Topic: Help identifying fruit bushes please

[schmelda]

Hi,

On my newly acquired allotment, there is a section which seems to be predominantly rose bushes, wild flowers, and fruit plants.  There's a couple of bushes that I'm not 100% sure what they are.

  This one I think is a gooseberry bush..

Redcurrent perhaps?

Please let me know your thoughts - I don't want to do anything to them until I'm sure!

PS.  apologies for the random picture sizes, not sure how to fix that!

[Unwashed]

Yes, that's what I'd have thought.  I'd guess the currant could be either a red or white currant.  The goosegog's leaves are quite big so I wondered if it might possibly be one of the blackcurrant hybrids.  Does it have thorns? 

[schmelda]

The gooseberry suspect does have thorns, they're in the picture, if you know where to look!  I've actually zoomed in a lot on those leaves, as they're quite small, and the whole bush is only about thigh high.

[saddad]

No way of telling if the currant is a red/black or white currant until it fruits next year... unless one of your neighbours knows..  :)

[schmelda]

My plot is right at the far end.  Apparently the plot next to me is a community plot used with kids, and I've never seen anyone on it.  It gets a bit lonely back there!  :-\

[Unwashed]

No way of telling if the currant is a red/black or white currant until it fruits next year... unless one of your neighbours knows..  :)

I was going by the tallness as it looked like it had grown new wood from old wood and I didn't think blackcurrants did that.

[schmelda]

I'll let you know in July (ish)  ;D

[saddad]

No way of telling if the currant is a red/black or white currant until it fruits next year... unless one of your neighbours knows..  :)

I was going by the tallness as it looked like it had grown new wood from old wood and I didn't think blackcurrants did that.

That does make it far more likely to be a red currant... they do that easily. The blackcurrants don't as much, whites in my experience do...  :-\

[Robert_Brenchley]

It looks like a redcurrant to me. Whites are a sport from red, so the bushes look identical, but red is a lot more likely.

[Digeroo]

I think you are right.  Hopefully they will fruit next year and confirm. 

[jennym]

I seem to recall a similar question about identification of currants a good while back, and someone clever said that if you take a stem in your finges and crush it slightly, it will smell of blackcurrant if its a blackcurrant. She was right! Think it was Pauline but not sure.

[calendula]

I would say that black currants have that no so nice 'cat pee' smell to them that the other currants don't  :-\

[Spudbash]

So glad my knowledge of which currant is whiffy was of help to someone! In fact, it was my mother who told me that, who probably learned it from her father - a journeyman gardener - and so on...

 ;D ;D ;D

[PurpleHeather]

The gooseberry is the first one and the second currant bush is probably a red one.

The black currants will be budding but the red currants wait until spring to do that. It is the only way to tell the difference between the two before they fruit. White currants are fairly rare.

I also note that there has been an attempt to cage the currants, it is not usually necessary with the black currants since birds do not care for them as much as red currants which are sweeter.

[Paulines7]

I seem to recall a similar question about identification of currants a good while back, and someone clever said that if you take a stem in your finges and crush it slightly, it will smell of blackcurrant if its a blackcurrant. She was right! Think it was Pauline but not sure.

It may have been me Jenny, but crush the leaves rather than the stem.

[Spudbash]

Yes, Pauline's right, it's the leaves you crush, rather than the stem.  :)

[realfood]

I have to cage my blackcurrants or the birds strip them.

[schmelda]

I shall keep an eye out for budding, and other such clues, but I guess I won't know for sure until the currents appear!  Thanks for all your help in identifying  :) :)