What is the difference between currants and gooseberries

All can be grown from seed as long as you don't mind them not breeding true; the seeds require three to four months of stratification, and will bear at two to three years. To maintain your varieties, use one of the several methods of cloning instead. Twelve inch long hardwood cuttings excluding the tip should be taken in the early fall before all the leaves have dropped for gooseberries, or in early spring, autumn, or the end of summer for currants.

An even easier way to propagate gooseberries or black currants is tip layering bending down a branch and covering it with soil and a rock, then cutting the new plant free once roots have formed.

What about the white pine blister rust? The reason that gooseberries and currants are seldom grown in the United States is that they were illegal for decades. In the early twentieth century, the white pine blister rust showed up in America and began wiping out what was then an important timber tree.

Since some Ribes species were an alternate host for the rust, planting gooseberries or currants was prohibited by federal law, and Civilian Conservation Corps crews began to rip the plants out of gardens and woodlands. Later, scientists discovered that most cultivated Ribes are resistant to white pine blister rust and don't spread the disease, and the federal ban was finally lifted in However, you may still face state restrictions against planting gooseberries and currants, especially against black currants which are most susceptible to the white pine blister rust.

Why are gooseberries and currants permaculture favorites? Permaculture advocates filling every available niche with a useful plant so that weeds don't have a spot to gain a foothold. Since gooseberries and currants can fruit in partial shade, they can be used to turn orchards from trees-amid-lawn to a multi-storied forest garden. Are you growing them? We ordered two gooseberries Poorman and Invicta that will be arriving this month.

We chose gooseberries over currants since I am first and foremost a fresh fruit fanatic. Hi, I live in Portsmouth UK and have just seen your blog on Currants while searching for jam recipes. You mention Blackcurrants and Gooseberries and I wondered if you had heard of a cross between the two, namely the Jostaberry?

It is quite a vigorous plant and when fully ripe tastes like a large Mellow Blackcurrant and the leaves look like a Blackcurrant but don't have the distinctive Blackcurrant smell when crushed and it has no spines. Mine is cropping now, July , along with my Redcurrants and Whitecurrants hence the search for Jam recipes! Be careful not to water excessively or roots will be injured. Trickle irrigation is essential for currants and gooseberries.

The system slowly adds small amounts of water each day directly to the soil around the base of each plant. Various types of equipment are available. Trickle irrigation does not provide frost protection; for frost protection, a sprinkler irrigation system is necessary. Black currants produce the best fruit on one-year-old wood. Strong one-year-old shoots, and two- or three-year-old shoots which have an abundance of strong one-year-old wood, are the most productive.

Keep a total of 10 to 12 shoots per mature bush, with about half being one-year-old shoots. A few more shoots may be kept if plant vigor is very good. Remove all shoots which are more than 3 years old. Make pruning cuts close to the ground.

Red currants and gooseberries produce most of their fruit on spurs that are located on two- and three-year-old wood. After pruning, a healthy bush should have 3 to 4 shoots of each one-, two-, and three-year-old shoots a total of 9 to 12 shoots.

Remove all shoots older than three years. Remove branches hanging close to the ground if berries are to be harvested mechanically. Also, for control of diseases and insects, remove and destroy any diseased tips of branches and branches which are late leafing out, dying or sickly.

Currants and gooseberries bloom early in the spring. Severe frosts can injure blossoms and young developing berries. Frosts cause less problems in sites with good air drainage. In small plantings, cloth or paper covers can be put over plants for frost protection. Plastic usually gives little or no protection.

In larger plantings, sprinkler irrigation is effective. Special nozzles which deliver about 2. The conversion of water to ice on the plants releases heat which protects blossoms and berries. Irrigation should continue until the film of water covering the blossoms and berries would not freeze if irrigation stopped.

Trickle irrigation is not useful for frost protection. Currant and gooseberry varieties are self-fruitful and do not need pollen from another variety to produce good crops. In large plantings, however, it is advisable to place honeybees in the planting to ensure adequate pollination.

The berries on a currant bush ripen over a 2-week period. However, once a berry ripens it can usually be left on the bush a week or more without dropping or becoming over-mature.

Therefore, most of the berries on a bush can be harvested in one picking. With more frequent picking, there is a tendency to pick berries which are not fully ripened. Black currants are usually picked as individual berries. With red currants, whole clusters are picked and berries are stripped from the stems later. For making juice or jelly, the berries may be crushed without removing them from the fruit stems, since the product is strained.

Gooseberries are harvested as individual berries. Some people harvest the berries when they have nearly reached full size but before they are ripe.

They prefer these immature berries for jams and pies. Other people prefer fully mature berries. If desired, canvas or other material can be spread under the bush and the gooseberries knocked off onto it. Commercial mechanical harvesters are now available for harvesting currants and gooseberries.

Their use saves considerable labour in plantings large enough to justify their purchase. Red currants are damaged quite extensively and harvested berries must be used immediately.

Gooseberries can be shaken from the bushes fairly easily, but bushes must be pruned so a frame can be put under the branches to collect the berries. In spiny varieties, the spines may puncture some of the berries.

Plants should not be permitted to bear fruit the year they are planted. In the second year, a light crop can be harvested; and, by the third year, plants usually bear full crops. However, yields of black currants are often only about half of this amount. Plants should remain productive for at least 8 to 10 years.

Ben Alder: Mid-season, consistent cropping, producing large firm berries. Plants of medium vigor. They are resistant to powdery mildew and susceptible to white pine blister rust. Good for mechanical harvesting. Berries of high juice quality. Ben Sarek: Mid-season, consistent cropping, producing very large firm berries. Plants are semi-dwarf.

They are resistant to powdery mildew and moderately resistant to white pine blister rust. Berries are suitable for processing but are considered to have low juice quality. Consort: Early mid-season and only fair in productivity. The clusters are medium in length with berries medium-small, medium in firmness, poor to fair for mechanical harvesting. Berries shake off with some tearing at the stem end and quite a few berries have stems attached.

Plants are susceptible to leaf spot and extremely susceptible to mildew, but resistant to white pine blister rust. Of value where resistance to rust is required. There is no place on a gooseberry bush where you can grab and not find some thorns or needles. And finally, you can look at the way the fruits grow on the bush.

Gooseberries grow along the twigs and branches, in two rows like pairs. Currants hang from the branches, in a zig-zag pattern. Historically currants have been prized for their tart flavor, great color, and slightly sweet flavor.

Currants are often too tart to be eaten raw, but they look beautiful. Even after currents ripe on the vine and their color has come through, they can still sweeten if you leave them until the end of the season. You can eat some gooseberries raw, more often than currants. We recommend the pink or yellow ones. That being said, you can also cook gooseberries. They provide a tart and fruity flavor too, just maybe not as much as currants. The two fruits even look very different.

Currants are simple to identify. They have a uniform color all over the outside, with a black dot on the bottom. I have not yet needed to fertilize my plants, but I am lucky to have fairly good soil with balanced pH. However, gooseberries do need potassium and magnesium, so add as needed. Depending where you live, there are a number of pests that can cause problems: aphids, spider mites, clear-winged borers, gooseberry sawflies, and imported currant worms.

Aphids attacked my red currant plant, causing the leaves to blister a purplish color. I ended up dousing the plant with insecticidal soap and pruning it to the ground that season. Plenty of new shoots came up the next year. I have also had a problem with the imported currant worm in both my red currant and my gooseberries.

I think they came in the soil of the potted plant. They are small green worms with a black spot on their heads. They eat the leaves until there is nothing but a skeleton left. A group of these can defoliate a plant in short order.

I tried picking and crushing them by hand, but I could not keep ahead of them. Pyrethrum is the organic spray that seems to work. I have not had any problem with spider mites, clear-winged borers, or gooseberry sawflies.

These are rare, but I mention them in case they happen to be a problem in your area. I have been fortunate that my bushes have not had any diseases. There are, however, a couple to be aware of. Leaf spot and powdery mildew can plague Ribes. Luckily, both of these fungal diseases can be controlled with copper spray. Before harvesting, you need to know what color your particular variety of Ribes will be when it is ripe, since ripe berries can be green, pink, red, yellow, or black. My currants ripen in July, while the gooseberries slowly ripen from July to late August or even September.

When you pick them may depend on what you plan to use them for. Slightly underripe berries do nicely in jam, but fully ripe ones taste better fresh. Once you get a bunch of berries picked, you have to remove the stems and tails, on gooseberries and currants alike. I do it with kitchen shears, clipping as close to the berry as possible. Bigger berries make this task easier. For me, freezing is the easiest way to preserve these berries.

Gooseberries and jostaberries can be home-canned plain using either the cold-pack method or the hot-pack method. First, wash the berries and cook them with a little water. Mash the berries as they soften. Once they are cooked and juicy, let them drain through a jelly bag.

I prefer to use a flour sack dishtowel in a strainer of some kind. Measure the juice, then mix together equal parts sugar and juice. Cook until it reaches the jelling point juice forms a sheet between the tines of a fork. Put on sterilized lids, tighten rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for minutes adjust for your elevation.

If you use powdered pectin, follow the directions for sour cherries if there are none for red currants. The different varieties of gooseberries make totally different tasting jam, but the instructions are the same for all, including jostaberries. Stir occasionally while heating the berries. While the berries heat up, mix two teaspoons of pectin powder into the sugar. Bring the fruit to a boil, add the pectin-sugar mixture, and stir well to dissolve the sugar.

Bring it to a boil again, then remove it from heat. Put on sterilized lids, tighten rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes adjust for your elevation.