European gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa) http://www.durgan.org/ShortURL/?IIWYC 14 June 2008 European gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa) European gooseberries are slightly larger,in diameter, than the American gooseberry berries. The American species is also thought to have an inferior flavor, with some validity, judging by my limited exposure. The berry size is ~2 cm wheb ripe. When visiting a friend,we were talking in his garden, and he offered me a gooseberry, which was large and had a wonderful flavour. I was astonished because I had a goosebery bush, and there was no comparison to mine in size and flavour. I asked for root piece to put in my garden in 2007. He gave me the whole bush, but it was very dry and I had to cut off a lot of root. I planted it carefully, and pruned it in the Winter, since it was sadly neglected. This year it is heavily laden with large fruit. I am looking forward with some anticipation in comparing it to my older American Goosseberry, which are a separated by a distance of a few feet. http://www.durgan.org/ShortURL/?YKTOG 8 July 2008 European gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa) Harvest About 15 quarts were obtained from this plant. http://www.durgan.org/ShortURL/?GKJRM 2 August Comparing Berries of European and American Gooseberry. The American type changes colour from green to reddish, and the European stays basically green, when ripe.
http://www.durgan.org/ShortURL/?YKTOG 8 July 2008 European gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa) Harvest About 15 quarts were obtained from this plant. Unfortunatlely, I picked the berries green due to ignorance, and they were very tart.
Howdy Durgan, Congratulations - good crop. Have a couple of questions. What's the variety. Do you have problems with Powdery Mildew? If so, what do you use for control? This year my entire crop is destroyed by Black Currants Weevils and Currant maggots. Do you have these critters? If so what's your secret? Thanks, peace. Thean PS I'm not an organic guy but I sort of like to have nature takes its course. But, this year I lost badly in fact I got my shirt and pants ripped off. Hehehe. Last year I lost all my apples to Apple Maggots. So far I have not seen an adult yet. Perhaps the freezing cold after the snow melted got them.
Two years ago, powdery mildew devastated the gooseberry plant plus other vegetation like cucumbers. The variety of goosberries, I just know as European Gooseberry, which had larger fruit than the American Gooseberry, which I also have. No bugs attack the the gooseberry bushes or the black currant bush. For powdery mildew, I reduce the effects a little, by never wetting the foliage, when watering. Obviously this is not possible with rain, but our rains are rather limited during the summer months. My bugs are not all that severe, I share the garden with them to some degree, but do use Integratred Pest Management, when required. Nobody within miles of me, grows a vegetable garden, so that may help in limiting the bugs around. my garden.
Howdy Durgan, Thanks for your reply. You are a very lucky man. As for me, living in metropolitan Edmonton has the good and bad. I have all the modern conveniences but also all the plant pests and diseases. If things don't improve next year, I may have to bring out the chemicals and
