Yeah, the few OC gooseberries I did try, they tasted like unripe grapes, hardly sweet, a bit tart and kinda crunchy. Not really tasty, but that was the first year any of my GB’s fruited, so I’m not going to hold that against it.
I tried two Hinnomaki Red plants, the first was from indiana Berry and it was a little thorny twig with hardly any roots. I think it budded a bit, but didn’t make it through the summer. The second was from Tractor Supply. It was bigger, and had better roots. But after sprouting a few buds, it kicked the bucket as well. So forget that variety. We got three left and hopefully they’ll do better.
Same thing happened to two Double Gold raspberry plants. The first one didn’t even sprout up, and while the second one did, it just died off after a month or so. I planted 10 rasps last spring and got 7 to survive through the year. So, my percentages are going up.
Guess some varieties won’t work no matter what you try.
The first year my poorman fruited I didn’t know it. I discovered it had berries on it in September. yes the skin was tough but the centers were pure sugar. Not a hint of tartness. I let some other cultivars hang and some were sweeter, and some started dropping off. thye seem to be very different from one another in some things. Poorman never did. Some were dried on the canes. Black Velvet was rather tart, a great producer for me well over the others. I made syrup, and then dried the syrup into fruit leather. Fantastic! Any skins that didn’t melt away were in the sieve, one could use a food mill too, but a sieve is only a few bucks. I have added Jewel an orange gooseberry. I can’t wait to try it! The flavors seem to vary a lot in gooseberries. Mostly meant for colder zones, so why you guys are not getting great results. I need a good white, yellow, or light colored gooseberry. Some taste like crap but heard. Langley Gage and a few others are very good.