant. Are there any other currants that are as delicious fresh (not including black currants) that are a bit more productive than the pink champagne currant? I know there are other pink currants such as Gloire des Sablons and Rosasport, does anyone have experience with them? Or just any wonderful white/red currant suggestions would be very appreciated!
Thank you
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No, none are as sweet as the pinks. They are productive once big, about 5 years. Reds and whites are more tart. Blacks are amazing fruit processed. By far my favorite. I have pink champagne and Gloire des Sablons. I slightly prefer Gloire des Sablons more but it actually is hard to tell them apart. If you can stand the thorns gooseberries may be of interest to you.
They are good fresh but have a hard skin that is chewy. Try Jahns Prairie for less thorns although I have not tasted the berry yet. I like Poorman, Hinnomaki Red and Black Velvet. Looking for a good yellow/white gooseberry. I’m trying Invicta, very thorny.
Rovada is my favorite red, and Primus White for whites. I make a syrup, remove seeds, use as a cordial for the most part. How I enjoy them most.
Productivity increase with age. Primus White at 6 years.
These are so easy to propagate too. Just stick some 8 inch pieces in the ground or pot and about half will root. Take cuttings after dormant. It’s best to store for a bit but you can plant them in the fall and they will root in the spring. I usually wait till early March take cuttings and store for a month in the fridge,
Primus has the longest strands I have seen. Rovada has huge berries and is simple and easy to harvest.
Rovada
I love the long strands of Primus
Currants can be cordoned
This is the horticultural author Lee Reich’s Rovada cordon
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Wow I cannot thank you enough for such a great response! Your currants look absolutely amazing!! I’m a little surprised to see you say that gloire de sablon is equally as sweet as champagne pink simply due to the fact that champagne seems to be so much more popular. Is gloire de sablon more productive?
I actually plan on adding gooseberries as well but due to it being late in the season I’ll only be able to get some of the varieties I’m hoping for. My plan is for black velvet, poorman, hinnomaki yellow and possibly jewel gooseberries. I’d also love to hear if you or anyone has thoughts on the jewel gooseberry as there isn’t all that much info online currently.
Thanks again!
I’m not sure? I have them in different locations under very different environments. I have a cottage and GdS is up there and PC is here. I would try GdS
The first year it fruited for me I was not impressed. I had high hopes. See how it does this year. A lot of fruit was not good here last year. So maybe that was the case? Although my currants were fine last year. I’m going to let them hang forever. I do find the longer they hang the better they are. I’m talking weeks after turning color.
On productivity I have found that given ideal conditions they produce more fruit. They will produce in the shade, but produce a lot better with about a half day to 3/4 of full sun. Anymore and they begin to suffer. The higher the zone, the more shade they need…
My Pink Champagne is fairly Productive. It is 3rd or 4th leaf. I went out and looked at it and the branches are all sagging from all the berries. Hard to capture. Here are a couple pics of branches from different angles. It has 4-5 branches that look just like this.
It’s loaded to the gills with berries.
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I’m also just now getting a currant collection going. Have primus and red lake now. Sugar wise are you saying pinks are the sweetest? Do you have Crandall black?
@Drew51
Yes. The only currants I will eat fresh, even though I process most of them.
I do taste all to determine how ripe as color is not an indicator.
Yes, I also have a golden currant which is closely related. The golden has berries for the first time this year. Crandall kicks out the currants man oh man! Huge too! It does not have the musk flavor of nigrum, which for me is a minus. I much prefer the pungent aromatic blacks. It does kick out currants and does sucker a lot.
The Crandall tends to carry a heavy load and needs support. The berries are just forming and it’s already falling over.
You can see some new suckers bottom left.
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been having trouble with my crandall. some of the canes are dying and its struggling to put out new growth. the jeanne gooseberry next to it in the same soil is doing great. hope its not a disease. it did so good last year so i didn’t fertilize it . just a little compost. yours looks awesome Drew!
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