Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: Sparkly on June 10, 2007, 15:22:16
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Can anyone identify these berries? I have a bush growing on my allotment. It seems very productive. Any suggestions with what to do with them would be great too! :)
(http://www.aslo04.plus.com/pics/allotment/unknown_berry.jpg)
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Aren't they not quite ripe blackcurrants?
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Oooh, oooh I know this one!!! They are Jostaberries, a cross between a blackcurrant and a gooseberry. I have them on my new lottie. They are expensive plants to buy.
They seem to fruit on old wood though, and mine are mainly new growth. Mine are not ripe yet though >:(
cj :)
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Thanks Caroline! ;D Our plant is very well established and is covered in berries. Most are not ripe, but a few are thereabouts. I tasted one. They tasted quite sour but not as bad as gooseberries. I might try making jam out of them or maybe a crumble. I quite fancy using them to make a chutney so if anyone has a good tried and tested recipe?
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Let me know how the chutney goes. I love chutney, and am always looking for a new idea. I suppose you coud always use the recipe for a gooseberry chutney. I'll keep my eye out for one.
cj :)
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Do the hang like this on the bush?
If so they are blackcurrants
(http://tinyurl.com/34lmam)
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I second the jostaberry diagnosis as I grow them also. Leave them on the bush whilst they are black a while longer yet. They will sweeten up considerably. Not as yummy as blackcurrants, but a darn close second.
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This looks interesting, I am always on the lookout for soft fruits, can someone tell me more about them please. eg size of berry, yeild off a mature plant, taste compared to it's parents. How long before a bush fruits would be good.
Thank you XX Jeannine
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Let me know how the chutney goes. I love chutney, and am always looking for a new idea. I suppose you coud always use the recipe for a gooseberry chutney. I'll keep my eye out for one.
cj :)
oooo i fancy gooseberry chutney we can,t eat jam as it,s got a high sugar content alright if you can stop at a bit but we are gluttons can you put it in reciepes please
marg
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Whoopee! That's the same as mine..........I 'inherited' the bush from a leaving poltholder. Joy is owning a Jostaberry bush for me......happy dance... ;D
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This looks interesting, I am always on the lookout for soft fruits, can someone tell me more about them please. eg size of berry, yeild off a mature plant, taste compared to it's parents. How long before a bush fruits would be good.
Thank you XX Jeannine
Jeannine, if you go to www.growingyourown.info then fruit and click Jostaberry, you will find what I have written about it. If you click on the flower photo, you will see that the flower petals have a red tinge. I would add that it took two years to start fruiting with me, but it is now producing as much fruit as a large blackcurrant bush.
It is very easy to take cuttings, just as you would do with blackcurrants or gooseberries. Take a semi-ripe cutting about 45 cms long and put it into a pot in an sheltered spot until it roots in a couple of months. If you cannot find a mature specimen near you, let me know and I can take cuttings for you when I prune mine in the Autumn.
My site has only just been put up onto the net, and is still in the testing stage. There will be some minor changes in the next couple of weeks.
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Thank you, a very interesting site,I can see you have put a lot of work into. XX Jeannine
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If you come down to Derby any time Jeannine you can have one... they never fail as cuttings, but will form a 6-8 foot cube if you ignore them... up to 30lbs of fruit from each "bush"...
;D
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Sparkly,you don't say if it's a prickly bush so I guess not but if it is it's a worcesterberry.
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Josta berries though are not prickly...
8)
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That's what I'm saying.
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and I agree...
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great minds etc etc, and your poppies look really good
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Ta!
;D
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Oh Saddad that sounds super, I am never in Derby though but I am going to Google for a supplier, thank you XX Jeaniine
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I'm often in York... which isn't that far away... MIL lives in Osbaldwick which is on the Hull road...
;D
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I could get to York no trouble XX Jeannine
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This looks interesting, I am always on the lookout for soft fruits, can someone tell me more about them please. eg size of berry, yeild off a mature plant, taste compared to it's parents. How long before a bush fruits would be good.
Thank you XX Jeannine
Jeannine, if you go to www.growingyourown.info then fruit and click Jostaberry, you will find what I have written about it. If you click on the flower photo, you will see that the flower petals have a red tinge. I would add that it took two years to start fruiting with me, but it is now producing as much fruit as a large blackcurrant bush.
It is very easy to take cuttings, just as you would do with blackcurrants or gooseberries. Take a semi-ripe cutting about 45 cms long and put it into a pot in an sheltered spot until it roots in a couple of months. If you cannot find a mature specimen near you, let me know and I can take cuttings for you when I prune mine in the Autumn.
My site has only just been put up onto the net, and is still in the testing stage. There will be some minor changes in the next couple of weeks.
Good web site. I have to say one thing my jostaberry fruited 4 months after I planted it. Although that could be because it was a good size (only £5 though) and we have a reasonable amount of fruit for the first year about 5 + punnets
Any advice about pruning/ getting more etc ? It is up against the fence so this bit from the website worried me :-
However, it is a very big plant and requires a lot of space. Even with pruning, allow a 2 m x 2 m by 2 m high space.
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Tee Gee's picture makes me identify my berries as black currants. I inherited the plants and was told they were just that.
But I've been googling jostaberries and black currants and I don't see the difference.
I don't want to be annoying, but why is everybody assuming that the first picture shows jostaberries?
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I think it is the size - jostaberries are bigger
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I have one of those and i figured they were just red goosegogs. Googled red goosegogs and that's what came up. Or have they now been renamed? ??? :P :-[
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I think they're Glaston Berries.
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My black current has some berries which are huge about half the size of a gooseberry....it is a blackcurrent before you all say it must be a jostaberry too. It's Ben lomond. And it looks just like the ones in the picture.
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In the books I have got the photos of blackcurrants and jostaberries are different.
The jostaberries are bigger also they are green before they go ripe. What colour are unripe black currants ?
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;D Trixie!
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Green!
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If you look at a jostaberry when it is pink, it will have the pale lines along it, just like a goose berry, whereas a blackcurrant wont.
Does that help?
cj :)
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Perhaps the easiest way to tell if you have a Blackcurrant or a Jostaberry, is to crush some leaves in your hand and smell! Blackcurrant leaves have a powerfull Blackcurrant smell, whereas Jostaberries just have the typical smell of leaves.
In my experience, my Jostaberries are only slightly bigger than Blackcurrants from the variety, Ben Connan.
Jostaberries are very big plants, as I described in my Web site. Mine is also up against a fence, and earlier this week, I was vigorously chopping back the new growth, to keep it under control.
PS. Interestingly, spell check wants to change "Jostaberry" to Gooseberry!!!!
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Real food,
What is the best way and time to prune jostaberries ? Mine has only been in the ground a few months.
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Anytime, with a machete... it just laughs it off...
Seriously it fruits next year on this years growth and some residual spurs on older wood... so you can cut otu any new growths which are growing the wrong way and crop off the others. I often crop by pruning out a whole branch and then stripping the berries and throwing the branch for a bonfire later...
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Yes, as I said I was cutting back this year's growth as the plant was going berserk, and it is already a very big plant. I will prune again in the Winter, once the leaves have dropped and I can see what I am doing.
For your young plant, I would only tidy it and remove any crossing branches in early Winter.
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This picture might help a bit with identification, excuse the mess ;D
(http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/jennympics/Gooseberryjostaberryblackcurrantwit.jpg)
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I thought mine was a jostaberry, now I'm not sure. ::) all gone into the Summer pud anyhow.
My leaves smelled like ribes so I assume it's a blackberry with lovely large fruits.