You should grow crandall currant

I keep mine in containers in speckled shade. Probably the farther north you are, the more you need sun. You’ll be fine 3 to 4 hours sun so long as they get ‘light’ the rest of the day.
And so long as tree roots don’t take all their moisture or nutrients.

(I just have about 3 plants that have mostly defoliated thus far this summer…they probably got more direct sun and their soil got dryer…but they’ll recover as days get cooleer/shorter they’ll leaf back out.)

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Many consider Crandall a subspecies of golden current. Leaf and flower wise they look alike to me. I have two examples of golden current but only had berries from one. The berries are very small and the plant is not that productive. Flavor is so excellent and nothing like any currant I tasted

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Yes, I agree that ‘Crandall’ is similar to others within its species. My statement about them being different in every way was when compared to “black currants”. By black currant I mean Ribes nigrum and its closely related species which readily hybridize and are in the ancestry of “black currant” cultivars like ‘Consort.’

Yes they are quite different nigrum is not native here. I too have not heard of any hybrids with Crandall but nigrum has been crossed with other species like Crusader (Ribes nigrumX R. ussuriense) besides the other well known crosses.
The golden I have that has not fruited is supposed to have yellow berries. It will fruit next year.

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Crandal is z2 hardy. mine survived above the snow -40f with no damage. Jerry on here has several bushes of it growing and fruiting in z10a Cali. thats one hell of a range of zone hardiness! weve had alot of very muggy conditions this summer and it has no leaf issues. only drawback is its slow to mature.

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my wife calls black currant cat piss plant. when i bring in the harvest the whole house stinks. makes the best jam/ juice and cooking gets rid of the smell. Crandal tastes nothing like R. nigrum. both are good in their own right.

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I’m just using the one i have as apoint of reference. If somebody has tried both and they know that i have X, well they can fill in the blanks as to how X compares to Y knowing that I’m familiar with X.

So far I’m not happy with my X (consort) so I’m ready to try a different black currant. I do love my white imperial and rovana.

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If you’re looking for an actual black currant that you may enjoy, a good rule of thumb would be that the cultivars selected for larger fruit tend to be milder in flavor. I believe this is due in part to the skin to flesh ratio. In my experience all the black currant varieties still share the same general flavor profile, but with varying strengths. ‘Crandall’ being a clove currant and not a black currant is in a separate flavor category from the black currants. I have not detected any of the characteristic black currant flavor profile when eating it. It is more of just a sweet-tart balance without the complex aromatic/piney flavors of black currants.

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i have 2 consort. good for jam and juice but the fruit is small and tedious to pick. im going rip them out as i have 20 tiben and no more need for them. you want cuttings of tiben let me know. they are very productive and berries are about 1/2in. i eat some right off the bush. also have selenchenskaya 2 which have even bigger berries and even more productive.

I myself love the aromatic flavor of black currants. Once processed it is so darn good. Very unique too. I like using syrup with tonic and vodka. A very unique drink. Also mixing with figs to make black currant newtons. I like tart cherry dried with dried figs too. When I have made baked goods with black currants feedback has been 100% positive. Nobody so far didn’t like it.

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Out of curiosity, has anyone tried propagating via hardwood dormant cuttings? Does it really have that much higher of a failure rate than other ribes?

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same here i got 8 2l. soda bottles of the concentrate frozen in the freezer and about another 50lbs of the frozen berries to make more. had to buy another used fgreezer to store stuff as my big one is full. did your selencheskaya 2 grow for you? i like them right off the bush and dried in homemade granola bars or in yogurt.

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Steve4, for storage where I’m not doing jams from the get go i make a light syrup that gets canned and thus become shelf stable. Later as need be i can use it to make jams or whatever else i may need. Heck last year idumped a bunch of random berry syrup on a pot, added sugar and water to taste, top it off with enough honey to raise the initial gravity north of .80, and fermented it. The wine was actually pretty good.

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I’m visiting Colorado and was by Boulder falls when I saw a bunch of what looked like native ribes. Anyone know what this is?

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Here’s a list of Ribes people find in Colorado:

Ribes cereum looks like a possible match, but I’d recommend comparing the various species before assigning it as the id.

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Fruit looks like a gooseberry. Foliage could belong to gooseberry, certainly in the ‘ribes’ family.

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I got rid of the boxwoods that came with the house because they exhibited a similar odor, only to plant currants in the same place haha. At least I’ll get food from these ones.

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The plant did grow. Fairly big too. But unfortunately died over the winter. I had a couple others die too. Not sure why? I need to try again.

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that’s strange. ive never had a currant die yet. you have it in a pot? ill try and root another for you.

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Clove currants are difficult to propagate from cuttings, especially compared to regular black currants. But they do sucker a fair bit, so you might post a request to trade for some suckers during dormant season.

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